91/100
A hint of coconut and lanolin (from a new demi-muid incorporated into the blend) mingles with smoke-tinged black cherry in the nose of Hecht & Bannier’s 2006 Faugeres. With an impressive sense of grip and sheer density, yet of fine-grained tannins, too, this offers an invigorating combination of fruit skin and rhubarb-like (vintage typical) tartness and tactile crushed stone, as well as deep, bitter-sweet dark chocolate. I suspect this will respond impressively to a half dozen or more years in one’s cellar. US$35