Image credit: calon-segur.fr
We set off at 7.15 am, just as the mist was rising and headed onto the Rocade (prounounced Rockard! Bordeaux's smaller version of the M25) only to get stuck in traffic which delayed us 15 minutes. Therefore we had to put our foot down and managed to reach Calon Segur only 5 minutes late.
An informative talk through the vintage by Laurent Dufau. We started our tasting with Capbern another St Estephe property under the Calon Segur umbrella which was charming. The Calon Segur was extremely well crafted and liked by all, even at 8.30 in the morning! ...we were off to a flying start.
Next stop was Montrose. Both the Dame de Montrose and Montrose shone and so did the sun as it was breaking through the early morning mist. Serious stuff. Early vintage reports prior to this week were indicating that the North Medoc had suffered with the rain, however, it certainly hasn't effected Calon Segur and Montrose.
Cos D'Estournel was our next stop, not a bouquet of red trousers in sight from the London merchants that we normally see at Cos. It was a toned down Cos still plenty of structure and freshness but lacking a little focus and structure that both Montrose and Calon had shown. From Cos it was next door and over the boundary to Lafite where we tasted Duhart Milon, Carruades de Lafite and Lafite in their new tasting room. Great stuff, the Rothschilds have done well...so onto Mouton to see how their cousins performed.
At Mouton we tasted their three properties. D'Armailhac, Clerc Milon, Petit Mouton, Mouton Rothschild and their white wine Aile D'argent. Clerc Milon impressed me and the Mouton was superb, defined with the nobility and gracefulness of a princess. We are starting to get a good picture. It is not about power like the 2009 and 2010 vintage although many of the wines have wonderful concentration; it's more about balance, structure and energy in the wines. Definitely a vintage that suits my palate.
From Mouton we headed to GPL to taste Haut Batailley, Lacoste Borie and Grand Puy Lacoste. GPL was superb, definitely the best vintage since 2010.
Then to taste Bordeaux's First Biodynamic Cru Classe, Pontet Canet, which showed bags of finesse, firmly placing it in the Super Second league. We were kindly given Lunch at Pontet Canet....absolutely superb and a cheese board that was 10 metres long. After lunch we headed to Lafon Rochet for the St Estephe and Pauillac UGC tasting.. our stars of the tasting were Pichon Lalande and Pichon Baron. From Lafon Rochet it was onto Leoville Lascases for the Domaine Delon wines before we headed to the glitzy Ducru Beaucaillou to taste some superb wines. I was really impressed by the Lalande Borie another St Julien property under Bruno's ownership...must be a potential for one of the star value buys unless Bruno get stupid with his pricing.
From Ducru we had a spare 20 minutes before our appointment at Latour so we popped in to Pichon Lalande to taste their Grand Vin as well as the Reserve de Comtesse. The Lalande was even better than at the UGC tasting, definitely puts it in our top ten and we all agreed that it is the best wine since 2010. Just shows that you really need to spend time out here and taste the wines at least 2 – 3 times to get the best picture. Then onto Latour, past the horses ploughing in the vineyards and into the wonderful world of Latour. As well as tasting the 2015s which were good but sorry you can't have them as they don't release them En Primeur! Here we also had the opportunity to taste Pauillac 2010 (their 3rd wine), Forts de Latour 2009 and Latour 2000.
From Latour we headed to the St Julien UGC tasting at Gruaud Larose. Here we tasted wines for the second time around, first time if you recall was on Monday at the football stadium. Gruaud Larose showed really well again along with Leoville Poyferre.
From Gruaud Larose we headed to Langoa Barton for our final tasting of the day and a catch up with Lilian. Both her wines were showing well. The Langoa was typically feminine while The Leoville Barton was much rounder and generous. Just as I would expect in a good year.
14 chateau visits in one day and still no rest as we headed back for a 5 minute change to put on our suits and head into Bordeaux for the Commanderie du Bontemps dinner..
Tomorrow we are due at D'Issan at 8.30am so an early start and another day in our Bordeaux adventure…
