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2004 Fleur Cardinale. Wow!
By perryd | January 5, 2008
I suppose that we should be used to ‘fruit bombs’ coming of St. Emilion by now, but wow! We opened a bottle of 2004 Fleur Cardinale last night for dinner, and it is simply remarkable. The wine is still a little young. Even though it is primarily Merlot, there’s enough Cabernet Sauvignon to give it a bit of tannic tinge, which I think will subside in a year or two. The wine is at 14.5% alcohol and should cellar well for at least another seven or eight years.
The wine has an excellent perfume of black cherry, licorice, chocolate, and black currant, which continues in the taste and long finish. There’s some Cabernet Franc in the blend lending an earthy undertone. If you haven’t tried straight Cab Franc, you owe it to yourself…it is an unmistakable flavor, and straight up it provides what I’ll call a muddy grape flavor. Maybe a little wet-felty. I haven’t found many from France, but California is turning out some excellent Cab Franc (Cab Frank is a good one, or try Reverie. They tend not to be cheap.).
It is no surprise that both Michel Rolland and Jean-Luc Thunevin have a hand in this wine. There were only 5,800 cases made, but you should be able to find some at Wine Commune for around $25 a bottle. Give it few more years for the tannin to mellow out…this is just a very good right-bank wine that will hold up for a long time.
Topics: Wine |