WTN: Bordeaux Blind Tasting 1966 - 2003 Offline

Bordeaux notes from a blind tasting.

Clos du Ch. de Mosny Montlouis – I figured I’d give them something to think about – no getting away with the usually Champagne guess on this one. Mousse not abundant, died more quickly than you’d like, but the nose showed excellent sweet fruit and it was fairly full bodied and despite the seeming sweetness, fairly dry and well balanced. A pleasant alternative to Champers – works beautifully in the summer, and is well priced.

2003 Ch. Baret (Graves) – oak and citrus in the nose, smooth and quite soft, ending dry and a bit short. OK white but no better.

1966 Belair – DOA but worth a shot as you never know. A miss.

1966 Pichon Baron – here is a wine that anyone reading available reviews would probably shy away from, but I am pleased to advise that reports of its demise were definitely premature in the case of this bottle. It showed medium dark colour, big fruit in the nose, excellent favour intensity and still had a bit of tannin. Good length. A hit!

1975 Boyd Cantenac – the ugly sister of the Cantenac clan, this showed not at all as most 1975s do, in that it has softened enough to have shed obvious clues about its vintage. Somewhat funky nose, good colour, mellow and soft with good acidity, it drank above its pay grade.

1982 La Louviere – this Graves was dark, had a hint of sweet mint in the nose, and a brown sugar thing happening, showed a sweet entry and soft tannin on palate.

1998 Monbousquet – a St. Emilion that showed a cocoa and plum nose, still had fairly firm tannins and was very tasty indeed.

2000 Pavillon Rouge de Margaux – fairly tannic, this wine showed some nice spice and blackcurrant in the nose and decent fruit. Drinks well now.

1999 Leoville Barton – pleasant middle weight nose, slightly low on fruit in the mouth and showing high acidity, this one was fairly closed – no idea where this will go and when.

2003 Coutet – I was very impressed with this Barsac – great nose of grapefruit and botrytis, bright and clean despite high levels of RS. Should have a long life.

2003 Myrat – sweet pear in the nose, but a tad dull on palate, seemingly much sweeter, but that may have just been inferior balance. Nice, but heavier and not as light on its ‘feet’

Sounds like an interesting mix!
We had a lot of discussion at our recent dinner/tasting about the authenticity of older wines, particularly of a wine showing fruit at 50 years of age. You have consumed quite a few older vintages over the years, what are your thoughts?

I've seen excellent fruit in very old wines, and don't suspect any chicanery. The wines that seem to get played about with are the ones that bring big money, so if I tasted an old Mouton that seemed like it was made a decade ago, I might start to wonder. I doubt anyone would bother 'topping up' a more modest wine.

Some great wines on show on the night - thanks to all!

Clos du Ch. de Mosny Montlouis – nice fruit on nose and palate. Not much yeastiness or mousse, but nice apple and pear fruit on a strong. Good fruit intensity, just wished for a bit more effervesence. But great QPR here. My partner loves the bubbles, and I'm always looking for QPR sparkling (B+).

2003 Ch. Baret (Graves) – Kindly offered by the host. Quite oaky on the nose (not much fruit) and almost as oaky on the palate. Some citrus and caramel notes (B-).

1966 Belair – Dead - a pity!

1966 Pichon Baron – absolutley gorgeous nose of classic cigar box, pencil, and blackberry. Less youthful on the palate, with similar flavours but slightly drying on the finish. Drink soon, I think. A+ nose, A- palate (A-).

1975 Boyd Cantenac – another killer nose, more age on display here, slight funk, violets on the nose, with a perfumed palate as well and great balance (A) Really liked this.

1982 La Louviere – sweet nose, with brown sugar and minerals on the nose, rich flavours on the black and red fruited palate (A-/A).

1998 Monbousquet – cedar, perfumed nose, oak still on palate, but nice blackfruit too. Slight green notes on the palate. Great in 10 years! (A-).

2000 Pavillon Rouge de Margaux – perfumed nose, big ripe palate and slightly 'modern' (B+).

1999 Leoville Barton – funk on nose, blackcurrent, very cab in profile, still tight, nice promise (B+/A-).

2003 Coutet – didn't take notes, but this was a great Barsac with great tropical fruit and good acidity for a 2003. This is a keeper, and I'll wait to open my other bottle for a while (A-/A).

2003 Myrat – More viscous, ripe and sweet that the Coutet. Tasty, but unbalanced - I'll drink this up soon (B+).

[Jenise]

[quote="Bill Spohn"]

Clos du Ch. de Mosny Montlouis – toasty with good citrussy fruit and no sweetness whatsoever, very tasty but I'd mark it down for having absolutely no mousse. Wouldn't age this one, though some bubbly chenins are almost immortal.

2003 Ch. Baret (Graves) – Semillon intensive, with a bit of lanolin and caramel in the nose. Very soft acids lead us to guess the vintage, and that's quickly confirmed. Not great, but a nice pairing with the oyster dumplings, though.

1966 Belair – What you said.

1966 Pichon Baron – As I said that night, this is my third experience with the 66 Baron in the last three years, and one of those other bottles was even better but this was, for my nickel, plenty good enough.

1975 Boyd Cantenac – "it drank above its pay grade". So you expected it to be a stinker? Then why'd you bring it?

1982 La Louviere – sweet brown sugar nose, and sweet on the palate too but I found it a bit simple and lacking acidity compared to the wines that came before it. It's best days are behind it.

1998 Monbousquet – Much as I purport to like old wine this one's youthful pizazz really made a case against waiting. The merlot was very much in evidence with the whiff of cherrie bon bons amidst the plums and cab franc spice. A great wine.

2000 Pavillon Rouge de Margaux – what you said.

1999 Leoville Barton – I liked this one better than you did. For my tastes, this pretty much settled the doubts I had from the last bottle of this I opened (and couldn't tell whether it was heading up or down). I found it drinkable enough now and on its way up, though it would have benefitted more from being served with the food instead of after it, as was the case.

2003 Coutet and the 2003 Myrat You described both well. I do think, though, that the Myrat was not sweeter so much as it had less acid which made it seem so. Still, I thought it pleasant--never had even heard of Myrat before Monday night.

1975 Boyd Cantenac – "it drank above its pay grade". So you expected it to be a stinker? Then why'd you bring it?

You misunderstand. I knew what the wine would be as I've had a couple of bottles before. The Boyd gets very little attention compared to the other higher profile Cantenac, Brane.....wait a minute - Boyd Brane....naw, too easy. ) There is also Cantenac Brown which is pretty forgettable).

Anyway, the Boyd doesn't bring big bucks, but in this case it has proven to be one of the good (i.e. retaining enough fruit while shedding tannin so as to make it a nice drinker) 1975s.

I was pretty sure this would show as it did the other two times, but did bring a back up in case.

My last note on it in 2007:

not a big name having had an execrable 80s and 90s, but I have always found this vintage to be very presentable. Cedar and tobacco nose with a medicinal element, colour now getting lighter, and ends with acidity rather than tannin (unlike many of this hard vintage which still have pretty significant tannin, though not always enough fruit to balance it).

And from 2000 (it hasn't been moving anywhere fast):

it showed a nice mature nose, was soft in the mouth, but had almost crisp acidity at the end, and faint soft tannins. It was surprisingly decent.