I was fortunate to be able to attend the Union des Grands Crus tasting of the 2009 Bordeaux in Los Angeles in January of this year as a guest of Balzac Communications of Napa, CA. With all of the hype surrounding this vintage, with Mr. Parker handing out 18 100 point scores and with seemingly evryone jumping on the bandwagon, I decided to put some time between the tasting and committing my notes to paper so as to minimize the effect on my reflections and ultimate purchasing decisions.
Having said that - Wow! these are some very impressive wines indeed, most deserving all of the superlatives being handed out. However, not all stood out and not all are deserving of the big chunk of your wine budget needed to find their way into your collection.
As far as the wines most likely to make it to my own collection, I left the tasting believing that overall the St. Julien's showed the best but have much more in the tank for continued improvement. Looking back the wines with the highest percentage of cabernet sauvignon were clearly the wines I was drawn to, in my mind affirming that this is indeed a vintage where cabernet sauvignon is the star. In particular, Ch. St. Pierre was absolutely gorgeous, perfectly balanced, blackberry and cherry fruit held in check by beautiful tannin structure and with ample acidity. The "Leo's" are also delicious now but with great aging potential. Ch.Leoville Barton is a real stunner, again a wine with 70% cabernet sauvignon, classically styled, and it is just very hard to see how this wine could be better. Ch. LaGrange released what just has to be the best third growth ever produced, tasting more red fruit and notes of earth/cedar, and again in perfect balance and a finish that you are glad seems to go on forever.
Wines I would pass on - not many but there are some and only in expectations that their prices will be swept upwards with all of the buzz over this vintage. Ch. Greysac - perfectly decent but at a likely $25 a bottle it has lots of competition in that price range. Ditto Ch. Beauregard, enjoyable enough but greatly overshadowed by just about every other wine there.
Lastly - my sleeper pick is Ch. Kirwan, another third growth, i know, I know, only 45% cabernet sauvignon but very pretty and not overly ripe but restrained red fruit, pure and precise, some spice and cedar notes, seeming the quintessential Bordeaux blend that all California Meritage's would do very well to emulate.
P.S. - don't forget to pick up some Sauternes from this vintage, and one that is very drinkable now is the Ch. Suduiraut.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Thursday, November 18, 2010
A Wine Blog
Great news - my youngest daughter, Stacey, passed her exam and became a Certified Sommelier yesterday! My oldest daughter, Lisa, recently changed jobs and is now working hard at a wine shop in Signal Hill, CA, called "Wine Country." Those apples definitely did not fall far from the tree, or perhaps more accurately, grapes from the vine. Not suprisingly, our dinner conversation lately does not go very far without the discussion turning to wine: our new favorite cremant, the wine we should serve with Thanksgiving dinner, or albarino vs. vinho verde.
So, what was I thinking when I bought Lisa a case of 1985 Chateau Pichon LaLande, her birth year, when it was first released to present to her on her 21st? Or when I bought Stacey her 1987 E Guigal Cote Rotie? Or when I decided to write a blog about wine?
Simply, I find wine and everything about it fascinating, always have, starting way back when with my very first bottle of "Pink Catabwa" in 1972 [do they still make that stuff?]. I don't remember who gave our commencement address but I can recall vividly the magnum of '76 Chateau Montelena chardonnay we drank at my graduation from law school. Equally vivid in my memory are the '66 Ch. Lafite at the Heublein rare wine tasting and auction, and the first bottle of a most modest bottle of Kenwood zinfandel that made me a fan of that varietal for life.
My fascination obviously is infectious. I tried just as hard, without success, to pique my daughters interest in equally compelling things like golf and college football, with no success, but at least my fascination with wine rubbed off as did the cultures, history, and geography that shape our tastes and opinions about wine.
This blog has its genesis in my heretofore ignored recent suggestions to my family/ best friends that given their fascination with wine they should write a blog about their wine interests and experiences. Heck, I was so generous as to even tell them what they should write about. When it finally dawned on me that my prodding in this regard was likely to suffer the same fate as did my encouragement of Big Ten football, well, screw it, I decided I should write my own blog, for better or worse.
Since finishing my career as a lawyer seems to be my fate for the time being, writing this blog may be my best outlet for sharing my passion about wine. Please stay tuned.
So, what was I thinking when I bought Lisa a case of 1985 Chateau Pichon LaLande, her birth year, when it was first released to present to her on her 21st? Or when I bought Stacey her 1987 E Guigal Cote Rotie? Or when I decided to write a blog about wine?
Simply, I find wine and everything about it fascinating, always have, starting way back when with my very first bottle of "Pink Catabwa" in 1972 [do they still make that stuff?]. I don't remember who gave our commencement address but I can recall vividly the magnum of '76 Chateau Montelena chardonnay we drank at my graduation from law school. Equally vivid in my memory are the '66 Ch. Lafite at the Heublein rare wine tasting and auction, and the first bottle of a most modest bottle of Kenwood zinfandel that made me a fan of that varietal for life.
My fascination obviously is infectious. I tried just as hard, without success, to pique my daughters interest in equally compelling things like golf and college football, with no success, but at least my fascination with wine rubbed off as did the cultures, history, and geography that shape our tastes and opinions about wine.
This blog has its genesis in my heretofore ignored recent suggestions to my family/ best friends that given their fascination with wine they should write a blog about their wine interests and experiences. Heck, I was so generous as to even tell them what they should write about. When it finally dawned on me that my prodding in this regard was likely to suffer the same fate as did my encouragement of Big Ten football, well, screw it, I decided I should write my own blog, for better or worse.
Since finishing my career as a lawyer seems to be my fate for the time being, writing this blog may be my best outlet for sharing my passion about wine. Please stay tuned.
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