An expectant staining blue-ish purple denseness. An intoxicating bouquet–slightly nose-burning–of expensive perfume on a warm day, yesterday’s cold tea leaves, ground aspirin and a chocolatey earth. The nose pours off in piles and piles, never taking a break, never breathing out, barely faltering at length toward sweet over-ripe fruit.

I have a friend on Facebook who hates Tannat. So let’s just get that out of the way. First comment: I hate tannat. It’s probably a Russian bot. I can’t imagine it being a real person. I mean–who hates Tannat?!?! It’s inconceivable. Does not compute. Hate Zinfandel. Hate Grenache or Albarino, but Tannat? And when you see Madiran on a shelf, you buy it. That’s the rule.

In the mouth, fruit takes a backseat to a screaming shear-wall of acid and tannin. “Tannin in the finish” haha isn’t that cute. Madiran’s got no time for your silly finish. It needs to get the business taken care of right now, then we can move on to fruit. Non-chewable Vit. C and green peach-skin scrapes the fuzzy off the inside of your cheeks but circles back to cash you outside with beautiful strawberry and rhubarb packed in lush oak.

You know that t-shirt that says something like ORDER THE DESSERT, BUY THE CAR, DRINK THE CHAMPAGNE or some such bullshit? Well, put GET THE MADIRAN on there and we’ve got a deal.

2013 DOMAINE BERTHOUMIEU Madiran ‘Charles de Batz’ Tannat/Cab 90/10 France 14.5

www.domaine-berthoumieu.com