Dark beautiful ruby. Gobs of barnyard funky goodness gradually breathes out to show delicious cherry and marzipan in the nose, baby baby youth in the mouth, tempered with clean briliance and all the tannin you can handle. Unfortunately this one also burning bright with a chunk of alcohol popping up mid-palate and finish, causing clashes with several rich dishes at the French restaurant I ordered it at.
Ripe and rich, crammed with nutty mint and steely dark fruit–decadent even, a word I don’t often use in the same sentence as Bandol, and while gorgeous on its own and with the rattatouille and steak-frites, the heat caused problems with a honey-glazed quail, French onion soup and even–shockingly–bread & butter. I still wouldn’t throw it out of bed, but caused a furrowed brow here and there.
2014 DOMAINE DE TERREBRUNE Mourvedre Bandol 14.0
Stephen McConnell 