Tuesday, August 30, 2011

2007 Mas Champart SAINT-CHINIAN "Causse du Bousquet" (Languedoc, Southern France)

A really good and distinctive wine at its peak.*  65% Syrah, 15% Grenache; 20% Mourvedre.


Completely saturated black color with ruby highlights.  Deep, complex nose of blackberry compote, toasty, saline-tinged sandstone, and roast pork.  Mouthfilling, yet not as heavy as the color would lead you to expect.  It has intensely minerally/stony flavbors enveloping a core of very ripe cassis fruit.  Loads of tannin but it is so fine-grained that the textural impression is soft.  Very stone/minerally finish.  Surprisingly good acidity for a wine from this region (that's not to say the acidity is high, but that it's not too low).  Nicely balanced.  A-.  Imported by Kermit Lynch, I got this from Zachys.com several months ago for $16/bottle.


*  I say "at its peak" because while it was still good the second night, it started to noticeably deteriorate the third night, even though I had it vacuum sealed.  That generally indicates to me that a wine is at or near peaking.

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