TN: 2000 Château Rauzan-Gassies (France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux)

[JimHow]

• 2000 Château Rauzan-Gassies - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux (11/4/2009)
  I think phlin on cellartracker nails it: Very strong on the nose, holds its own for a while on the palate, but then fades at the end. In the end, an enjoyable Margaux from a great vintage. (90 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

[Tom In DC]

But if Lynch Bages is a 5th growth, does this seem like a second?

[AlexR]

Tom,

>>> But if Lynch Bages is a 5th growth, does this seem like a second?

Good question, Tom, but I think you aleady knew the answer .

You might think it is a result of the froggification process after all these years, but it really is, IMHO, a question of terroir, or rather the *potential* of the terroir i.e. if you put a Jean-Michel Cazes in chage of Rauzan Gassies, I think that before very long at all he would bring the wine up to 2nd growth status.

In that respect, I think that the Classification probably still holds - mostly - true. And I subscribe to the theory that the immuability of the classification is its strongest point.
Just look at the mess in Saint Emilion!

All the best,
Alex

[stefan]

Rauzan-Gassies brings to mind Natalie Wood when the Harvard Lampoon voted her worst actress of this year, last year, and next year. If we had a vote on which Medoc is least deserving of its 1855 classification in the decade xxxx, I bet R-G would easily win for the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

stefan

[AlexR]

Stefan,

Rausan-Gassies' younger brother, Croizet Bages, would be neck and neck .

Alex

[stefan]

No way, Alex. While as bad as R-G, C-B is only a fifth growth.

stefan

[JimHow]

It was really striking-- and others on cellartracker noted this as well-- how the impressive nose on the 2000 Rauzan Gassies belied the palate.
In the end it warranted 90 points, but you get the impression that was more a function of the superb vintage rather than the quality of the estate.

[Blanquito]

What about the deuxièmes crus Dufort Vivens for underachiever?

[Nicklasss]

I would say that Rauzan Gassies, Croizet Bages and Marquis d'Alesme Backer have been long time under achiever for everyone.

In the case of Durfort-Vivens, I don't think this Chateau is an under achiever... I had the 2000, 2001 and 2003, all genuine to the Margaux style and really good wine. Refined style, all in finesse. Is it second growth? Well ask yourself another question : is Sociando-Mallet/Tertre Roteboeuf an unclassified growth? Nothing's perfect in the 1855 classification. Even some of the first growth had their bad time.

Nic

[Tom In DC]

Surprisingly, Marquis d'Alesme Becker made some decent wines in the 1980's, so that takes them out of the running for me.

[stefan]

Yes, I don't think that Marquis d'Alesme Becker can compete with Rauzan Gassies for the title of the worst classified plonk from Margaux. Certainly not Durfort-Vivens, which rarely produced an undrinkable wine even if I never had one that merited 2nd growth status.

stefan

[Blanquito]

So, is the Marquis d'Alesme Becker 2005 worth $30?

[stefan]

That's a fair price, Patrick, but in today's market I look for better deals. I paid $16.50 for the '05 Marquis d'Alesme Becker last month.

stefan

[Claudius]

Guys
I really think we should all chip in and buy out an underperforming margaux estate.
Wines from this village - when good - have a magical perfume and quite unique flavour, redolent of violets, roses, red and black fruits, that are about as good as wine can get.

Yet most of the properties are inconstent at best.

I visited Rausan Gassies after the harvest in 2000, and it amazes me how the fruit - which was in perfect condiiton - can not produce a great wine from this estate. I tried several older vintages and found that there are several flaws with the wines - one is poor handling, the other is old barrels that looked and smelled a bit mouldy, and in some wines, I noted brett.

This wine is a shadow of a second growth and so are several others. I think Lascombes has improved in recent years, but go through the 1855 classification. There are a range of properties that are no more than CB quality. I think Giscours and Dufort Viviens have improved as well, as have Du Tertre and Prieure Lichine, but they still don't offer the degree of consistency expected.

Yet RG is very consistent - a consistent underperformer. And I have had several vintages of Rausan Segla to suggest that this estate is also too variable for my liking. Again, some vintages are excellent, others seem badly made and/or faulty.

So maybe we should pool our resources and make a bit for RG!
Though maybe this should have happened when the greenback was so strong...

[AlexR]

Patrick,

Dufort Vivens is the perfect example of one of those wines that has gone pretty much underneath the radar but is much better than wine writers make it out to be.
I have had some fine bottles through the years.
The house style was long what you'd call "foursquare" i.e. classic Claret without much pizzazz, but that has changed in recent years.

Please buy yourself a bottle of 2004 D.V.
Several forumites have commented on how good this is.
Other recent vintages are in the same vein.

Claudius,

Yeah, I'll invest. LET''S DO IT.

All the best,
Alex R.

