It was back to the Right Bank again to taste the Gerard Perse wines of Monbousquet, Clos Lunelles, Pavie Decasse, Pavie and Bellevue Mondotte which I have to admit was tough going at Chateau D'Yquem 2013 8.30am, however, the wines had been toned down a little from previous blockbusters that needed a knife and fork to dissect. The tasting was held in the new Chateau which was pretty impressive, more like a Palace.
From Pavie we went to Ch Canon which a real pleasure, not as good as the 2010 but very precise and elegant. Really liked it. From Canon we darted into Libourne to the Jean Pierre Moueix tasting where we were greeted by Edouard Moueix and Clare who looks after the UK market. His wines were interesting. They made no Puy Blanquet this year, the remaining juice is therefore going into his generic wines. The entry level exclusivity wines I found a little thin but his more serious wines like La Fleur Gazin, Certan, La Fleur Petrus, Belair Monange and Trotanoy were elegant. My favourites were Certan, Trotanoy and Belair Monange.
From Libourne we headed back to the UGC tasting at La Dominque where we tasted some of the Grand Cru Classe, like Figeac and Troplong Mondot and re-tasted others. It's good to re-taste the wines (sometimes I re-taste a wine 3 - 4 times) as the quality of the samples can vary. Here Troplong Mondot was probably top with the Clos Fourtet coming second.
From La Dominque (next door to Cheval Blanc) we popped in to see the charming Alexander Thienpoint at Vieux Chateau Certan who talked us through his VCC in the cellar room. They only took the decision in the middle of Feb to release their 2013 vintage as their yields were only 20% of the normal yield. Alexander rates VCC 2013 as better than their 2007 and thinks it will be ready to drink in 5 to 6 years. He also commented that the harvest was a "competition between rot and ripeness".
From VCC we headed to the UGC Pomerol tasting at Chateau Gazin where we whipped around about ten wines like Clinet, Beauregard, Gazin etc before having a well earned lunch.
After lunch we headed to Cheval Blanc where we tasted D'Yquem which was truly excellent. From Cheval Blanc we went to Beau-sejour Becot for the Michel Roland consultancy tasting which was very interesting and I managed to get a 5 minute 1 to 1 with Michel Roland with an interesting quote “I'm happier now with the 2013 wines at this stage than I was with the 2007 vintage”. From there we headed down the hill to Chateau Angelus in their new building with the impressive Bell Tower. Angelus was good but to be honest half the Angelus of normal – like a 5 storey building rather than a tower block. I thought Hubert had done well with his La Fleur Bouard especially for the vintage.
From Angelus we headed to Evangile for our last appointment of the day where again I enjoyed the toned down style of what is normally is a blockbuster wine before heading into St Emilion for a mouth cleansing ale.
10 visits today with 87 wines tasted. Tomorrow we head for the left bank with a long drive out to Calon Segur for a 8.30am…
Regards, The Yorkshireman in Bordeaux
