2007 Wistaria Red Label (or Red Mark or Hongyin)

When ordering a box of goodies from Wistaria, I've been gifted a pouch of 2007 Red Label as well - thanks a lot! In my tester sessions, the tea did not come up as impressive, but when done "normally" (6-8g in a teapot), it was actually very good - here it goes:

The leaves were actually a bit more wholesome; a) I got only a sample, b) this is the very last of it, both of which leads to increased occurrence of leaf fractures.

Right after rinsing, the leaves tell you "this is going to be good". The "Wistaria scent" is actually quite faint and the aroma is nicely sweet, strong and spicy (maybe mushrooms as well...).

The tea is quite rich in saponins, as you can see below:

And the liquor has the color of amber. Its clarity is also not too far from that. Simply put - it looks very nice.

The liquor not only looks pretty, but smells pretty as well! I smell honey, overripe fruit, some clay after rain - very pleasant and harmonic.

Good things happening in the nose get even better in mouth. One thing I could not help thinking was, how coherent this tea was - it has got a single powerful and wide character (if I were a taste-synesthesiac, I'd have called it "brown"). It shares some features (roundness, majestic-ness) with much more aged teas. I'd say the taste spectrum consists of sweet clays, overripe fruit, exotic wood and honey, the clay being strongest in the first steeping, then gradually giving way to the rest. It all works very well together. The Red Label feels quite "sunny", in a way, just darker via aging... The overall pleasantness is accented by a lack of any significant bitterness and astringency.

The aftertaste is long and very nice (I did not find it unlike to 7542 actually).

While I did not feel any particular activity in mouth, I felt a good deal of "qi" in the tea. Drinking it was a most soothing and "to-world-connecting" experience. 

Overall, I really like this Red Label - it is very positive, deep, sweet, harmonic and all that. In a tester, I actually preferred the Blue Mark (which is quite a bit cheaper as well), but after having them in a "full session", I quite prefer the red one... 

It probably isn't cheap now (I guess it could be between $140 and $170), but that's life I'm afraid. Its qualities are undoubtable nevertheless.