Sunday, February 22, 2009

Domaine Magellan 2003 Vieilles Vignes (France)

Back in June of 2006 I did two things (well I probably did more than just two, but here's two I have a record of): I bought two bottles of this wine, opened one and laid down the other. My original tasting notes were pretty basic, "Big, bold and spicy - lots of black fruit ... deep colour rich flavour." Well, the 2-plus years have not diminished the colour (much), nor the spiciness or the black fruit - what I am/was concerned with was the plastic cork I found in the neck of the bottle - I just hate these nasty things; Whenever I see one of these my first reaction is, "oh sh*t". Luckily I detect no funny plastic-cork smell, though I think my brain might throw in a little plastic-taste just to tick me off - the wine still shows lots of spicy, black fruit and good tannins - though those seem to be mellowing out a little. I ended up decanting because the wine that first came out of the bottle was not what I was hoping for in the least ... it was too something: too tannic, too spicy, to black, too plasticy ... by putitng some air through it I was able to improve it emmensely. I still have an '05 Magellan in my collection - I'm looking forward to trying that in a few years - I just hope they went to a different closure. This Magellan is a 50/50 blend of Syrah and Grenache.

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