A Bordeaux Supérieur (80% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon) that punches well above its weight — or should I say price? Deep ruby in colour with a spicy, cedary nose of cassis and coffee beans with a smoky note. Medium-bodied and dry, it offers sweet black fruit flavours with well-integrated oak.
Dense purple in colour, this flavourful Beaujolais offers a spicy, black cherry nose with a touch of oak. It’s medium-bodied, dry and well extracted with flavours of ripe cherry and plum. Fruity and firm, it finishes with grainy tannins.
Dense ruby in colour with a spicy, cedary nose of blackberries and fresh herbs lifted by a note of lavender; medium- to full-bodied, savoury black cherry flavours fill the mouth. Firmly structured, this wine is still tight and deserves 3 to 4 years in the cellar.
Classic Beaujolais Cru showing off another fine vintage with appetizing, succulent sour cherry flavours that call for gulping rather than sipping. Supported by food-friendly acidity and lightly firm tannic bite on the finish.
Showing dark purple in the glass with perfumed dark fruit, a touch of spice and a whiff of tannic astringency. Luscious dark cherry and raspberry flavours are enveloped in velvety tannins with a lick of peppery spice on the finish. Eminently quaffable now but can develop further.
40+-year-old Grenache, Carignan and Cinsault fill the frame of this Côtes du Rhône from naturalist leader and pioneer Eric Texier. Biodynamic principals lead Texier's intelligent, questioning, terroir-driven philosophy. In La Romaine, grapes were whole-cluster fermented in cement vats. Black plum leads the mineral-driven palate of the structured, medium-bodied red, with wild strawberry, raspberry and a fragrant red currant on the tight core, reflective of the grapes in the blend. Acidity is quenching, and tannins are downy fine and leathery. An alluring mineral-salts entice on the finish.
Clear but opaquely deep plum red. Initially medium-intensity nose of plums, raisins and black cherries opens in the glass to dates, vanilla and maple syrup. Lots of fruit, alcohol and tannins, but they are not yet in balance; give this another few years and the score will rise.