Le Vin des Amis Syrah

Ripe black currant with a pongy vegetal note. Kid leather and pepper. A medium weight palate finishing with fine tannins and an astringent note at the finish. Bordering on bretty but not quite getting there, just an intense vegetal savouriness - still good. Had my last bottle 7 weeks later on 29th January 2022 with similar notes. Dried cherry, gamey aromas, touch of tar. A medium weight savoury palate.

This was a fun one. A friend of mine, a wine guy that predominately drinks new world Cabernet Sauvignon, was visiting my place and wanted to try something from the old world. I figured it might be fun to try two different expressions of Syrah from the Rhône; one from the North (Auguste Clape’s “Le Vin des Amis” with vines located in and around Cornas) and one from the South (Chateau Fortia “Reserve” from Chateauneuf du Pape). Both bottles were from the same vintage and aged (at least partially) in foudre. Popped and poured. “Le Vin des Amis” appears as a deep, glass staining purple color with medium+ viscosity. On the nose, high intensity with purple flowers and a powerful bacon fat/deli case smell. Funky, but not in a barnyard sort of way; more like a reductive sort of way. The funk eventually blew off after 15-20 minutes. There are blue fruits with a generous amount of black pepper. On the palate, blue and red fruits with black pepper, lavender and iron-like minerals. Medium tannin, Medium+ acid. Medium alcohol. Long, lip smacking finish. A very giving wine that punches way high above its weight class considering this is Clape’s “entry level” wine. Clape’s “entry-level” offering

Deep Ruby in colour with a youthful purple rim. Latent aromas Latent palate. Opened this too early. Hard to agree with Richard Hemming MW’s Drinking Window of 2017-2020. Ripe fruit - Full bodied - Barb thought it was Barossa. Ripe plums and blackfruits with slightly savoury Tannins. Very self contained needing more cellaring time to shine. After a couple of hours and with vigorous swirling came liquorice notes.

Let that initial "odor" blow off and there is a dark, deep, velvety, wine underneath. It goes from barn to the ball. A Cinderella story...

Brambly black fruit, earthy mid palate, blackberry finish.

Very nice Syrah, but slightly underwhelming for the price point. Decanted 4 hours and it needs it at this point. Dark dark fruit, olive, some cured meat.

2016. Jeune mais bien fait. Ouverture 12 heures avant le repas.

Blackberry, raspberry, still has biting tannins after a good hour decant. Seriously delicious.

2016 Clape Vin Des Amis & Funkadelic. The perfect end to a busy, yet extremely enjoyable weekend. Briny nose & dark fruited palate play off the spacey funk of the record.

Inky, saturated color, dark fruits, crushed rock, garrigue, still quite primary