90
September 2012
Big and ripe, with delicious flavours of dark berry fruit plentiful notes of local herbs and spice. Tannin and acids provide fine support to all that flavour. In short, the typical Cotes du Rhone red, but a very fine one. Excellent, and a very good buy at $17. Tasted Sept 2012.
Really nice wine here for $17. Wonderful balance between the fruity flavours, earthy flavours, acid, and tannins. It just all comes together nicely like the good CdR do.
This does not really work for me. It is not nearly smooth enough to rate a ninety. Not quite my kind of wine.
I haven't had many bum steers from Mr. Szabo, but this wine struck a very strong discordant note with me. The name "Grands Bois" seems appropriate, as the wine is predominantly woody, astringent and redolent of iodine. Sure, there is some dark fruit in there, but the woody notes predominate. This heavy-handed wine may have "tremendous appeal" as JS says, but it sure doesn't appeal to me.