Opened this evening along with a dinner of grilled Italian sausage
with pasta and vegetables. The blend in this is 40% Syrah, 40%
Cabernet and Sauvignon and 20% Grenache, but initially the Grenache
character dominates.
Upon popping and pouring this has a nose that would make it easy to
mistake for a top class Chateauneuf with lots of Provencal herbs,
pepper, some meat and raspberry notes with just a hint of alcohol.
Intense and full bodied on the palate with more raspberry, smoke and
peppery flavours, but the tannins initially are just brutal - very
firm and abrasive and giving no indication that this is a decade old
(the colour's also a fairly dark red - not opaque, but indicating a
very youthful wine).

After some time in the decanter this softened considerably on the
palate and was fantastic to drink - the nose had changed a great deal,
with the Cabernet and Syrah flavours coming out much more and the wine
now showing perfumed aromatics of cassis, earth, meat, pepper and some
Provencal herb and leather notes underneath. Intense blackberry and
red fruit flavours on the palate over smoke, earth and toasty notes,
with much smoother tannins making it much more enjoyable to drink.
Finishes long with a tinge of heat on the back.

A fantastic wine to sit with over a few hours as it kept evolving and
developing (and if the fruit stuffing and tannin is any indication, I
imagine this has lots of time ahead of it still). This has a ton of
youthful intense fruit and lots of complexity underneath with what I'd
consider a very typical Provencal character. Felt a little like a
cross between a top Chateauneuf and a big new world Cabernet - lots of
fun to drink, and I'm glad a good part of the bottle is still left in
the fridge for tomorrow. On the Dale scale, this would definitely be
an A.

Cheers,

Salil