Okay, I’ll start first. Fools rush in, and all that…
I liked it. Okay, I find myself saying that a lot, but I [sally field] really really liked it [/sally field]. I opened it on Friday night, and had half a bottle with ribeye steaks, pommes frites and new corn.
Upon opening the bottle, I wanted to start singing Oh Tanninbomb. Almost unpleasantly so (the tannins I mean, not my singing). However, I remembered thingnumberone mentioning how much this wine changes, so I left it in the glass for about an hour. It was well worth the wait. It really opened up. I agree with the full body and dark berry description, and will take your word on the coffee; unfortunately, I just don’t have a nuanced palate.
Last night, I had the rest of the bottle. I had the same meal with the wine, purely in the interest of the scientific method (although my mother would have called it “having leftovers”). This is one of the few wines that I have had that got noticeably better after a few days in the bottle. (This is direct contrast to last week’s pick, the Fat Bastard Shiraz, where I didn’t notice the acidity that everyone commented on until the second night.) As much as I liked this wine the first night, by last night it was terrific. It seemed to get more complex. Big thumbs up from me.
I will definitely buy this again, but at $20 it won’t be a regular, alas. I happened to be out at lunch and stopped in at local wine shop (look how I phrased that to make it look like serendipitous happenstance), and they also carry the Juan Gil, but at $22. However, they seem to carry everything at with a little extra surcharge*. If I could get this between $10 to $15 like you folks (not that I’m bitter), it would definitely compete favorably with many of the wines I buy in that range.
*Not a total loss, they do carry the Jade Mountain La Provencale which I have been looking for, so I picked up a couple of bottles.
