This 50% Grenache and 50% Syrah blend is from the Ventoux AOC, located in the southeastern part of the famous Rhone wine-growing region of southern France. This region is generally divided into two parts - Northern Rhone (Rhone septentrional in French), which produces Syrah and a smattering of other grapes, and southern Rhone (Rhone meridional) produces a whole host of white and red grapes, including blends such as the Avignon treasure, Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
I don't always check online reviews of wine, since I'd rather just taste the wine myself, but for really old bottles, I like to check to see what they were like new. Reviews have it that's full of tannins, heavy, with sweet berry notes. Obviously all this aging will have tempered that, but let's find out for ourselves.
Pours out dark reddish brown into the glass, with really no bricking. Nice color though. Note the spilled drops - really nice reddish-purple.
It's also pretty cool that the cork has the vintage right on it.
There's a bit of an alcohol tinge on the nose, some dark fruit, but generally very soft. I didn't have an aerator, but when I poured it out I let sit (and swish) for about 15 minutes before tasting.
Wow, this is really light. Not a ton of flavor here. It's thin and a touch watery, but has a nice dryness here that's a function of the aging. I'm detecting some softer blackberry notes as the wine develops, no doubt a remnant of its former self, and a I'm sensing pulpy, macerated grape skin flavors on the finish. There's a touch of tartness on the aftertaste, accompanied by alcohol esters and more dryness.
Maybe I was expecting to be disappointed, since most of my wine aging ventures have resulted in overaged wines, but I think this is OK. The wine is soft but not tragically thin; there's not much berry flavors and the mouthfeel is soft, but the aftertaste has some berry and grape skin flavors which are nice. A delicate wine that's not refreshing, per se, but in the context of the other flavors, the dryness does add a pleasing texture. We had steak for dinner, and I'm glad we had this first - I think this is too light for a heavy meal. While this didn't have the fullness of the flavor that it would have while young, I really liked the dryness (as did my father, who tasted this with me) and it was neat to see how a really nice wine ages and maintains its drinkability over almost a decade. We paired this with some Cheddar cheese and water crackers, which I feel was appropriate.
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