2010 | Verite | Le Désir

Already impressive with a beautiful, intense color, this wine has an aromatic presence with notes of licorice and black fruit. An opulent palate is revealed through flavors of nutmeg and anise, and aweighty, yet silky, texture. This is a harmonious wine with a long finish supported by tannins and a mineral backbone.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: A blend of 50% Cabernet Franc, 40% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon that came in at 14.1% alcohol, the 2010 Le Desir is soft and rich. As Pierre Seillan said, the huge heat wave at the end of September seems to have made the 2010 Verite wines more approachable and front end-loaded than usual. This effort displays lots of black currant and black cherry fruit along with hints of asphalt, incense and licorice. The tannins are ripe and well-integrated, and the wine is round, full-bodied and generous.

• Vinous: Mocha, bittersweet chocolate, tobacco, menthol and savory herbs meld together in the 2010 Le Desir. Like all of the 2010s here, the Desir is going to need time to unwind and fully come together. There is wonderful definition in the flavors, along with vibrant structure and plenty of intensity. Savory herb and tobacco are some of the notes that inform the powerful finish. Like all of the 2010s, the fruit is a bit suppressed by the wine's imposing structure today. There is no shortage of personality, though. All the 2010 needs is time.

Producer Information

Vérité Winery is a wine producer based in Sonoma County in California. It is most famous for its three Bordeaux-styled blends: La Muse, La Joie, and Le Désir, which have all received 100-point scores from American wine critic Robert Parker over several vintages. Winemaker Pierre Seillan got his start working with Bordeaux varieties at his family's estate in Armagnac. Before moving to the United States, he worked at Château de Targé in Saumur-Champigny in the Loire Valley, and at several châteaux in Bordeaux. Upon meeting California wine pioneer Jess Jackson in the 1990s, Seillan was convinced to move to Sonoma to make Bordeaux blend wines. Vérité sources fruit from the Alexander Valley, Bennett Valley, Knights Valley and Chalk Hill AVAs in Sonoma County. This range of sites provides more than 40 different types of soil, a range of altitudes and several different mesoclimates. Each vineyard block is vinified separately before a final blend for each wine is created. In a slight departure from the standard approach, Seillan made a 100 percent Tannat from Alexander Mountain Estate (which sits on the western Mayacamas Mountains overlooking the Alexander Valley) in 2010, although it appears this wine was a one-off. The three Vérité blends are dominated by a different Bordeaux variety. La Muse is Merlot-based, La Joie is Cabernet Sauvignon-based, and Le Désir is primarily Cabernet Franc. Due to the wines' success with the press, they are only available through a mailing list. The wines are still made by Seillan, although he is now joined by his daughter, Hélène, who has taken over assistant winemaker duties. Jess Jackson died in 2011.

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