Finca La Planeta 2004
Cellar Pasanau
Red Proprietary Blend
This is a wine it pays to have some insight before buying or drinking. 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Old Vine Garnacha. Not everything is what it seems with this wine, good and bad.
Pop and Pour: Before I even get started, DO NOT POP AND POUR THIS WINE! Back to our regularly scheduled program. Almost striking in the glass, beautiful hues of red and crimson. The nose has some cherry, but it is more of a cherry medicine maybe even cough medicine. On the palate there is nice red fruit and quite a bit of spice. The medicine keeps showing its ugly face though. Definitely tight on the start, but there seems to be something magical (nothing is what it seems with this wine). Cinnamon and cherry are the major components here. There is a little acid on the mid or middle palate, but the tannins are very very big on the finish. This could have a tremendous upside, if everything develops to its potential. The finish is also very very long.
Fast Forward: 1 hour still cherry medicine on the nose. The cherry and cinnamon are the stars of this show. There is a very nice depth to this wine that one cannot deny. Definitely a HUGE wine and not for the faint of heart. 4 hours later, this wine is moving and showing some promise, but there are tones that just keep this wine from being brilliant in the short-term. The medicine has moved a touch, but still has a little presence. The cherry is great and the acid has a nice co-starring role, The good news is that this wine’s focus is on fruit and not the wood it was aged in. This is an intellectual drink and requires more word than most people are accustomed to.
Overall: This is where a dialogue will help most people in deciding if this wine should have a place in their cellar or dinner table. There are some very high points out there that would cause most people to go out and buy and probably celebrate their hunt. However, there is more to this picture than just points. It is a difficult wine that requires some serious decanting and/or cellar time. It is my opinion that this wine doesn’t even know who it is, let alone most wine goers. If I were to grade on potential, easily an ABOVE AVERAGE wine, however it will be a gamble. There are still a lot of components that need to figure out how to get along in order for this wine to really become a star. If you are a patient and/or intellectual wine person, than this wine MAY be for you. If you are looking to have your socks knocked off, you will but it will be from confusion. Buyer beware. I am not a patient person most of the time, and this is a wine that I see as average with a Barry Bonds asterisk. If you still do not heed my words, for my palate this is easily a 12 hour decant or 5-7 years before even thinking about drinking this wine (probably with food). AVERAGE