From Louis Bernard, the Domaine La Rocaliere is from the appelation Lirac in Southern Rhone – a relatively unknown district when compare to big brother Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The main grapes employed for blending in this region include (GSMCC) Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Cinsault and Carignan. The appellation Lirac was actually created back in 1947. The wine is already showing bricky red colour at this stage. Stewed red/black fruits, dry prune, scortched earth, tar and dry Longan-berry (Chinese: Dragon Eye) are delected upon nosing. More stewy and tarry fruits, French onion soup, dark soya sauce, beef broth hit the mid palate coupling with fine but sandy tannin. The finish is relatively short but leaves a sweetish spiciness and a coarse mouth feel (due to tannin). There was a real hype about the wine about 5 or 6 years ago as WS rated it 94 points with the following tasting comments: “Fabulous. Rich and dense, a thick red with terrific midpalate concentration; there is a lot of substance here. Clean, pure fruit flavors-full-bodied, it shows superb focus from start to finish. Massive tannins are silky on the midpalate but toughen on the finish. Not imported into the US Best from 2005 through 2020.” Ahem! Give me a break! I strongly disagree with WS as the wine is neither that rich nor dense nor thick nor full body nor ageble to 2020 but it does have plenty of tannin to offer even now. Drink it now in case fruits drop and it becomes inbalance. (87-89 points) Tasted by Michael …

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