JDR

WINE OF THE WEEK #011

Hello there,

this week I tasted the last of the Bordeaux wines :
PHOENIX, Penley Estate, Cabernet Sauvignon 2008, Coonawarra, AUS

You can find the fact sheet about this wine HERE

As usual, I located the wine as well on my WINEMAP

I didn’t have time to do a lot of research, and I was struggling as well to get my head around this one as it had a very intense nose the first day which scared me a bit. As I was almost sure it would open up and get smoother over the course of the next days, I didn’t tumbled my notes yet, but … the wine became bitter and harsh and showed all kinds of bizarre notes - but I wouldn’t call it corked. Maybe cab-sauv is not my cup of tea?

Anyway, the tasting notes of my first session were these :

Appearance
An deep purple red, looks a bit young.

Nose
Yaiks - oakmonster at the table. Very clear, milky toasted character (15% alcohol!). Black fruit, bitterness, cassis - 3 notes that are difficult to extract next to the toast dipped in milk note.

Taste
The body handles the alcohol level quite well, tannins are soft, bit creamy and low on acidity… as an attack … but after the transition, pure bitterness and very sharp tannins make up a dry and unpleasant mouth-feel. Rather unexpected

Finish
Pepper, blackberry jam, hints of cassis.

This one is very difficult to drink as a stand-alone wine, I felt the need for juicy beef or a creamy cheese to coat the dry and bitter mouth-feel. A rather strange experience with the king of the Left Bank in Bordeaux