| Score: |
94+ ST.
"Good full red. Wonderfully sappy aromas of raspberry, orange peel, rose petal and flinty, smoky minerality. Compellingly sweet but utterly primary, with terrific energy and definition to the flavors of red fruits and pungent minerals. Perfectly balanced wine; less creamy today than the Brulees but even more sharply delineated. Perhaps most impressive on the explosive rising finish, which shows more fruits and minerals than tannins. Jean-Nicolas Meo believes that the 2008s have a classic structure and should age very well, and he pointed out that even though the acids remained high after the malos and the pHs lower than usual, the wines taste less acidic than the analysis suggests. Acids and pHs were comparable at harvest time to those of vintage 1996, he added, but 2008 was a bit higher in sugar and the crop level was lower, although strict sorting was needed . . ." Stephen Tanzer, Vinous.com, Mar 2010 |