Date of tasting: 28th – 29th October 2015
Colour and condition: (Under composite / technical cork.) Pale lemon gold with slight platinum highlight. Just a touch deeper than the Greywacke tasted beside it. 3
Aroma: Extremely reductive aromatics, but not offensively so (to me at least): rather (‘generic’ and very young) ‘white Burgundy –like’, and even with 24 hours breathing this does not change much. Match-head, match smoke, the smoky vegetal under-notes of deciduous azaleas, suggestions of fresh (‘raw-mushroomy’) Camembert, a distinct hint of coal tar (which significantly modulates the aromatics without either marring the nose or dominating it in any way), tallow, freshly shelled broad beans. Needs more time (clearly) to evolve. Reductive characters, not Sauvignon are the pace-setters here at present. 6+
Palate and aftertaste: Moderately full — more complete on the palate, structurally, than the (relatively leaner) Greywacke — and with a nice harmonious and savoury / sapid combination of salt-lick, flint-smoke, ripe yellow (or red) gooseberry and subtle sour lemon citrus notes, along with suggestions of waxy, aged, Peasgood Nonesuch cooking apples. Rather persistent, too: salt-lick and pressed lambs tongue with a subtle tangerine and lemon underlay. More edge-of-mid-palate impact than the Greywacke (due to more extract I would think). Right now the texture and structure are the charming elements; the flavour spectrum needs time in the bottle — another 5 – 8 years I think — to evolve here. 9+
General comments: Markedly backward compared to the Greywacke, but weightier and better structured. Others did not find this reticence so appealing compared with the relatively more forthcoming Greywacke, but given the clearly required time in bottle I think the story will be quite different. Definitely one for the cellar: another 5 – 8 (or even 10) years.
TOTAL: 18+