WTNs: Blinds, Tempier and Four Fails

I attended a lovely tasting of some Tempier and some other Mourvèdre heavy wines in comparison. The Tempiers were all lovely; sadly the comparisons mostly wowed me in the wrong ways.


2007 Niepoort Douro Redoma Branco
Served blind. A rather neutral aroma with some oak and tropical fruit. Rich palate, dense and sweet and fairly low in acidity. Decent length. Not really an exciting wine.


1992 Dehesa del Carrizal Cabernet Sauvignon - Spain, Castilla-La Mancha, Montes de Toledo
13,5% abv; served blind. It smells like an aged Bordeaux from a hot year (I guessed 1990): already some aged Cab aromas but with a surprising amount of sweet and dark fruit. No oak noticeable. Rich and sweet, lively still with healthy structure. Nice now; but it doesn't seem like there would be a hurry to drink this up. Very good.


1993 Domaine Tempier Bandol Cuvée Spéciale Cabassaou
13% abv; served blind. A beatiful wine, but very young still and it took a long time for the scent to open up. At first it was all about lactic aromas and I couldn't see much else than a hint of red berries underneath. But the palate was already outstanding: deep, rich, tangy, savoury and tasted rather like pomegranate. Lovely.


2005 Domaine Tempier Bandol Cuvée Spéciale La Migoua
14,5% abv. Slightly jammy and ever so slightly stinky nose. Quite lactic initially, but opened up to a dark toned aromas and lovely, tangy pomegranate smells. Dense, liquorous, deep and relatively voluptuous fruit compared to the '07s; not overly tannic or harshly acidic, but refreshing and well structured. Very nice, very young.


2007 Domaine Tempier Bandol Cuvée Spéciale La Migoua
14,5% abv. Once the initial lactic aromas clear off this smells enchanting: meat/game bird's blood, tangy dark fruit. Full bodied but wonderfully, palate-cleansingly tannic and refreshingly bright acidity despite all the fruit. Tangy and crunchy. Lovely.


2007 Domaine Tempier Bandol Cuvée Classique
14,5% abv. Really lovely dark, tangy Mourvèdre aromas, but not really any more open than the cuvées nor really a step down in quality either IMO. Instead it follows much the same path as the cuvées: at first lots of lactic aromas; then lots of pomegranate brightness and crunch. Palate-cleansing tannins; refreshing finish despite the copious fruit. Lovely.


2007 Domaine Tempier Bandol Cuvée Spéciale La Tourtine
14,5% abv. This was my favourite of the '07s. Pomegranate, tangy and mineral aromas. Rich but wonderfully tangy and savoury, meaty/slightly gamy but fresh and refreshing. Lovely.


2007 Domaine Tempier Bandol Cuvée Spéciale Cabassaou
14,5% abv. As so often happens, I preferred the more basic cuvées to this most special one. This had all that lovely meaty and pomegranate aromas but also seemed a bit too ripe and raisiny - which made it a denser wine but also, at least now when so young, masked the character I found in the "lesser" wines. Yet even this, with the ripeness and size becoming slightly raisin, managed to be refreshing on the finish. Possibly lovely in a few decades?


2000 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Hommage à Jacques Perrin - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (8/18/2011)
What a delightfully stinky scent this has! And how wonderfully voluptuous it is yet still manages to be lively and refreshing. Sadly a slight raisiny character slightly diminishes my enjoyment, but it is still a great wine.


2006 Bodegas y Viñedos El Sequé Alicante El Sequé - Spain, Valencia, Alicante (8/18/2011)
Lactic with strawberry jam aromas and toffee aromas of new oak. The palate is sweet, simple and oaky. Fail.


2006 Torbreck Mataro The Pict - Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley (8/18/2011)
Wow! But the wow is for all the wrong reasons: super-sweet, completely confected, lacking freshness, lacking savouriness, lacking anything that would make me want to take a second sip. Smells like tar and has a similar texture. Fail.


2006 Teusner Mataro The Astral Series Moppa - Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley (8/18/2011)
Smelled just like the Torbreck Pict except this had a minty edge. Cough syrup and tar. Lacking elegance, freshness and drinkability. Fail.


2006 Bodegas El Nido Jumilla Clio - Spain, Murcia, Jumilla (8/18/2011)
Smells of fancy French oak. I don't like fancy French oak. Or any sort of oak at all for that matter. Dark fruit. Massive, unrefreshing, undrinkable. Fiery, spirity finish. Nasty, brutish and unfortunately that's where the Hobbesian reference has to end. Colossal fail.

For some reason I can't edit this. I always get this message:

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If someone in possession of a magic wand would kindly put the vintages in the latter half after the name instead of before it, I would be very grateful

[Jenise]

For some reason I can't edit this. I always get this message:

SQL ERROR [ mysql4 ]

Incorrect key file for table 'phpbb3_posts'; try to repair it [1034]

If someone in possession of a magic wand would kindly put the vintages in the latter half after the name instead of before it, I would be very grateful

Otto, the problem's a software glitch, and sometimes edits can take place a few days later because of a recycle thing that happens on Tuesdays and Saturdays. But today I was able to fix yours--first time I've actually had it work mid-week where you got the error message but I didn't. Interesting.

But about the wine: I'm so jealous. I've just read about the history of Domaine Tempier, how Lucien Peyraud and his wife received the property when he married the owner's daughter, and how he fell in love with the very very old wines that were much different from the lighter wines being uniformly produced in the area at the time. He figured out that the difference was mourvedre, and through his work this grape was reintroduced AND became the legal standard for Bandol reds. Tempier really is much more than just the best wine produced there.

Haven't had the Clio but the El Nido is a vile wine to me.. goopy oak flavors