Lavau Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Lovely violet and lavender aromas along with mediterranean dried herbs, cherry, and black fruits. Flavours of Chocolate, Sweet herbs, cherry, raspberry, tobacco, black fruits, oak, and a long herbal finish. So good but that 15% abv hits 😂

Double decanted. Heavy layer of sediment in the bottle but easily decanted off. Very dark in the glass, quite opaque even with about 1" of liquid, so illuminated the decant through the neck. Nose has an interesting stewed tomato tone along with the herbality. A surprising lack of grenache tones caught me off guard a bit. On the palate there's a strong sense of salinity on the tongue and in the finish. It strikes me as a syrah forward palate, …

Intensely dark in color. A fruit bomb, far removed from the aged-in-old-oak medium-bodied Châteauneuf-du-Papes of the past. Dark berries, licorice, salt (from Grenache) and pepper (from Syrah and Mourvèdre) in the nose and palate, with Syrah definitely dominating. Like drinking berry jam. At this point, aside from its youthful awkwardness, it shows a promising future as it segues into maturity. An excellent value if you can find it. 50% Grenache, 40% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre.

Forward, earthy and herbal with a spicy core of pepper, herbal, red fruits with crispness and a peppery bite with a touch of chocolate that comes in at the end of this, classically-styled finish. The wine was produced using 50% Grenache, 40% Syrah and 10% Mourvedre. Drink from 2022-2030.