Juicy, smooth & easy drinking wine with lots of flavours

Description: Deep ruby in colour with a medium+ intense nose. This wine features medium Cherry, mulberry, blueberry, lavender, black and white peppers, Kirsch liqueur and mesquite. Medium to medium+ body, light tannins with good acidity, a fairly long length and the alcohol is well integrated.

Negatives: None

Interesting Points: The Grenache grapes were sourced from 60 year old vines while the Syrah and Mourvedre came from 20 year old vines.

Drink now or in the next 2 year on its own or pair it with beef tenderloin with cherry black pepper sauce.

Tasted: 23 Aug 2014

Score: 8.5+/10, Value: 8.5+/10 Total: 17.5/20

Out of 5 stars, I rated this wine: 3.5+

There's good depth of flavour to this Côtes du Roussillon (40% old vines Grenache), but there just isn't much definition to that flavour. It's sort of a jammy puddle, with thick blackberry, blueberry, and other dark fruit supported by black pepper, roasted meat, vanilla, and bitter herbs, along with some cranberry tartness. There's a hint of leanness lurking underneath it all, a sense of the rugged place peaking out from beneath the ripeness/sweetness, notably in the chalky tannins, but it's not enough to break through, and the fruit doesn't really hold up. Decent, but rough and muddled.