Bordeaux 2009 Cos d'Estornel
You will probably have gathered by now that Bordeaux made some good wines last year. Some very good wines indeed. Today was our first day of proper tasting and after 60 or so wines we have tasted only a handful of duffers. The general quality is excellent. At the top level it is outstanding – some amazing wines have been made – lower down it is more variable but there are more hits than misses. You won’t have to spend a fortune to drink good 2009s.
We have been in the Medoc today and tasted across all four of the main communes. In St Julien Leovilles Barton and Las Cases looked excellent, and St Pierre was a candidate for value wine of the day. Both Pichons have done very well in Pauillac (we think Baron shaded it over Lalande) and in Margaux, Chateaux Palmer and Margaux are both exceptional.
Bordeaux 2009 Dan, Ben and Amy
However, our vote for commune of the day – for both general consistency and best wine – goes to St Estephe. Led, of course, by the twin giants of Montrose and Cos d’Estournel, St Estephe has impressed no end today. Usually the wines are taciturn and austere in en primeur week, not this year. Even lesser chateaux like Meyney, Haut Beausejour and Tronquoy Lalande have excelled.
Cos and Montrose make for a fascinating comparison – especially since the former’s multi-million Euro overhaul in recent years. Visiting Cos is now unlike visiting any other Bordeaux chateau. Rather than a stately home with great house wine, it is a futuristic film set – a chrome cathedral to impress the world’s billionaires. The experience is eerily slick. Ben captured it perfectly in his notebook: “Cos is a blast. A movie set replete with impeccably groomed staff in monogrammed Nehru jackets gliding around pouring wine and dispensing posh pencils, pads and paraphernalia to weigh down the pockets of impoverished wine trade people. They make film star wine too – but is it real wine?”
Bordeaux 2009 Cos Cellar
Ben’s question is an apt one. Cos 2009 is an incredibly impressive wine but it has a gloss, sheen and modernity that seems designed to match its surroundings. It seems somehow divorced from the vines, river and earth around the property. It is too polished, suave and well mannered to be a purely agricultural product.
Montrose, on the other hand, seems more natural and unforced whilst being every bit as good. The wine is incredibly concentrated (98 IPT for those of you with a technical bent) despite the absence of any press wine, but whilst Cos has had every crease ironed out and corner smoothed, Montrose has some of St Estephe’s tell tale salinity and spice. Both wines are dark, intense and ripe but Montrose has an element of freshness and conformity that gives it the edge for me. It is classic Montrose – only perhaps better than perhaps ever before.
The freshness we found in Montrose is also evident in many of the other wines we tasted today. Last summer was not a blockbuster in Bordeaux like 2003. There was no heatwave to endanger the acidity levels or to cook the fruit. August brought warm days but cool nights, and this helped limit alcohol levels in the final wines. The 14.5% plus beasts we had been warned to expect have not materialised. Most of the top left bank wines fall between 13 and 14%, partly due to some sensible blending. The Merlots on the right bank may have a different story to tell tomorrow, but for now we are delighted to report that the Medoc wines of 2009 taste like Bordeaux and not like those of Napa or Coonawarra.
Finally, a word about the dry whites. No one ever cares about the dry whites in a big vintage like 2009 but I am writing this from an attic room at Chateau La Louviere in Pessac Leognan having had a fabulous dinner with the Prince of Pessac himself, Andre Lurton. If you appreciate freshness, zest, minerality and fruit in a white wine then don’t overlook the Graves this year. Couhins Lurton is particularly good.
Monday’s Top 5 Big Wines (alphabetical order)
Ducru Beaucaillou
Leoville Las Cases
Margaux
Montrose
Palmer
Monday’s Top 5 Bang per Buck Wines (alphabetical order)
Bernadotte
Dauzac
Demoiselles de Sociando Mallet
Tronquoy Lalande
St Pierre
Tags: Bordeaux, bordeaux 2009, En Primeur