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First smell and sip is super impressive - dead ringer for cote blonde CR but if anything slightly brighter cherry fruit, drifting towards being Pinot- like, then a whoosh of iron on the finish. Real complexity and quality here, and absolutely ready to drink. Love it.
It’s going to be a very long week at work so why not open something that might last the week and offer a bit of solace at the end of the day?
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What a beautiful label
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Wow @Jcbl is this drinking already ? I have a case with L&W & wasnt going to take it out for a while .
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Normally we’re quiet on a Monday but after The Press Conference and a somewhat underwhelming performance from BoJo opened this for light relief and it worked…
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I have a slight cold (not covid19) so some easy nice easy drinking:
https://www.thewinesociety.com/shop/HistoricProductDetail.aspx?section=pd&pd=FC34531
Never fails to charm me this one!
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A curio wine tonight - a 2017 Californian blend of 80% Petit Sirah 20% Petit Verdot called ‘Odd Lot’. It’s made in Monterey - a part of California I’ve got very happy memories from, so I was well-disposed to this wine even before opening it. The label is very silly, but thankfully it does not detract from the delicious wine inside:
In the glass, the wine is deep ruby with very bright violet tinge on the rim. The nose is a combination of very ripe dark fruit (blackcurrant conserve, plums, dark cherries), cedar, cigar box and baking spices (mostly clove/nutmeg). Similar notes follow on the palate; the fruit is ripe, the spice is - well, spicy! whatever oak it had - is actually very well handled. This is a very well-pitched wine, with balance between fruit, smooth (and slightly chalky) tannins and medium acidity. The nutmeg/clove spice on the finish livens it up.
I got this on a whim in Aldi quite a while back, and for £9.99 this is a cracker - especially for a Californian wine! The husband is making goat koftas for dinner, and I think this spicy number will work very nicely with it.
Chin chin! 
PS - I love how the Aldi info blurb calls it a ‘Syrah’ blend.
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In a word, yes. The Jancis tasting note recommends 2019 - 2023 and I can appreciate why. Tannins are pretty dialled back and it’s zero added sulphur. And there’s no shortage of complexity. It may gain a little with age but there’s no reason not to try a bottle now if you have a few ( I do too!)
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https://www.thewinesociety.com/shop/HistoricProductDetail.aspx?pd=BU45621
Not really a weeknight wine, but needs must when everything is cancelled!
Surprisingly fruity and high in acid for a 12 year old wine. Red and black cherries, very little tertiary. If you’d told me it was a 2018 I might have believed you! Very tasty.
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As a temporary distraction from increasing self imposed cabin fever…
…a Marsannay ‘Les Longeroies’ 2013 from Sylvain Pataille. Sweet red fruits, spice, fragrant pot pourri / incense-like notes and a savoury liquorice undertow on the nose.
Tangy and fresh initially on tasting. Savoury, spicy, sourly ripe red berry and cherry fruit flavours then build on the palate before gracefully fading away and inviting another taste. Medium bodied, a silky texture with background tannins and fresh acidity providing structure and balance.
At the risk of sounding like a spoilt brat, although it’s well made and was decent value EP, it lacked that elusive magic one hopes for, vainly more often than not, with any Burgundy.
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Hmmm, i left my case of this in reserves and took out the regular Marsannay from the same vintage in Jan. What do you think, keep it there for a bit or time to redeem?
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Finishing off a bottle of Momo Pinot Noir that I opened on Sunday. It’s remarkably unchanged from then despite being open for 2 days. I think I’d give it 6.5 out of 10; a decent enough bottle but nothing very special.
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Mine was the first of six. I think it’s drinking well now but will it develop further ?
Difficult to say, but its savoury characteristics might develop further with another year or two in bottle. The drinking window advised, until 2025, doesn’t seem unrealistic.
I like my wines fruit forward so I’m happy to drink it now and over the next couple of years. If you like more mature Pinot flavours another year or two in reserves would probably help in that respect.
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With a screw top there is likely to be much less development in the bottle with the passage of time. There was a tasting of 2005 Pinot Noirs held in NZ in 2010. Some estates had bottled under cork and others under screw cap. The tasters unanimously reported some maturity in the former but zero in the latter examples.
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That’s certainly been my experience with Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon !
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Especially the Cullen…
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That’s interesting. I bought the Cullen recently and was wondering how long it should be further stored, if at all.
I’m guessing you are saying there’s not much to be gained by leaving it longer?
In my limited experience Margaret River cabs bottled under screw cap develop at a glacial rate. I think there’s plenty to be gained by leaving it if you like developed flavours but it will require patience. Especially the ‘Diane Madelaine’. The drinking window for the cab /merlot blend ( until 2033 ) that TWS also sell isn’t unrealistic either.
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A good description. The 2011 vintage I have appears to have changed little in the last 4 years
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With global warming ‘glacial rate’ might need to be modified to something actually slower. Universe expansion rate, or some such…? 
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We’ll call it the Cullen rate of vintage maturation
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