Monday, February 01, 2010

Sir Tannat & The Chastity Belt

My favourite grapes...are...at the moment...Pinot Noir, Grüner Veltliner..and of course all the other 'obvious' varieties. Tannat is rarely tried...this is more 'Joe' country. Mind you...he is starved of my grapes!
Vignobles Laplace Chateau Aydie 2006 Madiran, France
This is 100% Tannat from 22 year old vines. A trophy winner in the category 'Regional French Red' in Decanter magazine.
This is like 'ye young fair maid'...showing off her wears to the Knight of the realm Sir Tannat....first impressions please him. Then he finds out she has a Chastity Belt...and that all is not as he expected. No..I am not going mad.....well...not too mad. This had a deep, dark brooding colour...but showed a surprising open smell at first. Quite intense bouquet of dark fruit...spices and coffee...cool & elegant. But that was it...it then just closed up as many wines at this age do. Result...tell the young lady to sleep on it to see if she will unlock the belt. No chance it seems...next day she flaunted absolutely nothing. I have no doubt she will mature and display all her commodities in a few years...and give the noble knight, Sir Tannat..the key to the hidden treasures.
Points 15...but many years ahead.

4 comments:

Joe said...

Hi Barry - thanks for the shout, and I am thrilled to be in a post combining Tannat and chastity belts! The chastity belt only comes off if you have the key - Sir Tannat will only give you the key if you wait ten years for his prized daughter to bloom into a full woman, alternatively a lengthy, vigorous decant and four hours might allow you to pick the lock...

Tim said...

Barry - have you tried Michel Torino Don David Tannat (Argentina)? It's available here for around £11...

Barry said...

Vigorous 4 hours..at my age..I'll try Joe....

Tim...available here..being England?...long way to go for a Tannat...with my beloved Pinot on the doorstep

Tim said...

Yeah I did mean England - it sounded like you over over here once in while, or you could look for it there since Tannat is a favourite...:-) I thought it was a good wine for a good price.