Tightly wound, slowly opening up to glorious mint and greenbrier, a woody smoke curling up through calm yellow foliage, mixing with low fog in frigid weather that lingers in the valley and limbs. A certain cellar-floor funk rides high for a few notes, then settles back down, leaving petrichor on patches of snow atop winter run-off meandering through clumps of hardy stalks patched with stubborn leaves. On uptake, the fruit strikes hard: deep cherry bright and unslutty, pomegranate pith so bitter the sweetness takes center stage, clinging desperately to perfectly-integrated tannin in a yin-yang balance difficult to comprehend. Drinking a wine like this makes the proportions of modern California Cabernet seem glaring and cheap, a rich elixir manufactured for people unaware of what a rich elixir really is. This is so rich, yet it doesn’t insult or sing to a sweet-tooth or *bigger-is-better* crowd of non-entities accusing wines like this of being “watery”. The *wateriness* here is a spring of stone-cold mineral, icy and gripping, blasting fruit so heavenly the angels sing right down into the throes of gulpable angst the finish exudes unforgettable and forever. Rash while eloquent; bitter and sweet; piercing and placating; glowingly concentrated while not giving up a SINGLE moment to frivolousness.

2018 DOMAINES HENRI MARTIN ‘Chateau Gloria’ Saint-Julien Cab/MT/CF/PV 65/25/5/5 #bordeaux 14.5