2012 Bordeaux – Pichon Lalande, Leoville Barton, Beauregard, Marquis de Terme

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Charles Lea

2012 Bordeaux – Pichon Lalande, Leoville Barton, Beauregard, Marquis de Terme

The tasting at Pichon Lalande was a cheering experience this year, bringing to mind the wines of the eighties which never missed here. Silky and ‘feminine’ in the inimitable Pichon style, it has depth and length  – a real core too. New director Nicolas Glumineau reinforced this impression “Many properties are looking for more and more Cabernet, but for us there are great ‘feminine’ Merlots, which are an important part of Pichon Lalande. We have great terroirs for great Merlot.” This a lovely wine, and since it is offered below the price of any other vintage on the market, represents a true en primeur buy. Welcome back. The second wine Réserve de la Comtesse also deserves a mention as a relative bargain for drinkers.

Nicolas Glumineau at Chateau Pichon Lalande

Nicolas Glumineau at Chateau Pichon Lalande

The other big release of the morning is Léoville Barton. This is a good wine at a sensible price in terms of the quality of the wine and for a Saint Julien second growth. Even if it is perhaps less of a pressing en primeur buy than this Chateau has been in the past, this will undoubtedly provide much pleasure when pulled from the cellar in ten to twenty-five years from now.

Bargain hunters should look at Beauregard in Pomerol, which made a very good 2012 which Robert Parker has called a ‘sleeper of the vintage’ (see the earlier post on this expression). l’Arrosée, which is an attractive Saint Emilion from a very good terroir at a very sensible price, and Faugeres too offers solid value in a quite modern style.  Marquis de Terme is a solidly constructed lower-end Margaux Cru Classé.

Posted in Bordeaux, Bordeaux Primeurs, Pauillac | Tagged Bordeaux2012, Léoville Barton, Pichon Lalande | Leave a comment

2012 Bordeaux – Pichon Baron, Calon Segur, Clos Fourtet, Smith Haut Lafitte Red & White

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Charles Lea

Quite a few releases this morning as Bordeaux gets back from a very long weekend. There is no real sense that there is any urgency to sell this vintage. Coming out at the same price as mature vintages are trading on the market is not going to make for a long-term future for this way of selling wine.

Pichon Baron under Christian Seely has scaled new heights, but there is clearly a fight on to maintain a price level above Lynch Bages (let alone the old rivalry with its neighbour Lalande). This did not sell very well last year and it’s hard to see why it should be very different this year.

The Pichon Baron Team of Jean-René Matignon and Christian Seely

The Pichon Baron Team of Jean-René Matignon and Christian Seely

Calon Segur is a very good en primeur bet, and although the price is only minimally down on last year, the fact is that they got it right last year and did not really need to move. This is a wine we almost always sell out of, and since it is definitely the cheapest vintage on the market, represents real value. Added to which the property has been given new impetus buy its new owners, who have had the sense to leave winemaker Vincent Millet in place, so it will be on an upward track. Brilliant wine too, in the style of recent vintages – it is still 78% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Calon Segur - New Man in Charge Laurent Dufau with winemaker Vincent Millet

Calon Segur – New Man in Charge Laurent Dufau with winemaker Vincent Millet

I did not get to taste Clos Fourtet, which was a shame, but by all accounts a good wine and if you are looking for a top Saint Emilion in the vintage this could be it. Parker 93-95, Tim Atkin 95: “Rich, sensuous and profound, this is very well balanced by acidity, minerality and freshness, reflecting its clay and limestone terroir. One of the three best wines of the appellation in 2012″.

The Cathiards at Smith Haut Lafitte have been making better and better wine for a decade or more now, but the samples this year left me slightly underwhelmed – but I seem to be in a minority. Red a better bet than white, by my notes and others.

At the bargains for drinkers level, Pedesclaux offers Cru Classé Pauillac at a really solid value price, as does the other property run by Calon Segur in Saint Estephe, Capbern Gasqueton, which is in the image of Calon in terms of grape mix, and a sort of mini-Calon in style too.

