Garnet, clear toward the rim.
Nose herbal and slightly earthy.
The immediate palate sensation is fleshy juicy fruit (the purple fruit bon bon lolly, you know the one) this evolved to a perfumed plummy flavour as the wine breathed. And then there was a whole spectrum of savoury notes: spice, earth, leather.
the acid is prominent but fine and the finish is tongue coating, with fine tannin, and good length. An all round good food wine.
I have no idea how this will cellar, Nepenthe dont take a punt on the back label either.
My guess is at its peak now, holding for a couple of years.
13.5% ABV.
Nepenthe Tempranillo 2002.
Darker colour than the 01, with a purple tint.
The nose starts out very brandied fruitcake, but settles into plum and spice. (Have they blended in a bit of their Zinfandel
)
This wine still shows some of the fleshiness of the 01, but is held a little tighter by firmer tannin. Flavour wise, this is much more closed with some plum fruit and some chocolate. The acid structure is still there, tightly focused and closing the wine cleanly. The 14.5% alcohol shows on both nose and palate, and IMO unbalances the wine.
Built quite differently to the food friendly 01 wich I prefer,
Expect this will improve a little with a couple of years as the palate opens,
cheers
Andrew