2016 Tesseron "Pym-Rae" Mount Veeder Bordeaux Blend

The 2016 Pym-Rae continues to show well, with a rich, meaty, powerful style as well as loads of chocolaty black fruits, tobacco, black olive tapenade, and leather-like aromas and flavors. It's beautiful on the palate, with massive concentration and depth as well as terrific balance. This gorgeous, deep, opulent beauty is going to benefit from another 4-6 years of bottle age and live for 3-4 decades. (JD)

I tasted this wine with Alfred Tesseron immediately following the 100 point 2016 Pontet-Canet...not an easy act to follow...but the wine stood up in quality and showed a unique and distinctive Mount Veeder derived sense of place. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised that the wine had such a different personality than its Bordelais counterpart. Clearly Tesseron has brought the same exacting attention to detail to his new estate but the wine's aromas, flavors and textures are entirely its own. High-toned black and red fruit, bay laurel, cedar, mint and rose water. Savory notes of crushed volcanic rock and dry tobacco leaf. Rich and ripe on the palate but with plenty of freshness and long, refined tannin; the wine has considerable structure but is not aggressive of astringent. I'm excited to see where this estate goes in coming years, but this is quite the debut!