I purchased this recently from K&L based solely on a comment from Grunhauser in another thread. I've got a lot of respect for Grun's palate, so I figured at $13.99 this was at the very least a "must try" wine.

Very dark, opaque purple in color, the first thing that strikes me about this wine is the distinctive aromas on the nose. It's not a huge, but it is still quite intense, with heavy notes of minerals, crushed rocks, and earth complementing a wealth of blackberries and briary notes along with highly floral notes of violets. Don't mistake the fruit comments however to indicate this resembles a Zin - nothing could be further from the truth. I must say, this has one of the most interesting and complex noses of any $14 bottle of wine I have ever purchased. On the palate this is (duh) quite tannic, but well balanced, with serious grip and good acidity. The only disappointment here is that the wine finishes quite short, but hopefully that will improve as the tannins integrate a bit more and then wine fleshs out a bit. Overall a very interesting wine, and a fine value. For those that must have points, I'd say about 90 points, with potential for improvement with 3-5 years of bottle age.

Thanks for the note Eric and thanks to D- for passing it along. Sounds like a great QPR.

More generous with the points than I would have been, but a terrific QPR and quite enjoyable young. I hadn't considered its aging potential or buying more, but I love these cheap '03s young. They're the perfect thing for enjoying by yourself over the course of three days. If you liked that, Eric, try the Cambon la Pelouse - Haut-Medoc. I got them on futures from K&L @$14.99. In my opinion, it's a bona fida 90+ point wine - especially on day two.

Thanks for the tip RedMeat, I'll check it out. The thing that drove this wine up to the 90ish range for me is the nose, which is really expressive and interesting.

You give me too much credit Eric. Good call on short finish. One of the bottles I had was also very hot.