For Mother's Day I roasted a leg of lamb on the spit and opened a
bottle of my wife's favorite Bordeaux, 1989 Chateau Tertre Roteboeuf.
We've visted Tertre Roteboeuf a number of times over the years and
have gotten a number of explanations of the name but on our last visit
a French gentleman at the winery explained that a "rotebouef" was a
French term for "oxen" or "ox" so I'm sticking with that! The wine
was a bit cloudy and brickish in the decanter. I decanted it for two
hours before dinner.Initial aroma of cedar was quickly overtaken with
a raisiny almost honeyed note. The nose continued to evolve to the
last drop with a firm undertone of red dirt minerality. Medium bodied
on the palate with a fairly upfront acidic componet which was well
balanced by the very ripe fruit core. More red fruits than black
fruits, plum, cedar, leather, raisins and exotic spices were all
coming and going as we drank the bottle. Fairly resolved tannins on a
long smotth finish. A terrific example of what Merlot can be. Drink
up. "A"