Bandol, Domaine des Olivettes, 1998

[Thraz]

$17, purchased last week. Great color, strong nose of berries, slow start, strong middle -berries again, even jammy-, great long finish. Still the same the next night. All in all, a great wine. I had not had a Bandol in years, and this one shows me what I have been missing. I am going back to the store to get more if they still have it, and to get other Bandols to taste.

I had it with a duck terrine and it was an excellent combination. It would be great with red meat, and I think it will even be my wine for Christmas this year, maybe with a duck stuffed with mushrooms and cranberries.

Bottle information: 13.5% alcohol, 75% mourvedre (I could not guess the remaining 25%, but according to their website it can only be grenache and/or cinsault or it would not get the appellation), grown and bottled at the estate.

[This message has been edited by Thraz (edited 10-16-2004).]

[This message has been edited by Thraz (edited 10-16-2004).]

[Thraz]

They only had 2 left of the 98, so it won't be the wine for Christmas dinner. I picked up a bottle of Bandol Domaine du Gros-Noré 2000 ($19) while I was at it. In the meantime I had found that the WS had given the Olivettes 98 a 90, and the Gros-Noré 00 a 91. The Gros-Noré was good, but not nearly as good as the Olivettes for my taste. It did not give out much whether on the nose or the palate, even though the little it did give was good - maybe that's what they mean when they say a wine is "temporarily closed", I don't know. It did taste it could age, but I will probably not find out, it did not seem quite case-worthy to me.

[Innkeeper]

Too bad.

[wineguruchgo]

A few years ago I worked for a French wine importer and one of our wines was the the Domaine de L'Olivette.

Couldn't give it away here in Chicago. I wish I had known about this website so I could have directed potential customers here to read your reviews.