By Gareth Groves
We have tasted some superb wines today – but also less than stellar numbers. After a near perfect hit rate amongst the big guns of the left bank yesterday, we have found a bit more inconsistency in St Emilion and Pomerol. The highs on the right bank are still very high indeed, but further down the scale you have to hunt a bit harder.
It certainly isn’t the case that this is purely a Cabernet vintage – there are some fantastic Merlot based wines this year – but if we were to draw up a list of the top 20 wines at the end of the week, I suspect well over half would come from the Medoc.
Merlot Vines
So what was good today? In Pomerol, La Conseillante shone both at the UGC tasting and also when we visited the Chateau. VCC and Le Pin were equally impressive, although I liked the latter more than some. Don’t ask Camilla what she thought of it. Whilst we were bowing down at the altar of the world’s most expensive wine, she and Iain were driving endlessly round the back roads of Pomerol desperately to trying to find us. They never did. Back to the wines: Gazin, Petit Village and L’Evangile get honourable mentions in dispatches.
SE road signs
In St Emilion it was the big names that really stood out. Cheval Blanc was incredibly impressive – a tightly coiled spring that will unfurl slowly over the next two decades, it is blessed with wonderful purity of fruit and sublime tannins. Its near neighbour Figeac isn’t too far behind, although very different in style. Figeac is dominated by the Cabernets this year, with equal parts of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. By contrast, Cheval Blanc is dominated by Merlot for the first time ever.
Figeac’s Cabernet-centric approach helped it to stand out from the crowd at the St Emilion UGC. It had a freshness and lift that some of the Merlot based wines lacked, a savoury element rather than sweet, jammy fruit. Too many wines in the room tasted like they have been made with one particular man in mind. I wonder if they will get the scores they seem to want so badly.
The surprise of the day was Monbousquet. I had joked earlier in the day that we wouldn’t need to taste it to write a note, it would be a caricature of garagiste St Emilion. It wasn’t at all. It has a lightness and deftness of touch that left me pairing it with humble pie. It is still modern, glossy and slick, but it is far from exaggerated or excessive. Chapeau, M. Perse!
What was not so good about today? The weather. Yesterday was like mid-summer in Bordeaux, today the wind howled and the heavens opened. The red carpet laid out for us at Gazin was soon a windswept, rain soaked rag. No more than we deserve, you might think. Inside the tasting rooms too many right bank wines were pushy and extracted with dry austere tannins framing overly sweet fruit. A few others seemed to disappear into a black abyss on the mid-palate – all very impressive but not much fun to drink.
Chateau Gazin 99
Of course, the right bank is not all about the big names from St Emilion and Pomerol. The minor appellations often have some great value wines. Jancis Robinson has already tweeted about the quality she has found in Fronsac and we made good discoveries from there too, as well as Lalande de Pomerol, Cotes de Castillon and the Cotes de Francs. Many of the best bang per buck wines from 2009 may turn out to be from the Medoc but by no means all. Merlot fans will get a piece of the action too.
Finally a quick word about d’Yquem. It is sensational. Utterly magical. As Pierre Lurton says, it makes a mockery of scoring wines. The 2001 d’Yquem was awarded a perfect 100 points by both Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator. This wine is better. Much better. Pierre, slightly tongue in cheek, compares it to the 1893. It is ethereal.
Tuesday’s Top 5 Big Wines (alphabetical order)
Cheval Blanc
La Conseillante
Figeac
Vieux Chateau Certan
d’Yquem
Tuesday’s Top 5 Bang per Buck Wines (alphabetical order)
Clos de Clocher
Dauphine
Feytit Clinet
La Prade
Siaurac
Tags: Bordeaux, bordeaux 2009, Bordeaux En Primeur, En Primeur