Back to Back (EVOLUTION 4.5)

And back on schedule. Well... sort of.

Having just caught up on the EVOLUTION WHITE program, I made haste to insure I didn't fall similarly behind on the reds and opened another bottle of the 2001 Confuron-Cotetidot Vosne-Romanée.

This wine just keeps getting better and better.

All of a sudden, I'm looking forward to continuing this experiment. The second bottle in the series felt like the wine was on a downhill slope. But maybe that bottle was off? You'd never know from the current bottle that there was every any doubt about the pure beauty of the fruit.

For those of you just tuning in, we began a long duration experiment at the Lab more than two years ago. Our objective: To watch a wine evolve at regular intervals over a 6 year span. One bottle every six months until we've finished the case. We're up to bottle #4 on the reds (you can revisit the reports for 3, 2, and 1 here, here and here.).

The cherry fruit leapt from the bottle. Bright, fresh fruit was apparent on the nose as soon as I pulled the cork, with aromas of earth, stems and spice swirling underneath. The tannins are still a little sharp, but the wine has gained heft and density. The fleshy (by contrast to prior bottles) fruit was immediately approachable, even if the wine did continue to improve with air.

I will definitely not be late on the next one.