Grange des Peres 2004

The latest installment of Laurent Vaille’s justly-celebrated if also expensive red offers a surprisingly developed, but for that reason all the more fascinating nose of red raspberry, sage, mint, sealing wax, and smoked meat. Bright raspberry fruit laced with bacon fat and tinged with candied ginger, sage, salt and cherry pit inform a texturally creamy palate. Fresh berries, soy, smoked meat, pungent-sweet citrus rind, and herbs dominate a finish of striking brightness and savory intensity in this wine that (abstracting from its textural refinement) slightly resembles a cross between Zinfandel and Cote Rotie.