by egath » Tue May 24, 2011 8:02 pm
Just popped my last of 4 bottles, mainly as an experiment to see what was what, how it had evolved, and just to get rid of it. First two bottles were truly horrible, third was just bad, and this one was [not] amazing, but very very decent. Frankly, I had brought a backup bottle from the cellar because this was definitely plonk before. But no!!! Was it the bottle, the years, luck, ... ??? Whatever, there was still that odd nose of burnt rubber, but this time it was more like burnt purple rubber. There was fruit in it!! Purple fruit. The flavors were initially muted, but not swampy, just bleh, but not in a bad (or good) way, just, well OK. Two hours later, the nose went gamey (Pinotage-like) but with a slight medicinal note. The flavors were spiky: hot, tart, red, tart, (did I say tart?), sharp, ... short. But a clean finish. Went very very well with a beef roast and fried rice dinner. After the first three though, I was shocked, in a good way.