2021 Verité ‘Le Desir’ Meritage Sonoma County

TWI98 The 2021 Le Desir is made from 87% Cabernet Franc, 11% Merlot, and 2% Malbec. Deep garnet-purple colored, it’s quite shy to start off and even more closed than its siblings (La Muse and La Joie), needing a lot of swirling to bring out notes of fresh black and red cherries, juicy blueberries, and black raspberries, leading with touches of iris, tilled loam, aniseed, and garrigue. The medium to full-bodied palate is tight-knit and intense with spine-tingling tension, delivering subtle floral, mineral, and earth-inspired sparks, finishing long with a perfumed firework display.

JD97-99 Tasted as a tank sample and made from 87% Cabernet Franc, 11% Merlot, and a splash of Malbec, the 2021 Le Desir is highly aromatic at this stage and opens to wild and savory aromas of black and blue fruit, with a mineral-tinged lift. Gripping in structure, it’s long on the palate with savory richness and the feel of a rugged landscape. Massive structured, while having reined in alcohol levels, this is going to be another one to lay down for some time.