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Raymond Usseglio's "Part des Anges" 2007 - Part 2

The wine has been opened. The colour is a deep cherry red, very bright. There is more sediment than I expected but since that is (generally) no bad thing and I have a suitable funnel with a mesh to catch it, I have poured the wine into the jug to let it open up over the next several hours. At this stage the nose is more profound than I recall it being a couple of months ago - black fruit and earth dominating - but it is early so I'm going to (try to) resist temptation for a little while at least!

7pm - giving myself a pat on the back for waiting so long. One sip reveals so much about this wine: it is packed with potential. The fruit is concentrated but not too big or sweet - there is much to be gained from ten years in the bottle. There is some oak which glosses over things; I would like to see this fade away a little which, of course, it will. This will let the fruit sing out a little more on its own. But the main thing that stands out about this wine for me at this time is its texture. People sometimes refer to a wine having a texture of liquid velvet and this wine reveals why. It has body, not too heavy though but it's not just about glycerin (think Australian wine in particular but a lot of CDP too); there's something else here, something more real, more substantial. Maybe the clue is on those fine tannins that I filtered out earlier. The wine was clear after this but there was a slight "creamed potato" quality to the texture which, to me at least, rendered it as near to perfection as possible. I will be looking out for this a lot more.

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