Blind tasting lunch notes:
2002 Jean Marc Brocard Chablis 1re Cru Montmains – fairly sweet tropical fruit in the nose made this a challenging one to guess, but we made our way to Chablis. Clean and pure on palate – very nice.
2003 Ch. Smith Haut Lafite – from a less than stellar vintage for white Bordeaux, a very decent wine. The colour had hints of green and it had great legs. There was a nice touch (but no more) of oak in the nose, young and with good balance. Should develop well.
2001 Tardieu Laurent Cote Rotie – a well known producer but a dud of a wine. Attractive enough on the nose, with tar and berries, the wine fell flat, or rather sharp, at the end with excessive terminal acidity. Poor show!
1997 Ch. St. Cosme Gigondas – this was the Classique and it drinks very well now. Plum and leather nose with good fruit on palate, good balance and decent length. No rush but I’d say this has now hit plateau.
2005 Dom. de Garrou Richesse – a Bergerac red made primarily from merlot, from a small producer near Saussignac in the Dordogne – a bottle we had tasted at the winery in April. Fairly dark, with very nice fruit in the nose, sweet entry in the mouth with some tannin but ready to drink and it will hold a few years yet. One of the bargains of the region at half the price of the equivalent wine made in Bordeaux.
1986 Ch. Gressier Grand Poujeaux – an obvious Bordeaux with maturity evidenced in the complexity of the nose, but not as much in the colour nor the evident tannins. Quite dry finish and good fruit. This wine is hitting plateau now and will continue to drink well for years. Nice showing. Glad to see I have a half case stashed away.
1989 Cos d’Estournel – slight tar in this nose, medium body and good fruit. Round but with significant tannins. Don’t think this will get much better despite the tannin.
1996 Hacienda Monasterio Crianza – bit of a switch in idiom to this Ribera del Duero, made from Tempranillo, cabernet and merlot. A toasty nose, but not intrusive oak, pretty dark in colour, another sweet entry and then smooth on palate, ending fairly soft in terms of acidity and tannin. Another one hitting prime drinking time.
1988 Ch. La Lagune – I was pleased to taste this as I have a half dozen I’ve been wondering about – early reviews posited that they were short on fruit and long on tannins. Well things haven’t turned out badly. Light in colour, nice mature Bordeaux nse, balanced and elegant, smooth and round and that early hardish tannins seems to have melted away leaving wine that is a pleasure to drink.
1990 Ch. Montrose – what an interesting wine! Funky almost Rhonish nose, that gave way later to some fascinating leather and smoke aromas, as well as a distinct earthiness. Now pretty well mature (out of this cellar, anyway) it was a mellow very smooth wine that showed excellent concentration and layers of fascinating flavours. It had exceptional length. Wine of the month for me!
2001 Ch. Monbazillac - Monbazillac does not begin and end with Tirecul, though readers of many wine columns would be forgive for thinking that. This eponymous chateau (it is run by a co-op and has a nice old chateau on the property) makes a very presentable wine that had a honey and coconut nose medium colour with slight heat in the nose, and good length. Long life ahead. And at a fraction of the price of a Sauternes of equivalent quality!
All in all a pretty damned fine lunch.