My nose told me this would be good. My nose got it right!
If I might digress a moment, I've mentioned before the acrid bitterness of sulphur dioxide on some freshly opened wines. The thing is many well made wines, even those designed to live for decades, don't always have it. So I can't help thinking perhaps some winemakers are dosing SO2 as though they are putting their wines under cork. Certainly breathing a wine is almost always a very good idea, but if I was having this in your average restaurant that wouldn't know what a decanter was, then I'd be swirling my glass vigorously, trying to cope with the aforementioned bitterness. I don't see the reason for it in the era of the screwcap.
Wine whine aside, this one just confirms to me that Mourv is something we should see more of, perhaps it will be mostly in blends, but it really does stand up up well on it's own. BTW, I think blends are 'the next big thing', but only if the industry does it right and not just blend for the sake of it.
Savoury, sweet, spicy, meaty, lush, and yet focused. Big nose as I said before, and that's not a line from Brian's Life, full body, very fine tannins, lovely acid, and long length. Very enjoyable indeed as a sipper but even better as a food wine.
Rating: Highly Recommended
I would sincerely doubt an average would know what Mourvedre is - let alone stock one :)
ReplyDeleteIt's one of my favourite undung heroes.
Mataro can show as quite reductive anyway - may not be an over SO2 issue.
I suppose it depends on your definition of average. I went out for Japanese Saturday night, no Mourv but there was a Rioja/Tempranillo on the list which would have been ideal for Japanese food, and plenty of previous diners had agreed with me on that, and thus it was sold out. The food was above average, but the rest of the wine list wasn't.
ReplyDeleteYou may be right, it's possible the bitterness is from something else, but it passed the duck test. ;)