WTN: 2004 Domaine Serene Evanstadt Reserve

[Jenise]

Opened to serve with coq au vin last night. Rich cherry and plum fruit showed brightly straight from the bottle with balanced acidity and appropriate tannins for the vintage at six years old. The only drawback was that a bit of toasted oak loomed rather too large in the background for my tastes, and that's not a characteristic I remember from past Evanstadts. Drinks well now, but well-cellared 04's should continue to evolve nicely for another three-four years (and that oak might integrate more).

I recently visited Domaine Serene and quite enjoyed the Evanstadt Reserve they were pouring. The server told me that it was a vintner's blend of their different vineyards, and I preferred it to the individual vineyard wines I was served. I wasn't expecting that, but left liking the reserve the most. I will be interested in trying other vintages besides the 2006 I had at the tasting room.