Again, I write about another wine that blows me away. This time it is from Sean Thackrey, and is his Pleiades XIX. This is a seriously complex and generous wine, just giving up masses of different aromas and flavours it is difficult to keep up. Here is what I got.
Lovely rich, soft aromas with hints of clove and aniseed leading onto Chinese sweet and sour sauce - all tangy tomato and sweet pineapple. Then you get red apple skin, some strawberries, liquorice, black pudding, vanilla ice cream.... it goes on and on.
The palate has an initial savoury note, a shock after all the fruit on the nose, then some leather, some spice, an alcohol hit, then warmed blueberries, a load darker berry skin flavours. The midpalate has a sweet fruit, but with a Rhone-esque style of restrained berries and subtle spice. Then you get a Barolo note, some tar and violets, then green pepper. The finish is dry, savoury, subtle and very very long.
The XVIII was one of my top five wines of the year in 2010, and this wine is going to strongly compete for that position in 2011. It is fantastic and most importantly, fun.
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