WTN: Oratoire St. Martin Cairanne '05, L&F Martin Coteaux du Layon SGN 02

Wines with dinner.

Domaine Oratoire St. Martin Reserve des Seigneurs Cairanne 2005 - Meaty, bacony nose with an underlay of berry and tobacco. After an hour, chocolate, caramel and coffee as well. Rather sweetish, ripe fruit flavors. Quite forward. A bit plump. Dryish and with soft tannins in the impressively long finish. There is a New Worldy quality to the flavor and texture of this wine. The alcohol, at 14.5% unfortunately unbalances the wine. Otherwise all other components are in the right place and right proportion. Not really for those looking for complexity. Friendly and easy to drink now but should age well for 5 years or so. Very good with couscous and mergueze sausage.

GAEC L & F Martin Coteaux du Layon SGN 2002 - Attractive gold. Nose of honey and melon. Rich, with concentrated flavors of dried pineapple, mango, orange and raisins. Intensely sweet with a bit of acid to balance it although a bit more acid would have been nice. Would have been awesome with some roquefort but I didn't have any handy, unfortunately.

Jay,

The bottle of Réserve des Seigneurs 05 which I opened a few weeks ago smelled of rotten eggs, which is a classical symptom of reduction. As you make no mention of this, I take it that you did not have this problem.

Did you decant or give the bottle a good airing? Or perhaps it was the bad odour was just a briefly passing phenomenon.

Tim,

No rotten eggs in my bottle. Popped and poured. I drank half the bottle on the first evening over a period of 2 hours or so. The rest of the bottle was consumed at lunch the next day without too much variation from my note on the first day.

Did the smell in your bottle go away?

Jay,

As far as I can remember, the smell was still there at the end of the bottle, if a bit reduced. It did not stop us finishing the bottle because there was enough plump, ripe, sweetish fruit, as you say, for the palate to be acceptable against some eggy background aromatics.

I have two bottles left so I will open another soon.

In most vintages Réserve des Seigneurs is a reliable standby for young fruity quaffing (2004 was deliciously peppery, as well) and can take three or four years ageing.