The label may be crumpled (due to condensation in our wine fridge) but its content is as pristine as can be thanks to the synthetic cork used. Ironic really, given how seriously natural Hirotake Ooka is with everything else.
Our last bottle of his natural 2008 Cuvée "G", named after the grape variety used in the wine - Grenache. For a wine that is more than a decade old, its colour had just started to show shades of garnet in its somewhat bright ruby core. Unfortunately by the time we got to the third or fourth pour, the really fine sediment in the wine had turned it slightly cloudy with all the clumsy movements, thanks to MT's laziness to decant the wine on a school night.
The wine was quite funky on the nose with a touch of VA, but its strong bundle of floral red fruit, macerated plums & raspberry nose cannot be denied, and with some air, dried roses, and hints of cherry wood smoke emerged too. The tannins were grippy, chewy and textural with flavours of tart berries, 冰糖葫芦 (tanghulu) and aged mandarin peel. Fairly high in acid with a med+ finish. A wine that needs some red meats to shine in our humble opinion, but we were equally happy with copious amounts of pork and duck rillette served on warm toasty crostinis!
