TN: 1998 Château Le Bon Pasteur (France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol)

[Rick]

• 1998 Château Le Bon Pasteur - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol (8/1/2009)
  very enjoyable right out of the bottle.......however it did get better with some air, lots of sediment. Nice dark/purple color, nose - pencil,spice, mineral - just knew wine wold be good, Lots of berry , blackberry, smooth intergrated tannins......good finish. Was my last bottle (91 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

[dstgolf]

Sounds like a lovely wine. I was reading a review this week on the 98 Pomerol vintage and was very surprised to see how low the ratings were on the wines with a vintage that was so highly touted as one of the great right bank vintages.

Lafleur 91pts
Clos l'Eglise 92 pts
La Fleur Petrus 93 pts
Certain de May 89 pts
Conseillante 92 pts
La Grave a pomerol 89 pts
Clinet 90 pts
Croix de Gay 88 pts
Gazin 92pts

In my mind these scores are average but not overwhelming. Can't say apart from Rouget that I've had many times and would give it 88pts that I've had many 98's to pass comment. Have a few others sleeping that I guess that I should start pulling out along with some of the St Emillions.

Danny

[stefan]

89 for Certan de May is low. 92 for Gazin looks reasonable.

In my experience, the '98 St Emilions are more forward than the Pomerols. Of course, the good ones from either appellation are years away from peaking, so it is too bad that you finished your Bon Pasteur, Rick.

stefan

[Ramon_NYC]

This is a personal favorite 98 Right Bank that deliverered at its price point, imho. Enjoyed it last year out of the bottle, too.

[AlexR]

Danny,

Whose notes were they?

I am fortunate to have a 98 Evangile (which I bought yesterday) and a 98 Vieux Château Certan in my cellar, which I would love to serve at the same meal.

I checked Cellartracker : both of those wines have good press.
I makes me thankful that there are more sources for these notes than just one or two critics.

All the best,
Alex

[Rick]

Alex
I always check cellar tracker now before buying into the marketing hype around some wine
lots of regular guys around the world weighing in - of course most of us are just amatuers

I believe I only had 2 Bon Pateur.....both gone but there is a lot of other options now to try in the cellar

rick

[DavidG]

Danny, I wouldn't be too disappointed in those scores. They are almost all excellent (>90). How jaded are we when 92s and 93s are "average?" I will admit that a pretty good number of bottles I open have scores in that range, but that doesn't make them average. They still excite me. Besides, what do scores mean taken out of context?

As to the '98 right bankers in particular, I've got only about a case and wish I had more. Vieux Chateau Certan, Quinault L'Enclos, Monbousquet have all been excellent over the past year.

[PappaDoc]

Cellar Tracker is the best gauge for me. You get to know the names of the posters ( at least 5-10 BWE Folk) and can be certain that a wine reviewed in the last 6 months is an accurate picture of what you should get if you open one.

It's fun to read one posters comments (Stuarts "SDR") over a period of 4-5 years for the same wine to watch it's developement. Something few professional critics do. Although some (Speculator, Porker, etc) will do a ten year retospect, I like the yearly posts on one wine from one person better.

David, I'm going to check the price on the 01 Montee in Zachys data base today. If it was $65 I'm sorry I didn't buy a full case. Zachys Empolyees get a discount, but when prices are really cut, we pay the same price as our Customers. At those prices, I'm more than happy!

[johnz]

I've had the '98 Le Bon Pasteur 4 or 5 times in the last 3 years, largely from 375 format, and have always been surprised at how young this wine seems. I last tired this last month and found it finally showed some complexity, very full and concentrated, but still holding some tooth-drying tannin and needing a bit of decanter time for my tastes, and yes lots of sediment in these -- even the 1/2s. This is good wine with years to go and I'm keeping my hands off the 750s for a while yet.

--Gary Rust

[DavidG]

Pappa, I may have incorrectly recorded the price of the Raveneau Montee, but I think it was $65, and the Dauvissat La Forest offered at the same time was $45. Both very very good deals, but especially so for the Raveneau which is a little richer, perhaps a little less classically steely-Chablis, but right up my alley.