Tasting Notes
Vinous 88-90
(83% merlot, 17% cabernet franc; 3.6 pH, 4.85 total acidity, 12.7% alcohol): Bright ruby-red. Lovely perfumed red berries, minerals and violet on the nose. Then slightly austere on the palate, with mineral-tinged red berry flavors lifted by lively acidity but tough tannins emerging at the back. I like this wine’s pure delivery of fruit, but it is considerably leaner and tighter than usual. Les Asteries is always the most European-styled of Jonathan Maltus’s wines and usually one of my favorites in his lineup, but not this year, as some of the other wines have a little more fruit in 2013. Also, my experience is that Les Asteries doesn’t change much over the years (unlike Le Dome, for example), or does so at a snail’s pace, so with this specific wine, it’s tempting to say that what you see at the Primeurs is what you’ll get with bottle age.
