2003 Phélan Segur: The Annual Tasting
I’ve got a box of this Saint-Estéphe cru bourgeios down in the basement, and when we last opened a bottle about two years ago the tannins were so sharp it was nearly undrinkable. Now they’ve calmed down, and the flavor profile is darkening, drifting toward chocolate and smoke and blackberries.
The wine is noticeably brown, going into the glass, and I’m guessing it doesn’t have a lot of time left. I’m going to have to pick up the pace of consumption before the midpalate disappears entirely. It is, as it sits right now, a very nice wine, a right-down-the-middle Bordeaux that is somehow sleek and velvety at the same time. I decanted it for an hour before drinking.
May 15th, 2011 at 11:55 AM
“…drifting toward chocolate and smoke and blackberries.”
I thought you didn’t like chocolate with red wine. This one sounds like a candidate.
May 16th, 2011 at 8:51 AM
It strikes me that it would be a might tart with chocolate, unless you went with something pretty sweet. I drank the wine with grilled beef and grilled asparagus, and that worked really well.
May 16th, 2011 at 9:17 AM
Tom,
I was being facetious, referring to the chocolate in the wine’s description, which of course is the thing about red wine that makes those with lower tannins and good bramble fruit qualities a fair possibility to pair with a bar of dark chocolate.
On the subject of chocolate, somewhere during the winter I had bought em a bar of dark chocolate to get me through a long drive on a snowy day. Didn’t finish the bar and left the remains in the glove compartment for another day.
Unfortunately, that day did not arrive, as I forgot about the chocolate–until the first hot day did arrive. The stuff dripped and ripped out of the glove compartment to make a fine dark syrup on the passenger side floor, and now my wife is harping on me to clean the damned car!
May 16th, 2011 at 3:31 PM
As you can see, I have trouble telling when other people are kidding. This is an aspect of the same mental disfunction that causes me to believe that the jokes I make are funny even though no one else is laughing.
I’m sorry to hear about the floor of your car.
I really don’t know what to say after that.