A staple in Ukiki’s lucky bags—this bottle was included in both of the sets I bought this year. I’d previously had two bottles from earlier purchases (including last year’s bags), and unfortunately, neither left a good impression.
The style aims for a modern Bordeaux profile, but the alcohol is simply too high (over 15%), leaving a burning sensation on the palate. On top of that, perhaps due to clay-rich soils, the finish comes across as prickly and somewhat coarse.
So I wasn’t exactly thrilled knowing I still had two more bottles sitting in the cellar. But as the saying goes, you never know until you open it—and this one turned out (for some reason) to be a winner.
If the previous two bottles had been like this, I wouldn’t have judged it so harshly. Was it a matter of timing, bottle variation, or simply storage conditions? Hard to say.
There’s now just one bottle left in the cellar. When to open it—that’s the question. If this latest showing is anything to go by, it could still benefit from another five years of aging. Then again, whether I’ll still be in good enough shape to enjoy it by then—that might be the bigger uncertainty.