Puydeval 2008 Rouge

Hi, folks! I'm still alive and my computer still works, regardless of what the inactivity here might have led you to suppose. I am here with an open bottle of the 2008 Puydeval, which is a blend of 60% Cabernet Franc, 28% Syrah, and 12% Merlot. The wine has been sealed with the dreaded plastic "cork", which I detest. These closures have been shown to leach flavor components out of the wine, though it hasn't (to my knowledge) been studied to what extent that effect might be noticeable. What really bothers me about this closure is that it does not reliably last more than about 2 years, if even that long. I once got a great deal on a case of wine with these closures that had been in bottle maybe a year or year and a half and was drinking fine. The last few bottles I got to were all oxidized, but all showed different levels of oxidation. Some were kind of drinkable (if you've already opened a few bottles, who cares?) and some went straight down the drain. The wine itself should not have been that bad yet. sad.

Back to the wine at hand: it's labeled as a "Vin De Pays D'Oc", which tells me it can contain grapes from anywhere in the Languedoc or Roussillon areas in Southern France, more likely Languedoc. It's distributed by National and is probably about $14 retail if I remember correctly. This wine is purple and almost completely opaque, except at the rim. It has a big nose of licorice, a jammy melee of somewhat indiscernible fruits, both red and black, but mostly black (my palate might not be at the top of its game today, but I didn't want to neglect the blog any longer), black pepper, a bit of graphite, and a bit of a floral character. I am able to pick out some blackcurrant in the fruit character, which is not as jammy as some but not really smelling like fresh fruit either. There's also a hint of alcohol and just a hint of paint thinner (ethyl acetate), which I usually consider a flaw right away, but it's very faint here and I can deal with it, along with a little cedar.

The wine's body is probably medium plus, as is the flavor intensity. The palate is a bit hot (alcohol coming through), but overall fairly pleasant. I notice a lot of blackberry and blackcurrant, along with that peppery spice and those hints of purple flowers and cedar. There might even be a barely perceptible (to me, but I think my recognition threshold is below average) amount of residual sugar here, which brings out the fruit more. Don't get me wrong; this is still a dry wine. The fruit here is fresher than it was on the nose (not as jammy), though this is clearly not a cool climate wine, which would generally have more definition of flavor and less heat from the alcohol. There is a bit of tannin, which is fine grained and enjoyable. I could see this going well with roasted meats or some kind of game. The finish is about medium, which is fine. If the nose were as good as the palate, I could get more excited about this wine. Frankly, I've not been drinking a lot of "New World" styled wines lately (I know it's France, but the Languedoc wines often taste more New World to me), and they're not generally my preference, so I might be being a bit hard on this wine. Every time I go back to it, though, the nose is kind of weird and the palate is really nice. Overall, I'd give this 84 points (good, almost very good) and say if you like this style it's probably right up your alley and priced fairly. EDIT: Later in the evening this wine started smelling really stewed, like I was cooking with wine. The flavor did not degrade nearly as much, but it did start tasting just a little more like my initial impression of the aroma. I would have to say, after the whole experience, that this is more of an 82+ point (good) wine for me. If it had shown as it did later from the start, I'd really be trashing it. Too bad. I think this is a great illustration of how unfair it can be to a wine and to a readership to make such snap judgments as we often do. A wine can easily change this much for better or for worse with a couple hours' aeration. I strongly believe that this shows how flawed a system of wine scoring and the power the professional critics' scores are. I have also noticed what a significant difference as little as six months more in the bottle can have on a wine, which again illustrates the same point. I will continue to use scoring as I am a hypocrite, but I would encourage people to pay more attention to the poor/acceptable/good/very good/outstanding scale than the actural number, and to always remember that we all taste things a bit differently and we can have vastly different preferences in taste. I was fortunate enough to buy this when Hannaford had it marked down after its time in the Limited Reserve bins, which is something to look for if you live near a Hannaford that has a bunch of those.

Thank you so much for checking back here despite so many weeks of nothing. I appreciate more than you probably realize that you would take the time to do so.