I had pretty much written this wine off in the first hour. Horrible stank on initial pour: a funky, shitty dankness I chalked up to bottle-funk and decanted. It pretty much 100% blew off. Still, it smelled and tasted far gone. It also had been transported recently: grimy texture and suspended sediment with none on the bottle. I have a theory–which probably can not be supported scientifically–that serious murk in older reds can contribute to a more oxidized feel. I first observed this in the cellar doing barrel-samples and it pings at me whenever it occurs in the bottle. So I ran this thing through some coffee filters: half-bottle for the first one; half bottle through the second; the finished product through a third. Dark garnet, bricked through-and through, basically a brown wine. Cherry-blossom nose, rather floral, tainted with salty raisin and citrusy bread-dough. Alcoholic asparagus, carrot juice and V8 mingle with a dusty velvet. It actually smells better than I just described it.
It redeems itself somewhat in the mouth. Nice piquant pie-cherry–sharp and abrasive–fades in the onslaught of acid and tannin. It’s a watery muss: lemon spritz on prune. Yeah, this wine’s gone. If you’ve never had a great older wine, I *suppose* you could sit and enjoy this, but it’s gone. Not gone gone GONE, but several years past prime. 2010 and 2013 were so-so years, no? Still rated above 90, but EVERYBODY’S rated above fucking 90. I don’t know how much Merlot is in this but the CF is all that is holding it together. And barely.
2010 CHATEAU LA FLEUR DES AMANDIERS ME/CF or CS Puisseguin St. Emilion bordeaux 14.0
Stephen McConnell 