We recently had an impulse to open up a bottle of 1995 Campagne de Centeilles made  by Patricia Boyer-Domergue of Minervois, a wine that was imported for us directly from her cellar by Ideal Wine.  As with many mature wines, it is good to check in with them from time to time to see how they are doing and if they have a long life ahead of them or need to be drunk up quickly. What we found was quite simply astonishing– a wine full of life and vitality, but with amazingly complex tertiary flavors and aromas that only come from significant bottle-age.

This bottling is made primarily from Cinsault and the balance is Syrah.  The color of the wine at this point is similar to the color of a traditional Barolo from Conterno or Mascarello –lighter garnet fading into brick. In the nose, the wine offers fine and complex aromas of baked cherries and plums, soy, bittersweet cocoa, beef bouillion, mint, and green tea, extremely seamless and fine in its aromatic complexity. On the palate, the wine is sublime; its silky texture washes over the palate with ethereal flavors of roasted cherry, grilled pit fruit, and amazingly powdery, bitter cocoa tannins. Wow!

1995 Campagne de Centeilles quite simply restores one’s faith in the beautiful and inspiring qualities that wine can bring to our lives, and, if you can fully appreciate everything that this wine has to offer, you will have arrived.

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