A good wine has complex harmony of flavours. This has it, but the bouqut is slightly off, and there is also a constant hum from start to finish of a rather "hot" note. While not unpleasant, it does not make for a great wine, so I consider this to be poor value, despite (or because of?) the promising vintage. I should have listened to David.
The 'curious newbie' mentioned by The V panel might wonder why people fuss over Bordeaux at all. Not a bad experience, but I'm agreeing with Blair: probably not worth the 27 bucks to try.
Was interested to try this one due to the age and, while it's not cheap, it didn't disappoint. Medium garnet coloured in the glass, the nose had a medium intensity with notes of dried red fruit, potpourri, tomato leaf, dark chocolate, old leather, and cedar. It's medium bodied, with medium+ acid and medium tannins with the flavours replaying on the palate. If you're interested in trying an aged wine, give it a go, but it's definitely not for everyone. Drink now. Tasted January 2013.
We opened this bottle with some high expectation.
Due to very dimmed light over dark table top, I can't tell anything on wine appearance.
The bottle was opened about 90 minutes before pouring and was kept to 18 C.
The first nose was mainly dominated by smoke and tare, than slight cherry and plum aromas came threw.
First sip was in continuity with the nose mainly tare with good tanins presence and curiously this typical green pepper bell taste typical to Cabernet Franc or old style CS.
Plum was there again, delicate, not jammy !
An evolution came in the latest glasses (about 30 minutes) with a fairly strong funky aroma ( Brettanomyces !) , this happened to me before with over-mature 92 vintage and older Burgundy after few minutes of air exposition but on a 11 years old bottle, I was surprise.
I will open 2 other bottles of my collection in the next year and pay more attention to wine aspect and evolution.
Will certainly not risk to purchase more of this wine.