Thanks to Jeremy Pringle (of Wine Will Eat Itself) for sharing this with me. I believe it’s imported by Eurocentric.
The nose is complex and mostly savoury. As it unfolds, there are notes of unripe banana, some pretty fermentation esters, raspberry-flavoured boiled lollies and ripe, juicy weeds. The fruit character in particular seems to slip around with each sip, modulating between medicinal and sharply sugared. As it warms, a stronger thread of vegetation lifts above the fruitier, prettier dimensions, the whole becoming thicker, headier, more intoxicatingly perfumed. It ends up a really striking aroma profile, both comforting and sharp, like a warm jumper laced with thorns.
In the mouth, sharp and cool on entry, showing prominent acid which is well integrated into the flavour and flow of the wine. The fruit’s medicinal character comes to the fore here, and it’s surrounded by an array of complexities like banana skins and twigs. Weight-wise, this is lean the way a model is lean, not ungenerous so much as elegant in a highly particular, angular way. The after palate is the most fruit-driven point of the wine’s line, with more boiled lollies and the beginnings of a dry, raspy tannic influence that carries through the finish. Its tannins are worth lingering over. One might describe them as slightly green, though for me they are rough in a more positive sense, in the same way a banana that’s not quite ready to eat has that curiously powdery effect on one’s tongue.
A really fabulous wine whose complexity is especially remarkable given it sees no oak and is so young. Great value at $A30.
Domaine Jean-Marc Burgaud
Price: $A30
Closure: Cork
Source: Gift