2000 Château Citran, Haut Médoc

[AlexR]

I've not often had Citran (owned by the Merlaut family of Gruaud Larose, etc.) and decided to see if this wine was ready to go:

(decanted 2 and a half hours before serving)

Color: remarkably dark, so much so that you can hardly see through it. Showing only a little age on the rim.

Nose: plum and a little pepper, lead pencil, and waxed parquet there, but fairly muted
(because of the color and the plummy element, my wife, to whom I regulary subject blind tasting, guessed Cahors, and I can see why).

Taste: rich, ripe, and in a good place now. Finishes tight and puckery. This estate has 42% Merlot, but seems very Cabernet... The aftertaste is a little dry.

This confirms my experience that mid-level Bordeaux from the 2000 vintage is fine to drink now. In other words in the equilibrium between fruit and resolved tannins, I like wines like this at the present stage.

Best regards,
Alex R.

[rjsussex]

Thanks Alex

Quite a buzz in UK around the 09 Citran - one of the few 09s I'm considering as it's in sanity-price-land (another is the Calon-stable Capbern Gasqueton which HRH Jancis bought 3 cases of - for some reason that fact seems to have boggled the UK 09 campaign!)

Hope we meet one day. What are property prices like in the Bordeaux villages? Am vaguely and probably vainly considering leaving UK.

Best

Richard

[AlexR]

Hi Richard,

>>>Hope we meet one day.

Me too. I go to England on average once a year to see my wife's family in Bedfordshire.

>>>That are property prices like in the Bordeaux villages? Am vaguely and probably vainly considering leaving UK.

There has been a slump the past couple of years, and prices have always been lower than in England!

As for pulling up roots and moving abroad, it is a fairly mad thing to do... I did so in my twenties and don't regret it.

All the best,
Alex