Faire

Clos du Paradis “Domaine Viret” 1999 Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages Saint-Maurice “Renaissance” (Rhône) – Fading into a wet stew of stale leather, meat artifacts, and overdried herbs. With very occasional exceptions, the reds from this house and vintage (I bought each bottling) have not survived as long as I’d predicted while tasting them on site and at release. Young vines? Cosmoculture? Terroir? Over-optimism? There’s no way to know without comparing more recent releases, which for the most part I haven’t. (8/09)