2001 Columella

(Syrah with 15% Mourvedre): Healthy dark red-ruby. Good peppery lift to the rather primary aromas of black cherry, orange peel, flint, graphite, licorice and oak char; I was reminded both of Bordeaux and Hermitage. Open-knit on entry, then a bit more clenched in the middle, with still-young flavors of black fruits, black olive and oak. This wine still has longer to go, but with its serious acidity I wonder if it will ever really soften. Sadie described 2001 as “our driest year ever, with just 20 millimeters of rain during the growing season.” He dropped 40% of the crop three weeks before the harvest and ultimately produced just 11 hectoliters per hectare. But as he had purchased enough barrels to handle 18 hectoliters per hectare, the percentage of new oak was the highest ever for Columella at 80%.

Dark and deep in colour. Deep berry and brooding spice on the nose, with just a lift of violet. Velvety texture, yet grippy with power, the tannins hold it in like a tight velvet bodice. Layers of beauty – cassis, warm plum and liquorice while a touch of wet earth and dried herbs give it a wild garrigue edge. This is a smouldering, powerfully muscular wine that yet manages poise and sophistication. The finish lasts and lasts. (TC)

(includes some mourvedre) Full ruby. Raspberry, woodsmoke, gunflint and a saline nuance; very much like Cote-Rotie. Then quite fresh and firmly built, with subtle, sharply delineated flavors of raspberry, leather, meat, tobacco and pepper nicely framed by lively acids. Decidedly French in style, and not at all overly sweet. Broadens out impressively on the back half, with the lively acids intensifying the fruit and lifting the wine's finish. This is every bit as good as the 2000, which is just beginning to unfold and still has at least five to ten years of positive development ahead of it.