Very impressive Mediterranean red, with ripe blackberry fruit, black olives, pepper and dried herbs. No heat from the 14.5% alcohol, no bitterness, no Aspirin. Bottle variation I can only presume, this is textbook southern French red. Yum! Tasted Nov 2015.

This is a nice cabernate sauvignon from France at a good price. Nice long finish, smoky with tastes of blackberry and currants. Goes well with duck and lamb.

There's decent value here, but basically this is yet another funky offering from La Clape, and while the initial barnyard/leather/earth notes recede in prominence as the fruit emerges, it never quite escapes that quagmire. The key is the black pepper, which after the funk is the defining note, and it works really well in conjunction with the cranberry, currant, cherry, and blackberry elements, as well as with the spicy/herbal notes that linger in the background. Certainly this deserves applause for complexity, but the funk and the bitter, unpleasant finish are just too distracting to ignore.

Where do I start? This wine offers a nice old world funky (manure inspired) nose. The start, again is pleasant smooth and flavorful, but the finish is obnoxiously dry and bitter. My wife pointed out that the finish actually tasted like chewing on an aspirin… and after she did, that’s all I could taste.