GK wrote:
Do you have a Coop near you Duncan? I would be interested to get an honest opinion from you on this one.
Camping got cancelled, the rain persisted, so it turned out to be a wise decision.
Unfortunately, I don't have one. But I may pass a Co-Op on my way to the Dorset coast tomorrow till Saturday. If I remember, I will report back, I might drink one at sea.
A mix with Syrah of small amounts of Grenache or (Mazuelo in Rioja for scent and bright red colour) can give a medicinal note in a young wine "hot stones" wine. In the norther Rhone, I've got a Kwick Fit tyre fitting bay whiff from a syrah - don't laugh - the old inner tubes whiff years ago, before modern tubeless tyres.
Of the Mendoza (your '04 Salentein MCM is Mendoza Uco Valley), I have held back 2 x Clos De Los Siete 2006, Michel Rolland's cuvee, and will drink 2014 or so. Years ago in the 80's you could buy 'old time' Mendoza in the small wine bodegas and Spar markets in Spanish towns inland. They were small money for 100% rustic Cab with tons of gunk in the bottom. I'd tried these out on a roof top / balcony in windy conditions late into the evening when it was cooler, and they were quite sweet on the length, even though they had tannin in port like dimensions and incredible *cab clout with sweet oak and very good acidity....old sherry barrels re-deployed ? who knows. * Spanish stye cab as in the Ribera del Duero mix or Raimat,
not Coonawarra cab.
I carried 3 back on the plane in a holdall - all that stuff is wrecked now. At eight years, than Mendoza Cab was as fresh as a daisy, at 12 years, the sediment was firmer and black also on the bottle inside. At 18 years, that cab was splendid, ground black pepper corns, mahogany shavings, pipe tobacco and nutty overipe wild blackberries. I don't suppose you can buy that stuff anymore for small beer, all those little corrugated iron shed and stone finca makers have been done-in / bought out by the big firms.