Not decanted. Really earthy aroma upon opening, which dissipated after about an hour to reveal black cherry. Dark ruby colour. Full bodied and very silky with firm tannins.

24 hours later this had really opened up with aromas of black cherry and vanilla. Great terroir driven wine with a good long finish. 91 points and at CDN$21 I'm going back to get some more.

[This message was edited by steve8 on Mar 08, 2004 at 11:30 AM.]

Nice notes, have had a decent amount of Santa Duc 2000 CdR's both domaine & sourced (Santa Duc Selections) and it sounds like 2001 is shaping up nicely as well with maybe a bit more structure. It'll be good to get these to get through the disaster of 2002 Rhones, and I'm wondering what the heat wave of 2003 will produce. Not to mention that with the exchange rate, the prices for the later vintages will be on the upswing, so if you're used to $10USD for a Rhone over the last few years it'll be $14 or so for uncertain quality.

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