Cracked this last night w/ dinner:
1. Cuilleron AC: StJoseph LesSerines (12.5%) 1998: Very dark slightly murky color; a ton of sediment left in the btl; lovely/classic black pepper/roasted/espresso/NorthernRhone slight pungent/ozone some blaclberry/peppery/green olive/Syrah some charred/toasty/oak very interesting nose; tart/lean/mettalic/tangy peppery/green olive some roasted/espresso/NorthernRhone light blackberry/Syrah rather hard/tanic flavor; long rather hard/tannic/lean some roasted/espresso bit charred/toasty/oak light blackberry/Syrah pungent finish; an intense/lovely/classic NorthernRhone Syrah nose but very hard/tannic on the palate and may never outlive those tannins.
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Wee BP:
1. Serines is the local expression for the Syrah grape in the NorthernRhone. Whether it is a distinct clone of Syrah or not, I'm not sure. This wine is a good example that you can get big/extracted wines w/o harvesting at sur-maturie.
Tom