My first for a couple of years and a welcome return to form.
At first, not very inspiring - the colour was definitely veering towards brown, the aromas were full of leather and autumn leaves, and the first sip was acidic and dry. I didn’t decant, which was probably a mistake, because I would have got to the good part quicker. The problem was, I think, that I had left it standing for a couple of days and the wine in the neck was a little tired.
By the time I got down to the middle of the bottle, the wine was transformed:
Suddenly, rich aromas of sweet black cherry began to pierce the autumn leaves and in the mouth, red cherry and blackberry took over, quite full-bodied and powerful, although very silky and elegant, with a really persistent finish, full of wild strawberry. Over time, there was more blackcurrant in the mix, with a slight minty touch to the finish which gave it some crisp freshness.
Delicious stuff, the best bottle I’ve had since confinement began. 94 points
I’ve had this wine six times over the last five years and this was the best since the first one in 2015. They all came straight from the producer so there is obviously bottle variation, but when it’s on form the Olive 89 is a splendid wine. For wines like this, 30 years old, price is almost immaterial, but remarkably, just like it did in 2015, it still only cost 25 euros. Que demande le peuple?
I did muse about our discussion concerning an imaginary classification of Loire reds while sipping this: Couly-Dutheil is a difficult one to judge. Wines like this are first growth standard, unquestionably. Echo, Olive and Crescendo are all regularly of second growth standard. But I had an Olive 2005 a couple of weeks ago which was absolutely horrible and an Echo 2011 scarcely any better - both were 14.5°. Anything before 2003 is a safe bet, anything after seems to be a lottery: Crescendo 04 is delicious, Echo 04 is not, for example.