| Red Bordeaux 2008 Tasting Report |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| Chateau La Prade 2005 Cotes de Francs |
Notes – Even without spending a lot of time in the
decanter this had a lovely nose right from the get go.
It was extremely floral filled with violets and rose
petals. On the palate, the rough tannins indicated
immediately that this wine was going to need more time
to be all that it could be, but it was full of blackberry
and black currant fruit and a nice long finish. This
would be everyone’s favorite of the evening. Since it is
a Cotes de Franc appellation wine, I could not be 100%
certain of the blend, but I am sure the usual suspects
are there. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet
Franc.
decanter this had a lovely nose right from the get go.
It was extremely floral filled with violets and rose
petals. On the palate, the rough tannins indicated
immediately that this wine was going to need more time
to be all that it could be, but it was full of blackberry
and black currant fruit and a nice long finish. This
would be everyone’s favorite of the evening. Since it is
a Cotes de Franc appellation wine, I could not be 100%
certain of the blend, but I am sure the usual suspects
are there. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet
Franc.
| About $27.00 |
| Score A- |
| Mouton Cadet 2005 Bordeaux |
Notes – There is a good balance of spicy pepper with
some herbal accents on the nose. The mouthfeel is big
and thick and immediately appealing with red fruits and
a little spice and a medium length finish. At under
$17.00 cheaper from the next least expensive wine, this
would be quite a steal, but then that depends on your
perspective. If you are looking for a good Bordeaux
wine to drink today, this is your winner. If you want
something to lie down in a cellar for a long period of
time, that would not be this wine’s primary purpose. It
was made for instant gratification. Again, I could not
be certain of what the percentages of grapes make up
the blend and would be willing to bet that it changes for
this wine from year to year.
some herbal accents on the nose. The mouthfeel is big
and thick and immediately appealing with red fruits and
a little spice and a medium length finish. At under
$17.00 cheaper from the next least expensive wine, this
would be quite a steal, but then that depends on your
perspective. If you are looking for a good Bordeaux
wine to drink today, this is your winner. If you want
something to lie down in a cellar for a long period of
time, that would not be this wine’s primary purpose. It
was made for instant gratification. Again, I could not
be certain of what the percentages of grapes make up
the blend and would be willing to bet that it changes for
this wine from year to year.
| Around $10.00 |
| Score B+ |
| Chateau Lafon-Rachet 2003 St. Estephe |
Notes – Very masculine aromas with delicate fresh fruit
accents. Big on tobacco and tannic structure with loads
of blackberry jam and a very long finish. This showed
well against most of the other wines initially and then I
chose it to be one of the three to further decant. After
some additional time in the decanter it blossomed even
further and if pressed, I would have said this probably
was my favorite wine of the evening. Since it is a Left
Bank wine, it is primarily Cabernet Sauvignon based
and is indeed worthy of long cellaring potential. I would
buy another bottle of this.
accents. Big on tobacco and tannic structure with loads
of blackberry jam and a very long finish. This showed
well against most of the other wines initially and then I
chose it to be one of the three to further decant. After
some additional time in the decanter it blossomed even
further and if pressed, I would have said this probably
was my favorite wine of the evening. Since it is a Left
Bank wine, it is primarily Cabernet Sauvignon based
and is indeed worthy of long cellaring potential. I would
buy another bottle of this.
| Score B+ |
| About $45.00 |
| Chateau Pipeau 2005 St. Emilion |
Notes – Again somewhat masculine in its aromatic
approach with beefy bacon and cigarbox aromas. On
the palate, there is plenty of Spanish cedar, dark fruits
and a dusty and dry tannic finish. This was my entry in
the tasting and I have been buying Pipeau for a few
years now because of its track record with the Wine
Critics. I do prefer my 2003 vintages over this one, but
this Right Bank, Merlot based wine really needs some
time, either in bottle age or the decanter, I guess I
shouldn’t have been surprised that it did show as well
as the top three. This was another wine I put back in
the decanter and it did show some more improvement,
but it still could have used a lot more air time.
approach with beefy bacon and cigarbox aromas. On
the palate, there is plenty of Spanish cedar, dark fruits
and a dusty and dry tannic finish. This was my entry in
the tasting and I have been buying Pipeau for a few
years now because of its track record with the Wine
Critics. I do prefer my 2003 vintages over this one, but
this Right Bank, Merlot based wine really needs some
time, either in bottle age or the decanter, I guess I
shouldn’t have been surprised that it did show as well
as the top three. This was another wine I put back in
the decanter and it did show some more improvement,
but it still could have used a lot more air time.
| Score B+ |
| Around $35.00 |
| Chateau Le Conseiller 2005 Bordeaux Superieur |
Notes – A nice mixture of violets and blackberry jam
aromas filled the glass. There were dark fruits and
black licorice flavors in the juice, but it was still wound
up pretty tight with hard tannins and the finish was a
little shorter than I would have liked. Again the
connotation of “Bordeaux Superieur” does little to
indicate what the blend would necessarily be, but you
could bet that it is primarily Cabernet Sauvignon,
Merlot and Cab Franc. This wine could age, but I
would be a little concerned about the overall tannin to
fruit balance. Decant for a while before drinking.
