Starting to brick a bit at the rim, but with Grenache, it’s probably nearly the same color as when bottled. Rusty nose firmly anchored in roily barnyard funk: latex and dried spit, composty mire and fruit expressing itself with burnt briar. Sweet syrup beginning to filter its way up into the bouquet as the berry polishes here at almost 10. Decanted vigorously.
Pretty and astonishingly light on entry, the pie-cherry an acidic wonder, the deep blackberry concentrated from below with power and finesse, the chalkiness a brick wall of structure on which decadent fruit is plastered. It’s a magnificent glass of wine, tensile-taught and throbbing with the kind of luxury hard to describe in well-made CdP. Powdery tannin coats the finish, where the fruit wires itself to brash, raspy vegetal. Years and years to go on this one. So lucky to find these from importer with basically a *free* decade of age.
2013 DOMAINE BOSQUETS des PAPES ‘Chante Le Merle’ Old Vines Chateauneuf-du-Pape France 15.0
Stephen McConnell 