d'Aighuile 2004,de Pez 1999

[dstgolf]

Two nice wines with BBQ this week. Finally a couple of days of sunshine. A rare commodity here this Summer.

d'Aighuile 2004 not as nice as some of the recent vintages(00,03,05 and even 02) with a little lacking in the mid palate but still a very nice well priced Bordeaux that all Bordeaux lovers should be familiar with and if not should be. Drinking nicely now and good for another 5 yrs +. Better than many in its price range but starting to creep up as wine becomes better known. Not as full bodied with lighter fruit raspberries and plums rather than the dark berries of the de Pez. Good length and ripe tannins. 89 pts

de Pez 99 was a surprise. Not expecting much but this St Estephe delivered a wonderful surprise and maybe the house is starting to turn things around. Have been disappointed with the few that I've had through the 90's but this diplayed nice concentration with spicy cassis and beautiful nose. Green pepper blew off in half hour decant. Tannins still somewhat chewy but beautiful match with grilled T-bones. Lovely wine and sorry that I only have one more bottle. 91 pts.

Danny

[rjsussex]

Thanks.

De Pez now owned by Roederer, I think, and quality has been ratcheted up. The 05 is impressive though currently showing a touch oaky.

Soft spot for the property: the 78 ousted GPL in the early 80s. Used to be UK-owned and as an experiment they bottled a small part of the 70 crop as single varieties. I was lucky enough to sample these and I recall being startled at how unpleasant, relatively speaking, the Cab Sauv bottling was.

I visited the property in, I think, 1983 when the winemaker was a very dour M.Dousson. I asked him to describe the relative merits of the 81 and 82 and got the dismissive answer I deserved: 'oh, much the same'.

Richard

[Houndsong]

Interesting Richard, I think somebody on the old BWE (one of the Marks) had a post and I think a picture about the 1970 varietal bottlings at Ch. de Pez. http://bordeauxwine.org/bwe/new/7/96747/

[Houndsong]

Also Danny, was this your first time having the 04 d'Aiguilhe? There have been some comments here I think that it was drying up or going downhill already. I'm about half way through a case and I agree with your impressions. Nice, but not as powerful as prior von Nieppburg (sp. sorry) versions.

[Chasse-Spleen]

de Pez has had various seesaw style changes in just the past few years. '01 was wonderful and classic, a mouthfull of dry wine with great stuffing and fruit. '03, though touted by RP, was extremely modern and flabby by comparison. I'm always interested in de Pez for some reason. You don't see a lot around though and as prices have gone up, I can't say that I think it's that great of a value.
-Chris

[dstgolf]

Hound,

No way is the d'Aighuile drying up. Certainly a weaker showing than some other vintages recently but still very nice and still have 8 bottles left to enjoy over the next year or two. I don't think this wine will improve but it will stay in this plateau for 3-5 years at least with plenty of fruit and tannins to hold it. Certainly I'm not looking for this to get much better but I'll space the remainder over a while with no great rush to finish the remaining bottles.

Danny