A small group of Bordeaux enthusiasts headed up to beautiful Boothbay Harbor in Maine not too long ago for a weekend of socializing and tasting wine. There was a lot of outdoor activity during the day, but in the evenings, we settled down to drink some fine Bordeaux and had a great time doing so. I'm posting my notes from Night #1 now and will follow-up with the second night in a separate post.
On Friday night, there was a 2002 Agrapart & Fils Champagne Blanc de Blancs Extra-Brut "Mineral" and a 2001 Château Carbonnieux Blanc Pessac-Leognan that I was sorry to miss, but I had jumped right in with the reds and just never turned back.
1998 Château Mouton-Rothschild Pauillac. Served from 375 ml bottle. You know it is going to be a good night when within seconds of walking in the door and meeting Jim and Jay for the first time, they are pouring you a glass of Mouton-Rothschild. Well, this has a classy, fleshy and layered nose that starts with aromas of pencil shavings and cedar before slowly opening up to fold in lovely notes of dark cherry, plum, briery berries, star anise, fine leather and tobacco leaf. In the mouth, it is absolutely silky-smooth in texture, just flowing effortlessly across the palate. It is not especially dense, but has a sense of substance nonetheless. It is a bit less dark in tone than it is on the nose, featuring a hint of cocoa riding above flavors of cassis, dark cherry and ashy earth. It has very good lift to it, and indeed the acidity is actually a bit sharp at times. Despite some chalky tannin, it is quite approachable now with that fine silky texture.
1988 Château La Lagune Haut-Medoc. I find the nose here to be serious and tightly-controlled in tone—with notes of charred green pepper, ash, cool black currant, black cherry, graphite, and dusty barnyard scrabble playing things tight to the vest while well underneath one occasionally gets a glimpse of plumper purple fruit. It has a very nice sense of structure in the mouth, feeling taut and focused but not lean or austere. Flavors of red currants, fuzzy raspberries and tingly citrus-tinged acids take on a nice juicy character through the fleshy mid-palate. It turns drier toward the moderately lengthy finish, but still has a nice juicy, lifted sense to it. I keep expecting the noticeable but softly fuzzy tannins to begin to detract, but they do more to support the wine than take away. This wine successfully walks a fine line right now, and I’m curious to see how much longer it will continue to do so.
1990 Château Lagrange St. Julien. Oh man, is this nice on the nose! Its bouquet is fantastically luscious and enveloping—with warm creamy notes of pure cherry and raspberry fruit accented nicely by aromas of rose petals, pencil shavings, tar oil and creosote. It is almost like a theoretical blending of an aged Bordeaux and a riper-year Barolo. In the mouth, it displays great balance between the earthy moss notes and the finely-spiced cherry and mixed berry fruit. The fruit feels ripe and pure, with the warmth of the vintage apparent in a good way throughout the palate journey. There is just enough light acidity and gentle tannin structure to hold it all together. It is nicely-textured, finely-flowing, solidly-fruited and certainly rich but not overdone. It finishes with a late uptake of tannin and just a hint of bitter anise to go with the lingering dark chocolate and cherry after-taste. I was really taken aback by the fine performance of this wine—it was right up there as my Wine of the Night.
1994 Château Tertre Rôteboeuf St. Emilion. This wine is a lighter, slightly translucent color. Right off the bat, there is a faint but definite whiff of mustiness that at first I’m not convinced is TCA. This is because it has some other aged notes on the nose that I like, such as soft leather, orange rind, persimmon, red and purple flower petals, cigar ash and light and fading red fruit. It is not deep or dense, but rather airily expressive. Soon, though, the corked notes begin to deepen and the nicer aromas grow short and clipped. In the mouth, it shows a bit of fine cocoa flavor to go with prickly red cherry and dark raspberry fruit, but again it doesn’t take too long to start noticing the corky elements and astringent acidity that cut the wine short. It’s a real shame, I was looking forward to trying this producer for the first time.
1998 Château Beau-Sejour Becot St. Emilion. Served from 375 ml bottle. This is a pretty exotic wine on the nose, with strong and rather funky aromas of dried flowers, chocolate mousse, mint leaf, weedy tobacco, mace and musk aftershave combined in an unusually lush and sweet package. The nose seems to turn some people off, but what turns me off about this wine is the ferocious tannins and punishing austerity it displays on the palate. After a sort of limpid and soft entry, it turns brutally tannic through the mid-palate and finish. The texture is tough and ungiving, with a chewy, sticky feel to it. One can sort of sense some juicy red berry, cherry and cassis fruit hiding in there somewhere, but all one gets right now is the lash of the tannins.
2001 Château Leoville Las Cases St. Julien. Served from 375 ml bottle. On the nose, this wine exhibits dense aromas of berry compote to go along with rugged scents of dark earth, campfire smoke, hickory wood, black raspberry, leather and dark tobacco. In the mouth, it shows some early signs of being more forward and immediate, but pretty quickly starts to tighten up and pull the large-boned tannins forward. Those chalky tannins stay present throughout but thankfully don’t ever really take full control of the wine. It has tightly-controlled acidity, a fleshy texture and dense fudgy flavors focused around black currant that become a bit difficult to connect with after a while. It would be best to revisit this in another 5 years or so.
2000 Château Smith Haut Lafitte Pessac-Leognan. Served from 375 ml bottle. I am really surprised to find the bouquet of this wine absolutely mushrooming up and out of the glass—with very strong aromas of rich espresso roast, black licorice, patent leather, moist soil, dark Belgian chocolate, black currant and blackberry combining in a cool, dark and savory fashion showing solid richness and attention-grabbing intensity. In the mouth, it is much the same. One finds cool and serious-toned black fruit in a full-bodied package that feels modern and silky textured. The firm tannins are definitely a factor, but they are already polished and showing some refinement. There is a solid backbone all the way through this and some quietly crisp acidity is there in support, as well. It is not the friendliest of wines at this youthful stage, but it is quite long, well-constructed and finely-honed for future development.
2000 Château Pape Clement Pessac-Leognan. Served from 375 ml bottle. This wine smells of sweet fruitcake, chocolate, campfire embers and charred peppers. I like the nose well enough, but this wine absolutely shines on the palate. The first thing one notices is the nice creamy texture that gently bathes the tongue in mixed red and black fruits, soft gentle acidity and pliant tannin. It has wonderful concentration of flavor, but fine, easy balance to everything. The finish is long and lasting and invites one back for another sip without hesitation. It is hard to describe exactly why I connect with this wine the way I do, but everything about it just seems to work together with an effortless ease. This was my runner-up for Wine of the Night.
2000 Château Branaire Ducru St. Julien. Served from 375 ml bottle. This initially shows some dank foresty character on the nose, with aromas of bark, ferns and soggy earth forming a base for a column of sweet cassis and rhubarb aromas that begin to poke up out of the earth notes and eventually spread out to dominate the aromatic profile. When all is said and done, it is actually pretty expressive and overt—it just takes a while to get there. In the mouth, one encounters strong, fairly extracted flavors of tomato paste, cassis and cherry syrup right up front. The richness of fruit manages to find some freshness from a bit of juicy acidity that flows nicely into the mid-palate. It finishes chalky, with the tannins finally making a quiet rustle of noise. Still, there is not much obvious structure to the wine, though it manages to feel contained and holistic in its own way. It feels like it is still fairly primary and could use a few more years to find its way.
Although I managed to miss a half-bottle of 2000 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron Pauillac, I was totally satisfied with the outstanding range of wines I did get a chance to sample. And it wasn’t like we were running short of wines, as my next set of notes from the Saturday evening event will attest to!
-Michael