Tardieu-Laurent, St. Joseph "Vieilles Vignes" 2003

Purple/red.

This showed considerable new oak influence 30 minutes ago - now doing the smoked meat/breakfast sausage/spice/dried fig thing on the nose. Deep, but also has clarity and a salivary start button.

Round and edgy simultaneously. There's no hint of extreme ripeness here. Oak spice, licorice and bound up black fruit flavors. Major acid/tannin synergy shuts down the mid-palate. Nevertheless, black fruit and spice flavors break on through to the other side.

Day 4 - Integrated, deep nose manages also to be understated. Much easier in the mid-palate today. This really is beautiful stuff.

$35 Definitely worth buying in quantity.