 

Posted in Bordeaux, Bordeaux Primeurs, Pauillac, Saint Estèphe | Tagged Bordeaux2012, Château Calon Segur, Château Pichon Longueville Baron, Château Smith Haut Lafitte, Clos Fourtet | Leave a comment

2011 Vintage Port – General Declaration of a Classic Vintage

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Charles Lea

2011 Vintage Port – General Declaration of a Classic Vintage

Port vintages are only ‘declared’ by the shippers/producers when the quality is deemed to be on the very best, and often they do not agree. The 2011 has brought a unanimity seldom seen, and as Jancis Robinson titled her article these are ‘The best 2011 reds anywhere’.

With Vintage Port representing such an infinitesimal part of the total Port and Douro table wine production, but being the focus of so much critical attention, the houses are all vying with each other to make a noteworthy effort, not only for the sales of these rare vintage wines themselves, but so the other wines in their portfolios can bask in reflected glory. The result is a delight of fantastic wines which are offered to you well below the level of anything of remotely comparable quality in the big names of Bordeaux (for example).

Thinking of Vintage Port inevitably brings Patrick even closer to mind, so for sentimental reasons we are particularly happy to be able to offer a really memorable Sandeman Vintage this year, of which Jancis writes ‘clearly a lot of effort has gone into this’. Patrick always did his best to encourage the consumption of Vintage Port, and wrote something about the 2007s which has lost none of its relevance today:

‘The next question is whether one needs to buy and lay down vintage port at all in this day and age… Well, if like me you think that a dinner party is only a dinner party if you climax with a decanter of vintage port or two (otherwise it is only really a supper party), or if like me you decant a bottle of vintage port every Friday night during the months of November and December to drink over the week-end, then you will need at least two dozen bottles a year, and assuming that there is only one great vintage every four years, you should be buying at least eight dozen bottles! Equally, if you are of the camp that ‘no longer drinks port because it gives me a hangover’, then you too should be laying down some port for when you learn to drink less before and during dinner, and appreciate something exceptional at the end of the evening. Finally, of course there are the (2011) babes whose God-parents, aunts and uncles, and parents should be buying at least two cases of six bottles (one to sell to help pay for the gap year in eighteen years time, the other to drink).’

Click here to view the full offer

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

2012 Bordeaux – another vinolanche – Pontet Canet, Haut Bailly, the wines of Denis Durantou and Stephan von Neipperg – and lots of others.

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Charles Lea

Not a lot of time for anyone to react to the sheer number of releases on the market this morning, but briefly, the wines of Denis Durantou, Saintem (also confusingly called Saintayme – it is exactly the same wine), La Chenade, Montlandrie and Les Cruzelles are all oustanding value buys and come strongly recommended. NB these are packed as standard (and priced) in six-bottle cases. We have a very limited quantity of the second wine of L’Eglise Clinet, La Petite Eglise, which has been offered in prioity to last year’s buyers.

Alfred Tesseron has released Pontet Canet, and this was quickly followed by Haut Bailly at a price which is significantly down from the 2011 release – will it be enough?

The de Costers of La Fleur Cardinale recently visited us at the Fulham Road and everyone was as impressed as I have been by recent vintages – I only saw the 2012 once and briefly – tasted blind, and it showed only quite well but in terms of Parker points (92-95) for price it offers good value.

Feytit-Clinet was well liked by us and by Parker too (93-95), and at £380 is in the nearly affordable end of Pomerol.

Also out are all the Haut Brion stable including the very highly rated whites, is you want any of these email me NOW.

Finally Stephan von Neipperg has released all his wine – from the good value Castillon d’Aiguilhe to the Saint Emilions Clos de L’Oratoire and Canon la Gaffeliere, and the super-cuvée La Mondotte.

Posted in Bordeaux, Bordeaux Primeurs | Tagged 2012 Bordeaux, Cruzelles, Haut Bailly, Haut Brion, Petite Eglise, Pontet Canet, Saintem | Leave a comment