Travel for reasons other than leisure is surely one of the loneliest pastimes. I'm currently away from home and, to relieve the tedium yesterday evening, wandered about looking for something moderately interesting to eat and drink. The idea of dining alone in a restaurant didn't hold much appeal, so I rocked up to a local wine and cheese shop hoping for a solution. Half bottles are ideal in such situations and, fortunately, a small range was on offer, including this wine. A few minutes after spotting it, I was on my way back to the hotel, also equipt with a chunk of Ossau-Iraty and some rye bread.
The nose here presents some contradictions: full in aroma profile but reticent in expression, piercingly aromatic in a menthol-like fashion but mostly redolent of deep berry fruits, framed with savoury oak but fruit-sweet in a slightly jammy way. It's a bit all over the place. Not that I mind; in fact, it's all quite attractive, even if it never comes together as a whole, integrated thing.
Further contradiction on the palate, which is both more satisfying and frustrating than the aroma. It's fuller and more generous, for sure. In fact, there are a lot of red and black fruits immediately on entry. Structurally, tannins are grainy and pleasingly textured, while acidity is quite firm and well balanced. The wine strikes me as medium to full bodied, and moves from being fruity on the middle palate to fairly oak-driven towards the back of the mouth. The oak here is malty and a bit obvious and, although there's a lot of flavour overall, it's this obviousness of flavour that frustrates me. The fruit, too, never rises above a relatively simple expression of berry fruits with a confectionary edge. At this price point, I would expect just that bit extra.
I did a pretty poor job of matching my food and wine. The cheese's tangy, complex flavour exaggerated the wine's sweet profile, making it seem unsophisticated by comparison. Perhaps this helped colour my view of the wine.
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