Day 2
From Moeuix we went to the Syndicat tasting in Pomerol. As always, a bit of a minefield with varying quality. The star of the show for both of us was Chateau Rouget. A few “tannin bombs” and some with high acidity, however largely pleased to find very good quality.
We then headed to St Emilion to taste Jonathon Malthus wines, famous for Le Dôme. Chateau Teyssier was definitely a level or two above it’s normal standing and Le Dôme was the stand out wine.
Then onto the Thunevin winery in the centre of St Émilion, where the stand out wines were Chateau Valandraud and Chateau La Marzelle, the latter is due to be a third of the price of Valandraud.
Back up to the top of the St Émilion to Villemaurine, a property on the up and definitely on our watch list. They kindly gave us a quick lunch before we set off to Chateau La Croix de Laborie, a new organic certified property from the 2018 vintage. A new property to us, seriously impressive quality and with prices to match….
After lunch, back to Chateau Pavie Macquin for a tasting with Nicolas Thienpont and a selection of modern, creamy, seductive and savoury wines by Pavie Macquin and Larcis-Ducasse.
From here we raced back across to Pomerol, to taste Denis Durantou’s collection at L’Église Clinet. Denis's wines (pictured above right) were great, especially his entry level wines of Saintayme, Les Cruzelles, La Chenade and La Montlandrie. All shone with vibrant, concentrated fruit and plenty of power, married amid plenty of freshness, giving the wines balance and finesse.
Our next stop was Tertre Roteboeuf, for probably the most memorable tasting of the day. François’ wines were extremely late picked and had amazing concentration, yet seamlessly knitted together to make outstanding wines. Bravo François!
With only five minutes to spare we raced to Quintus, Haut Brion’s St Émilion property, on balance both were impressive, however, a little too much alcohol for my palate. Quintus had a whopping 15.2% ABV!
Before our final tasting at Chateau Serephine, we popped in to La Grappe at Chateau La Gaffeliere to try the good value wines from Chateau Jean Faux, as well as some wines from the left bank Cru Bourgeois, that Stéphane Derenoncourt consults for.
For our twelfth and final stop of the day we met with Martin Krajewski (ex-Chateau de Sours) Petit and Clos Cantenac and his new Pomerol property, Chateau Sérephine before he kindly invited us for to join him and Charlotte for a steak and salted shallots dinner washed down with a small select tasting of St Julien; Beychevelle 1982, Léoville Barton 1982 and Langoa Barton 1986, a real treat.. Merci, Martin...
Tomorrow we’re back to the right bank to taste many of the big names such as Angélus, VCC, Cheval Blanc, Canon, Figeac & Pavie... a rough day lies ahead!
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