Coudert 2022 Fleurie "La Griffe du Marquis"

Alain Coudert's homage to his father Fernand is a superb Fleurie that will need three to five years in the cellar and should drink beautifully over the next ten to fifteen years or more. This is the same juice as the great Cuvée Tardive, aged in two to six year-old barriques and bottled a year later. From eighty year-old vines on clay and granite soil. Deep aromas of meaty blackberry and strawberry confit, violets and mint. Intense palate of berry liqueur, plum, stone and earth with fabulous length and firm, even slightly bitter acids. Earthy fruit coats the palate in the finish — ripe but balanced. This will be a great mature wine, perhaps best between 2030 and 2038? "The wood is obviously not present to mask the wine, but rather to accompany it, to complement its tannins and create complexity. It's really tight the first two years, but opens up beautifully when you give it some time," says Alain.