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From the tasting on 18 Mar 08 - served blind

Black and totally opaque. Very raw young nose. Lovely thick purple tears. Soft and smooth in the mouth but not as thick as I thought it would be. A big tannic blast hits the mid-palate but then a lovely long strawberry finish.

On initial tasting I noted "Vesuvio 2005" - I then talked myself into something else but ended up back here. Not a great guess given the raw nature of the wine and the person who supplied it

Derek

I had this wine four times now, one cask sample with it. I love it, but I do not want to tell to much in advance...

Axel

Young and purple colour, purple colour sticks to the edge of the glass when you swirl. Wonderfully complex nose; masses of blackcurrants, licorice and some spicy oregano but also strangely restrained in some way. Initially sweet and restrained fruitiness in the mouth; tannins come through gradually and gently but are noticeable before fading back again to leave many, many layers of a very complex wine with a great mix of fruit and herbs and great acidity. Aftertaste is huge in flavour and very fruity, but fades abruptly after a decent length before hanging around for a fair while as a faint "taste memory". Fun to drink today, but will reward a couple of decades in the cellar. 5-7 or 91/100. Drunk on 18th March 2008 after 9 hours of decanting time.

Footnote
I finally managed to get round to finishing off the rest of the decanter about 5 days after opening the bottle. I was surprised at how much this sludge has already formed in the bottle and anyone else who is considering drinking one of these, I would recommend that it be decanted of the sediment rather than just empty the bottle into the decanter as I did.

This was still drinking very well after 5 days. By the fifth day, the alcohol had become more obvious and so had the tannins, but these were still wrapped up within a lovely and massive fruit dominance. Still delicious after nearly a week of neglect.