L'Esprit de Font Caude Montpeyroux 2000 is tonight's tipple. It's one of those wines that really would have been better a couple of years ago. It's a serious, new wave Languedoc, which in its youth had plenty of impact - lots of sweet spicy red and black fruit. Now the fruit has faded and receded, a bit like a 35 year old bloke who's beginning to lose his hair. What's left is some meaty-edged sweet fruit, showing alcoholic heat together with an earthy minerality. It's an adequate drink, but it spent all its energy looking flashy in its youth, and now middle age approaches the cracks are beginning to show. Is this decline a result of the vintage, or the winemaking style. Dunno. Still, credit to Alain Chabanon for sourcing a near-perfect looking cork.