WTN: 1998 Chateau de Negly Languedoc

Wow. Where have I been hiding this?
As the year draws to a close, I try to do a little cellar thinning - trying to pull bottles I might have overlooked. A 98 Languedoc? What kind of shape could this be in?

This wine is a beautifully colored garnet - lightening at the rim.
A sniff tells me the wine is still sound - interesting aromas waft up from the glass - raw meat, blood, iron - in the mouth, it is very nicely balanced, with a decent amount of acidity carrying mouth filling cranberry flavored fruit across the palate - there's definitely a raw, meaty character to this wine, and I like it quite a bit.

I don't know for sure, but I'll bet I didn't pay much more than ten bucks for this wine back then. What a score!

Which cuvée was it, John?

I had a few bottles of both La Côte and La Falaise 98, the latter of which was tasty as you describe (and I have just discovered that I have one bottle left!). La Côte was less good and still suffered curious prickly bubbles in the last bottle a few years ago; this may have disappeared with time.

Négly also produces some luxury "garage" type cuvées which are highly priced (>EUR 50) and probably heavily extracted and heavily oaked; I have never had any.

I have posted here on the white "La Brise Marine". Always one of the WOTY wines for me but have never come across the reds.