1995 Coudoulet and others

[bills]

Some miscellaneous wines tasted over the last few days:

2000 Nichol Syrah – tasted blind, this BC wine from a small producer fooled me into thinking it a Pinot. Medium colour, with a nose of black olive and agreeable ripeness, ready to drink right now and quite tasty. I have had their wines at advanced age and they seem to mature late and sometimes with very interesting consequences.

2002 Calliope Cabernet – Merlot – produced by an itinerant winemaker, Ross Mirko, as a private project. Ross has now settled at Lang Vineyards. Darker than the Nichol, with white pepper in the nose, which almost had us wondering if this were also a syrah. Smooth and tasty now, no need to wait. I shall move my half case up for summer consumption.

1995 Coudoulet de Beaucastel – this has been one of the best Coudoulets produced in recent years. Bright colour, with fruit nose with pepper and spice, smooth and now showing complexity in the mouth, long slightly spicy finish with some tannins still evident. Very good – I think that people who drank this up when it was very young, thinking it wouldn’t last, deprived themselves of significant long term pleasure. It is now at peak.