AC Bordeaux Supérieur
Domaines Mau
A blend of Merlot (45 per cent), Cabernet Franc (30) and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Decanted about 20 minutes before drinking.
Dark purple in the glass.
Not much on the nose: soft, spices, chocolate, before slamming shut (see below).
Medium weight, fresh, fleshy cherry, spicy, some mild tannin, red licorice, roasted coffee. After the first glass, the wine slammed shut: quite hard and drying, mouthpuckering tannin.
Abouth halfway through the bottle, the wine opened up again, the tannins subsidiing, revealing fleshy cherry, raspberry and cranberry fruit, spicy, red licorice, with very little evidence of the previous tannic assault.
It always amazes me to witness a wine such as this go through its many phases, from open to closed and open again.
A drying finish.
Have had this wine in previous vintages and I don't recall it being as inaccessible as this. A candidate for short-term cellaring I would think.
Purchased at $15 (Canadian).