The last bottle of this I took to a dinner with Bobby and Joel and Donald in Glen Ellen and was moderately corked to embarrassment, so… I have sequestered this bottle back into the archives as a has-been. Until now. Today, it is stupidly tight and taut, showing everything I had *hoped* on that evening. Staining ruby-garnet in the glass, a situation of tertiary not bowing to age or fatigue, the briar and glowing fruit filtered down from steely acidity and polished structure into old-world extravagance of deliciousness.
In the mouth, a calm acridity layers the fruit in copious functions down onto situations resplendent of things mortal new-world wines only dream of. HOW is this wine 23 years old??!?!? Blind, I would guess a fraction of that, as the black dearth of concentration plays deliriously against spots of clean complexity and structure. Despite its angsty chops, it drinks rather yummily, kissing points of light only a moron could hate. So bright. So fresh. So contemplative and REAL. The deep blackberry and cranberry fruit never seeks abandon behind age and in-complexity, the shrill oak-bark of American wood only adding to its splendor. Actually rather sad this is my last bottle, but that is what happens with wine. The only thing I am left with is: Madiran Rules All.
2000 CHATEAU VIELLA VILLAGE Madiran 12.5
Stephen McConnell 