Oratoire Saint Martin Reserve des Seigneurs Cairanne, 2008

This wine was available for about $15, about 25% below its usual retail price, presumably because of the relative weakness of the 2008 vintage. After trying my first bottle about a year ago, I was a bit dubious about my purchase, but this bottle is showing beautifully. While the 2008 vintage may not age as well as some Cairannes from this estate, it is a very fine wine for drinking now and over the next year or two.

Deep, dark ruby./ Very peppery and spicy--delightful. Dark berries and Cairanne cherries as well. At a beautiful stage of maturity for my taste./ Ripe blueberry fruit on the mid-palate and then a gush of peppery spice on the finish. The quality of the vineyards shows in the intricate twists and turns in the long after taste. Glad I bought a few bottles, even in an off vintage. One puzzling thing is the unusual amount of sediment left in the bottle--much more crust than in the bottles of the 1998 I've been enjoying recently.