I'm supposed to only taste wine during the day but...

...but sometimes a wine comes along that you open in the morning and keep coming back to 'check on' and suddenly find that come tea-time (tea in the northern sense of the word, being the evening meal, served at any time from 4-7pm) there's not as much left in the bottle as you'd expected. Today, it was the turn of Domaine de La Ville Rouge Crozes Hermitage ‘Terre d’Eclat’ 2006 (£13.50 Smart Wines)



It's the debut vintage for this northern Rhône domaine, and importer Patrick Rosin, who has a big hand in the wine affairs of Antony Worrall Thompson, was alerted to the producer by Crozes-maestro Alain Graillot. Think fragrant Syrah, with bags of forest fruit, hints of citrus and cocoa and a refreshing, almost graphite-like finish - and it's getting better by the minute, as the roasted reduced edge (thanks for this Jamie) gives way to fruit purity. 'Tea' was going to be a salad, but I may have to change the menu...