03 Trio Infernal, Priorat 2/3

It's a wine that teaches you patience. And, if you're one who has no time for such things, the Trio's high-end (overpriced) wine will serve you just as well. Which is to say that, in the first hour, it's an oaky mess--saturated with Australian flavors of fudge, kirsch, and ruby Port. But the dichotomy between what's there and what will be there justifies its price tag. For the first time, an empty glass smells better than a full one. Because, while the full one expresses all the dense, brambly blueberry fruit you'd expect from something like a hot California syrah, the empty glass smells of violets, earth, mint, garrigue, thick-skinned red grapes, and lust. It's this complexity--that the wine could somehow be better once it's gone--that sets it apart from the Trio's lame "1/3". No, instead of simple table-wine-like fruit, the dominant 90-year-old carinena grape (aged 18 months in new French barrels) evolves into something much more floral--the sweet garden aromatics coating the tongue like the mist of a woman's perfume. Not just a beautiful woman, but one who know she's beautiful and walks right past you.