aromas filled the glass. There were dark fruits and
black licorice flavors in the juice, but it was still wound
up pretty tight with hard tannins and the finish was a
little shorter than I would have liked. Again the
connotation of “Bordeaux Superieur” does little to
indicate what the blend would necessarily be, but you
could bet that it is primarily Cabernet Sauvignon,
Merlot and Cab Franc. This wine could age, but I
would be a little concerned about the overall tannin to
fruit balance. Decant for a while before drinking.
| About $30.00 |
| Score B- |
| Chateau Castera 2002 Medoc |
Notes – With a strong presence of Jalapeno and bell
pepper aromas this wine could immediately pass for a
Chilean wine. On the palate, there was not much
intensity and the red fruits seemed somewhat diluted.
This of course was a strong indicator of a weak vintage
and indeed 2002 was not a great vintage in Bordeaux
by any stretch. Being from the Medoc, again it could
be any combination of the main three grapes; Cab
Sauv, Merlot and Cab Franc. Don’t cellar this wine,
you will not be rewarded for your patience.
pepper aromas this wine could immediately pass for a
Chilean wine. On the palate, there was not much
intensity and the red fruits seemed somewhat diluted.
This of course was a strong indicator of a weak vintage
and indeed 2002 was not a great vintage in Bordeaux
by any stretch. Being from the Medoc, again it could
be any combination of the main three grapes; Cab
Sauv, Merlot and Cab Franc. Don’t cellar this wine,
you will not be rewarded for your patience.
| Around $22.00 |
| Score B- |
| Chateau de Pez 2003 St. Estephe |
| About $33.00 |
| Score C+ |
| Chateau Haut-Beausejour 2003 St. Estephe |
| About $26.00 |
| Score C+ |
| Chateau Teyssier 2005 St. Emilion |
| About $33.00 |
| Not Rated |
In all of our almost five year history, we have never
reviewed just Bordeaux wines. That doesn’t mean we
have not reviewed a Bordeaux wine, if memory serves me
correctly, we included a Bordeaux wine in our first
Cabernet Sauvignon tasting report. The results for that
Bordeaux wine in that particular tasting were not very
good. At the time I wrote it off to the fact that it was just
too different in style from the rest. Well this month, we
decided to fix that by reviewing just Bordeaux wines.
Let me just be perfectly honest, I completely and totally
botched this tasting and I am not sure that the results will
be helpful to anyone interested in using this report to
make an informed purchasing decision. You see,
Bordeaux wines, and I am only talking about the red
Bordeaux wines here, probably more than any other wine
style in the world need lots of time in the bottle and/or
plenty of air time in a decanter to show at their best. They
are simply not a wine that is made with the intention of
being consumed right away. In fact, we only had one wine
in this tasting that was meant to be consumed right away
and subsequently it scored very well against the others. I
knew this and perhaps that is one of the major reasons we
have never reviewed red Bordeaux wines until now. For
the logistical reasons, pure and simple.
I thought I could get around this by just splashing all of
the wines in a decanter. Splashing is a process whereby
you take the wine, pour into the decanter, swirl the
decanter around hard a few times and then using a funnel,
pour the wine back into the bottle. The idea is that the
wine hits oxygen somewhat violently and therefore the
process of the wine opening up is accelerated somewhat.
We did this with eight out of the nine bottles, I felt the
Mouton Cadet did not need this and that proved to be
correct. Now some of the wines had some quirky flaws
with them, I’ll grant you that. I believe one was corked.
Shawn disagreed with me, but I felt very strongly about
that charge. There was probably one or two that suffered
from Brettomyocis. This gives the wine a barnyardy
aroma and taste. It is usually caused by unsterile barrels
with bacteria, etc… However, the rest of the wines in our
tasting just flat out needed more time in the bottle and
hours in a decanter before they were ready to give up the
goods.
Needless to say the tasting results were very poor and I
found myself having to “A” grade on a curve and “B”
throw some scores out entirely. I chose three wines in our
tasting to put back into the decanters when we were done,
just to see what more air time would do for them and the
results were as I expected in two of the three wines. Two
certainly did open up and became much better, but the
third, may have either just not reached a maturity level
yet that would have made it show well or it was not ever
going to be a great wine. I could not make that call.
Aside from the wine tasting fiasco, Brad our host, outdid
himself in his culinary preparations. There was grilled
pork butt and some flavored potatoes that were out of this
world and Cole pitched in with a great rendition of the
ultimate in comfort food, Macaroni and Cheese. The food
was spectacular! Thank you Brad for the food and for
hosting.
Here are the wines we tasted. I will do my best to
comment on what I think is the potential of each and what
we perceived to be as flaws. Also, I should point out that
Appellations that are located on the Left bank of the
Gironde River are mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, while the
ones located on the Right Bank are mostly made of
Merlot. I will let you know the difference as we go
through the results.
reviewed just Bordeaux wines. That doesn’t mean we
have not reviewed a Bordeaux wine, if memory serves me
correctly, we included a Bordeaux wine in our first
Cabernet Sauvignon tasting report. The results for that
Bordeaux wine in that particular tasting were not very
good. At the time I wrote it off to the fact that it was just
too different in style from the rest. Well this month, we
decided to fix that by reviewing just Bordeaux wines.
