Deep red cherry colour with a hit of purple, matched by an impressively deep nose – bright raspberry, red cherry with coffee and the faintest whiff of vanilla. The medium palate has really concentrated cherry and redcurrant. Lingering acidity, very smooth tannin and a long finish. Very hard to resist already. I bought 3 of these in a sale for only 11.9€ each, I’d happily pay the full price of 14.5€ for some more. Super.
Dark garnet/purple. Very toasty oak nose (oh dear!) – I can’t really get past this. Soft and supple in the mouth, despite being quite dense. Straight from the bottle this is deeply disappointing to me, there seems to be balance of acidity and tannin, apparently with some fruit too, but I can’t get at it for the wood. One hour (of occasional swirling) later, the nose is starting to exhibit the creaminess of French oak – more wood, but at least it’s becoming more subtle! I’m also starting to pick up black cherry. As we move on to the 3 hour mark, there is a transition through ‘real toast’ smells to something much more opulent and interesting. So after 24 hours under vacuvin we are starting to get somewhere; the oak is just in the background now, black cherry and even blackcurrant, a little spice and the smell of soil. Palate is still nice and supple, but the acidity seems a bit more aggressive. Very long creamy oak finish. This wine has excellent potential, though I won’t try another for at least 3 years, and it’s likely I’ll still have to decant a couple of hours before consuming.
Mr DRC himself from his private estate. Medium ruby colour, slightly browner at the rim. Nose for the first few moments has some oak, but this is quickly gone, replaced by very strong fruit, black rather than red, with some blueberry. The palate is sweet with great cherry & damson fruit. Good but a tad harsh acidity coupled with nice length. The tannins suggest that I’m drinking this far too young. Given the piercing fruit on both the nose and palate, I’d suggest this is fine rather than merely good, but wait at least 3 years to re-taste.
Dark garnet/purple, subtly darker than the the base villages wine. Again toasty oak on the nose but a little less pronounced with black cherries in the mix. The acidity is more pronounced than the above, with black cherry again on the finish. After an hour of swirling (as above) the toasty oak seems more persistent than on the ‘basic’ G-C, and is ‘lighter’ in the mouth. After 3 hours we have lost most of the ‘toast’ and have a more silky mouthfeel than the ‘basic’. Okay, moving on 24 hours (under vacuvin) the oak has not been subdued quite to the same extent as the ‘basic’ but is now (to me) ‘acceptable’. The nose has less blackcurrant aspect than the ‘basic’, otherwise it seems a little more concentrated with some liquorice hints. The palate is smoother with better integration of the acid. The finish is long and mainly fruit driven rather than creamy oak. Now it’s really an excellent wine. I don’t have any more of these, though would wait a similar time to re-test if I had.
You are using an outdated browser. Please update your browser to view this website correctly: https://browsehappy.com/;