#50 on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of 2009
The 2006 Esprit de Beaucastel is delicious and unusually approachable right now, with a complex nose of red plum, ripe cherry, fresh figs and candied orange peel, a velvety, layered palate with spicy plum and cherry fruit, pepper and nutmeg spices, and excellent breadth. The finish shows more mineral, plum, and spice, and a little gentle oak from the foudre aging. It is delicious now, if very young, and should evolve elegantly in bottle for 10-15 years or longer.
The wine is based on the dark red fruit, earth, spice and mid-palate richness of Mourvedre (45%), with additions of Grenache (28%) for forward fruit, approachability and lushness, Syrah (22%) for mineral, aromatics, and back-palate tannins, and Counoise (5%) for brambly spice and acidity.
Rajat