Let me just be perfectly honest, I completely and totally
botched this tasting and I am not sure that the results will
be helpful to anyone interested in using this report to
make an informed purchasing decision. You see,
Bordeaux wines, and I am only talking about the red
Bordeaux wines here, probably more than any other wine
style in the world need lots of time in the bottle and/or
plenty of air time in a decanter to show at their best. They
are simply not a wine that is made with the intention of
being consumed right away. In fact, we only had one wine
in this tasting that was meant to be consumed right away
and subsequently it scored very well against the others. I
knew this and perhaps that is one of the major reasons we
have never reviewed red Bordeaux wines until now. For
the logistical reasons, pure and simple.
I thought I could get around this by just splashing all of
the wines in a decanter. Splashing is a process whereby
you take the wine, pour into the decanter, swirl the
decanter around hard a few times and then using a funnel,
pour the wine back into the bottle. The idea is that the
wine hits oxygen somewhat violently and therefore the
process of the wine opening up is accelerated somewhat.
We did this with eight out of the nine bottles, I felt the
Mouton Cadet did not need this and that proved to be
correct. Now some of the wines had some quirky flaws
with them, I’ll grant you that. I believe one was corked.
Shawn disagreed with me, but I felt very strongly about
that charge. There was probably one or two that suffered
from Brettomyocis. This gives the wine a barnyardy
aroma and taste. It is usually caused by unsterile barrels
with bacteria, etc… However, the rest of the wines in our
tasting just flat out needed more time in the bottle and
hours in a decanter before they were ready to give up the
goods.
Needless to say the tasting results were very poor and I
found myself having to “A” grade on a curve and “B”
throw some scores out entirely. I chose three wines in our
tasting to put back into the decanters when we were done,
just to see what more air time would do for them and the
results were as I expected in two of the three wines. Two
certainly did open up and became much better, but the
third, may have either just not reached a maturity level
yet that would have made it show well or it was not ever
going to be a great wine. I could not make that call.
Aside from the wine tasting fiasco, Brad our host, outdid
himself in his culinary preparations. There was grilled
pork butt and some flavored potatoes that were out of this
world and Cole pitched in with a great rendition of the
ultimate in comfort food, Macaroni and Cheese. The food
was spectacular! Thank you Brad for the food and for
hosting.
Here are the wines we tasted. I will do my best to
comment on what I think is the potential of each and what
we perceived to be as flaws. Also, I should point out that
Appellations that are located on the Left bank of the
Gironde River are mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, while the
ones located on the Right Bank are mostly made of
Merlot. I will let you know the difference as we go
through the results.
Notes – The nose was very earthy and herbal with
strong spinach aromas. This profile carried through to
the palate as well with an additional measure of fresh
tobacco. Of all our wines in the tasting, this for me
would be the biggest disappointment. I felt it should
have showed better and I chose it to be one of the
three wines that I put in the decanter for additional air
time. Unfortunately, it never came around and did not
improve. Hard for me to say whether it just needs
more time in bottle or if that is just the way it is. I
would say that some cellaring would make it better,
but how much, I am not sure. This is primarily
Cabernet Sauvignon based.
strong spinach aromas. This profile carried through to
the palate as well with an additional measure of fresh
tobacco. Of all our wines in the tasting, this for me
would be the biggest disappointment. I felt it should
have showed better and I chose it to be one of the
three wines that I put in the decanter for additional air
time. Unfortunately, it never came around and did not
improve. Hard for me to say whether it just needs
more time in bottle or if that is just the way it is. I
would say that some cellaring would make it better,
but how much, I am not sure. This is primarily
Cabernet Sauvignon based.
Notes – This wine was a definite candidate for a
severe case of Brettomyocis. All you could smell and
taste were canned tomatoes and skunky cabbage. Not
good. In fact, I would say most tasters preferred the
“Corked” wine over this one. With cases of Brett, you
can never be sure if it is isolated to a few bottles or the
entire production. It just depends on where the
original source is coming from. With that being said, I
would just avoid this wine entirely.
severe case of Brettomyocis. All you could smell and
taste were canned tomatoes and skunky cabbage. Not
good. In fact, I would say most tasters preferred the
“Corked” wine over this one. With cases of Brett, you
can never be sure if it is isolated to a few bottles or the
entire production. It just depends on where the
original source is coming from. With that being said, I
would just avoid this wine entirely.
Notes – Unfortunately this wine was corked. The wet
cardboard odor was a dead giveaway. I was looking
forward to trying this wine. I couldn’t get a good read
on it because there was just nothing left to gauge the
depth of fruit. The body seemed to be full though.
cardboard odor was a dead giveaway. I was looking
forward to trying this wine. I couldn’t get a good read
on it because there was just nothing left to gauge the
depth of fruit. The body seemed to be full though.