2004 Ezio Voyat Chambave Rosso 'Le Muraglie' (Valle d'Aosta)
I've been keen to try the elusive Ezio Voyat Chambave since reading Rosenthal's tome last year, so when I stumbled across this today for $28 on a store shelf in a distant city, well: I was more than ready.
Right away there's a fresh, complex nose of just-crushed ripe blackberry, with more subtle notes of aromatic herbs, unsweetened dark chocolate, roasted capsicum and black peppercorn. I spent a lot of time just sniffing this, actually. The palate was tight though, so with some hesitation I poured it into a decanter. I don't decant many wines these days, but as it turned out this wanted all the air it could get.
A few hours later, the reward: a tremendously deep, if still somewhat clenched palate, with layers of freshly crushed dark berry fruits, toasted capsicum, unsweetened dark chocolate, bitter herbs and bright acidity. The wine is so silky it gives the impression of having almost no tannins at all, but it does grip the tongue just slightly. I briefly thought of a developing Moulin-a-Vent spiked with a dash of Franck Peillot's mondeuse, before giving up on pointless analogies.
Stylistically, this is surprisingly clean and fresh. I'd guess there might be a bit of carbonic here but I could be talking out my [.]. An importer website indicated that it's aged in botti, but if there's any new wood, it's very tasteful and well-integrated.
Overall it's very youthful and seems to be from a cooler but still very successful vintage. It's lovely now, and is certainly holding something in reserve. The last glass was starting to show an exotic dried herb quality that was gorgeous. There's potentially very strong potential here, at least in the 2-3 year term, but I find it hard to see past that given the gentle, almost gamay-like tannins. I'm probably wrong about that.
I'd love to hear about other vintages of this wine, if anyone's tasted them. (Sig. Dalton posted a note on the 2000 back in January.)
For the trainspotters, this is said to be made from mostly Petit Rouge, with smaller amounts of Dolcetto and Gros Vien. It's not a "Valle d'Aosta DOC - Chambave" wine for reasons I don't recall (check the aforementioned thread), and is thus labeled as a nonvintage Vino da Tavola. Fortunately the importer gives us the vintage on the back label.
I've been keen to try the elusive Ezio Voyat Chambave since reading Rosenthal's tome last year, so when I stumbled across this today for $28 on a store shelf in a distant city, well: I was more than ready.
Right away there's a fresh, complex nose of just-crushed ripe blackberry, with more subtle notes of aromatic herbs, unsweetened dark chocolate, roasted capsicum and black peppercorn. I spent a lot of time just sniffing this, actually. The palate was tight though, so with some hesitation I poured it into a decanter. I don't decant many wines these days, but as it turned out this wanted all the air it could get.
A few hours later, the reward: a tremendously deep, if still somewhat clenched palate, with layers of freshly crushed dark berry fruits, toasted capsicum, unsweetened dark chocolate, bitter herbs and bright acidity. The wine is so silky it gives the impression of having almost no tannins at all, but it does grip the tongue just slightly. I briefly thought of a developing Moulin-a-Vent spiked with a dash of Franck Peillot's mondeuse, before giving up on pointless analogies.
Stylistically, this is surprisingly clean and fresh. I'd guess there might be a bit of carbonic here but I could be talking out my [.]. An importer website indicated that it's aged in botti, but if there's any new wood, it's very tasteful and well-integrated.
Overall it's very youthful and seems to be from a cooler but still very successful vintage. It's lovely now, and is certainly holding something in reserve. The last glass was starting to show an exotic dried herb quality that was gorgeous. There's potentially very strong potential here, at least in the 2-3 year term, but I find it hard to see past that given the gentle, almost gamay-like tannins. I'm probably wrong about that.
I'd love to hear about other vintages of this wine, if anyone's tasted them. (Sig. Dalton posted a note on the 2000 back in January.)
For the trainspotters, this is said to be made from mostly Petit Rouge, with smaller amounts of Dolcetto and Gros Vien. It's not a "Valle d'Aosta DOC - Chambave" wine for reasons I don't recall (check the aforementioned thread), and is thus labeled as a nonvintage Vino da Tavola. Fortunately the importer gives us the vintage on the back label.