Critic Review
17++/20 Tamlyn Currin, jancisrobinson.com "Full bottle 1,342 g. 25% Grenache Blanc, 45% Grenache Gris and 30% Grenache Noir from a 90-year-old walled vineyard on black schist. Organic viticulture. Co-fermented. Spontaneous fermentation. No additives bar minimal sulphites. 18 months in oak. Unfined, unfiltered. I'm not sure if they've changed the name of the wine – did it used to be Clos des Escounils and is now Clot dels Escounils? The oak seems to be more pronounced on the 2020 than it was on the 2018 when I tasted it last year. Does this mean that the wine needs another year in bottle to integrate? Possibly. Maybe more than a year. (Although over the three days I tasted the wine, the vanilla turned sandalwood-cedary and then began to subsume into the whole.) For now, vanillin notes move forward and dominate the white blossom, sweet hay and candied citrus notes that build, slowly whirl, at the centre of the wine. I am loathe to describe this wine as burgundian, but the structure, dept