Another early morning start for Bordeaux 2013 En Primeur, left Bill's house at 7 am for our first day in the Medoc. Our first appointment was at Calon Segur in their impressive new tasting room. They have produced an elegant style of Calon however it was lacking its normal structure and backbone but will give pleasure in the short term. From Calon Segur we headed to Cos and Montrose, where the new barrel cellar was very impressive. These wines are attractive however lacking in some depth and structure which I believe will lead to 2013 being a much more forward drinking vintage.
From Cos we went to Lafite where we tasted Carruades, Duhart Milon and Lafite which had their characteristic elegant, finesse and style before heading to their Cousin next door at Mouton and tasted the Petit Mouton, D'Armailhac, Clerc Milon and Mouton Rothschild before tasting their white wine Aile D'Argent which was very good. I preferred Mouton to Lafite however the Lafite was very closed and unyielding so things could easily change. D'Armailhac I liked.
From Mouton it was a dash the other side of Pauillac to Grand Puy Lacoste where we tasted the Lacoste Borie, Haut Batailley and GPL which all had lovely elegance and if the price is right on release they will give a lot of pleasure.
Next was Pontet Canet which as you would expect is charming but lost depth and structure on the middle palate - yields are down by 50% in 2013 sadly the price is staying the same as last year, as they have already released. We then hand lunch at Pontet Canet where they served the 2000 Pontet Canet which was delicious and a real treat so a big thank you for such incredible generosity.
After Lunch we had a spare 45 minutes so we headed to Lafon Rochet (The yellow Chateau) for the UGC St Estephe and Pauillac tasting where some power tasting was required. Favourites were Pichon Lalande, Haut Bages Liberal and Batailley.
From Lafon Rochet we headed back to St Julien to Leoville Lascases where we tasted their collection of wines including Nenin, Fuges de Nenin, Chapelle de Potensac, Potensac, Le Petit Lion, Clos du Marquis and Leoville Lascalles. To be honest my favourite was the Clos de Marquis. It is so important to come to Bordeaux and taste, you learn so much more about the vintage and get the opportunity to see behind the labels and shed light on the real story behind the vintage. Comparing the last ten years, flowering in 2013 was the latest by miles, it didn't start until all the previous 10 years had finished. This resulted in the ripening / colour being behind and therefore the grapes didn't achieve total ripeness; this is then reflected in the depth and structure of the wines. In addition the rain late September forced the Chateaux to pick 4-5 days earlier than they would have liked. As Alexander Thienpoint mentioned for VCC it was "a competition between ripeness and rot." There is some fabulous charts (lovely wine geeky stuff) from Leoville Lascases which I will share with you on my return.
From Leoville Lascases we popped next door to Ducru Beaucauillou where we given a talk by the big man himself Bruno Borie. He claimed that he had changed the style of the 2013 vintage as he believes we are now all looking for more elegant wines with purity and not blockbusters - however we all know that he would have rather made another 2010 Ducru which got 100 points. His wines were good, very polished in style and great for the vintage. From Ducru we headed back to Pauillac to taste at Chateau Latour. It was a bit of a tease to be honest as Latour no longer release En Primeur. It was like taking children into a sweet shop and not allowing them to buy any! Latour was good and tops the first growth chart for 2013 however I still have Margaux (Thursday) and Haut Brion on Friday to taste.
At Latour we also tasted the 2008 Pauillac (3rd wine of Latour) the 2006 Forts de Latour which was still a bit tough and the 2004 Latour which was excellent but only just drinking.
From Latour it was back to reality as we went to the UGC St Julien tasting at Chateau Lagrange where we tasted all the St Julien's that we hadn't tasted like Beychevelle, Talbot, Gloria, Leoville Poyferre, Gruaud Larose and also a chance to re-taste Leoville Barton and Langoa Barton. I thought that St Julien was much better than Pauillac, I think the soils must have coped better with the challenging conditions. My favourites were Leoville Barton and St Pierre.
From Lagrange we raced back to Bordeaux for a 5 minute change into a suit for the Commanderie du Bontemps Dinner where we were truly spoiled with all sorts of wines like Margaux 1983, Montrose 83, Leoville Lascases 85 to name a few before arriving back at Bill's flat by midnight.
Wednesday has been a truly mad day with 11 separate tastings and 71 wines tasted
Its now 1.30am in the morning and I have to be up at 6am to leave for an 8.30 Tasting at Chateau Palmer... I am well and truly into the marathon, more miles to go tomorrow...
