La Mondotte 1998

An amazing tour de force in winemaking, this massive, opaque black/purple-colored offering boasts an extraordinarily pure nose of black fruits intermixed with cedar, vanillin, fudge, and espresso. It is unctuously-textured, with exhilarating levels of blackberry/cassis fruit and extract, as well as multiple dimensions that unfold on the palate. The 50-second finish reveals moderately high tannin. Despite its similarity to dry vintage port, it is not a wine to drink early. It is a colossal wine! Anticipated maturity: 2008-2035. The ultimate garage wine, La Mondotte is ultra-concentrated, frightfully expensive, yet worth every cent.

The hot new super-cuvee, even more intense than Le Pin and Valandraud. A blockbuster from young superstar winemaker Stéphane Derenoncourt. The wine is made from 45 year old vines -80% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc from a yield of only 22 hl per ha. Production approximately 830 cases, aged in 100% new oak. Black ink colour. Molasses, leather and tar. Massive and Port-like in its concentration. This is a monster. FV 18.5.

Off-the-chart concentration results in a character more similar to dry vintage port than Bordeaux. This opaque black/purple-coloured 1998 exhibits massive, highly-extracted flavours of blackberry and cherry liqueur, smoked bacon, coffee, and new oak. Thick, with gorgeously integrated sweet tannin, alcohol and glycerin, this is a profoundly promising, complex wine that takes concentration and complexity to the limit. Give it 5-7 years of bottle age, and enjoy it between 2006-2025. Wow!