TN '90 Clos des Papes CdP

[Karena Shannon]

Received this from our Secret Santa two days before Xmas, and drank it about five days ago (yet another back-logged post). We thought that two weeks or so would be enough time to get over the rigors of shipping. We also consumed it without regard to notes or comments on where this wine was on its aging curve.
Enough disclaimers: how was it?
The wine is quite good, and Santa done treated us right by it. The wine had plenty of fruit, and even more tannin and alcohol. I forget what we consumed it with, but it wasn’t a hearty stew, which is really what it needed. We did decant, the wine had a generous amount of sediment. With air, we got plenty of rhone funk, garrigue (it smelled like when I get carried away with spicing my rosemary/garlic/thyme chicken), wood---not oak, and sharp cherry fruit. This wine was quite hot, also, not hiding it’s 14.5% EtOH all that well. Still, it was better than perhaps my description indicates. We enjoyed it a great deal. If you are fortunate enough to have any at home, however, heed Parker’s warning on their evolution and let them sleep for a while longer, five years or so ought to do it. Hopefully that will tame the tannins a bit.

Thank you Santa.