2006 Domaine de l'A

[Bacchus]

For those who don't know, this is Stephane Derenoncourt's own label and it's from the Cotes de Castillon.

I don't drink a lot of right bank wines, but right from the first pour I was a little surprised by this. Instead of an impenetrable black colour, this is a bright, clear, cheery red. The cedar and damson on the nose are repeated on the palate, which also adds some current notes along with a bit of cocoa and a hint of bramble. The thing that hit me first, however, was the tannins. This is still a very tannic wine. It is dry, even a bit drying on the end, and it'll set your teeth on edge. That said, it is light in the mouth, not at all thick or heavy, and has a good acidic core fighting to keep it fresh. Thus, despite the Derenoncourt brand, this strikes me as something of an older style wine. If you can find it for $25 or so, it may well be worth your while to give it a go. Only 13% alc.! I'm going to recork this and see how things turn out after 24 hours.

[dstgolf]

I picked up a case of the 2005 and had a bottle last year. Not in an overly extracted style many right bankers share. Even though SD is in to a modern style his belief of everything is made in the vineyard to some extent holds true. I sure prefer his style to Michel Rolland. This property is shared with his beautiful wife Christine who we had the pleasure to share dinner with at Cannon la Gaffeliere in 2005 BWE convention Bordeaux and I'm sure she'll temper his desire to have the big wine. The 2005 was a long way off from being ready but sure showed promise.

What you are describing with firm tannins was what struck me about the 06s in general and your statement doesn't surprise me. I was so impressed with the 05 that I banked on a case of the 09 and 10 at futures offering and hopefully this will serve well for intermediate term drinking(5-10yrs).

[Bacchus]

Thanks, Dan. Interesting story.

[JimHow]

I too really liked the 2005, the only vintage I've had of this wine.