[chris kissack]

I visited Rausan Gassies after the harvest in 2000, and it amazes me how the fruit - which was in perfect condiiton - can not produce a great wine from this estate. I tried several older vintages and found that there are several flaws with the wines - one is poor handling, the other is old barrels that looked and smelled a bit mouldy, and in some wines, I noted brett.

Although visibly in perfect condition, do you think that can be guaranteed? I have always thought that their rigid adherence to machine harvesting is one of the problems that the Quié family need to overcome before they will make a wine worthy of a second growth.

[stefan]

Great idea, Mark. I wonder how much money it would take to buy and upgrade the estate.

stefan

[Tom In DC]

I'd guess US$100,000,000 would be a good start...

[AlexR]

I can pitch in about $ 79.99.

Alex R.

[Nicklasss]

Ok, it is maybe not Marquis d'Alesme Becker, but I know there is another long time underachiever...

Pedescleaux? Who drink that wine? I think I never read any comment about that wine.

Nic

[stefan]

I never drank a bad Pedescleaux. Unexciting, yes; boring, yes; bad, no.

$100 million, Tom?!?!

stefan

[Claudius]

Guys,
I actually have bought a few DV in recent years and yes, I do thik it has improved, but would like to see it consistently produce good wine, not just occasionally.

I don't know what RG would go for but can't possibly see it attracting $US100M.
Are any of you guys merchant bankers??
A way of doing a buyout would be to unitise it and sell of the units at (say) $100k each and then have an annual levy for management costs et al.

Chris K,
I get your point.
I think the estate tends to over-crop and I noticed a slight metallic taste in the wines that may be due to mechanical harvesting - or simply to some Brett.
I don't think any classed growth should machine harvest but if so, the grapes would need to be sorted before pressing.

[Tom In DC]

I didn't say $100MMM to buy it...the question was "buy and upgrade", right?

So, $20MM to buy and $60MM to upgrade it to the state-of-the-art showplace that the stellar terroir deserves.

The other $20MM? Hazardous waste disposal fees for existing stocks...

[JimHow]

$100 million? That's almost half the annual payroll of the best team money can buy in major league baseball!

[Blanquito]

There's no way we could make good wine there, not with all the sour grapes the BD has. Plus, no matter how much money we spend to make a great wine, he'll whine that the Chateau Latours of the world buy all of their success. This sort of koolaid will only sell well on Yawkey Way, I fear.

[Blanquito]

That was an oblique reference to the Yankees winning the World Series, if anyone wondered!

[JimHow]

Yes, let's, le's add oh, CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, and Mark Texeira in the off season to a team that already has Jeter, ARod, Rivera, Matsui, Posada, etc., etc. And they won? Wow, what a shock! What competitive balance. What a great accomplishment!! The New York Yankees and the MLB Players Union have ruined baseball.

[JimHow]

But in the end the Yankees played by the rules, so we have to congratulate our New York friends on a great season!
We'll get 'em next year!

[Ramon_NYC]

By then we would have added Jason Bay and, hopefully, Cliff Lee, so that we won't have to endure those 2 losses in the WS.

[DavidG]

Went to my nephew's Bar Mitzvah this weekend. Brought him and his little brother kipot with NY Yankees logos on them, just to p.o. the Boston contingent...

Anyway, as to Rauzan-Gassies, I don't have near a large enough fortune to turn it into a small fortune as the owner of a Bordeaux estate. By the time I built the gravity-feed winery, invested in all new barrels, paid off Michel Rolland, the micro-oxygenating equipment and the spinning cone and/or osmosis machine, I'd barely have enough left for a bottle of '07 Cotes du Rhone.

[Claudius]

Well,
Sounds like too many sour grapes and Baston didn't make the world series...

[AKR]

I had a fine bottle of the 2000 Rauzan Gassies [Margaux] over the last couple of nights, with a spatchcocked chicken, and then all by itself, as I assembled a new Nautilus exercycle for the household. I've had this since release and didn't realize I had any left but it was apparently misplaced over the years. When it was young, I found it tannic and powerful, now at maturity it has rounded out well. The nose is chock full of fragrant Margauxberries, and it still has good depth and color, then at the end, some cloudiness as I didn't decant. I realize there is lots of skepticism around this producer, but of the peak vintages I've bought (2000 & 2005) I've been satisfied with how they develop over time. For better or worse, this 12.5% abv wine is not modernized nor spoofy. If they are machine harvesting only, that might explain why they might struggle to make wine fitting their terroir in anything but a ripe, easy to deal with year. A vineyard, and workers, unable to handle the vagaries of soil and sun, is going to be much more weather dependent than a producer able to crop thin, green harvest, pick only the shoulders of grape clusters etc. FWIW, looking at the old school label, its very tough and resistant -- seems to handle water, moisture, everything really well.

Better on the 2nd day btw, and at the end an A- for me. I notched it up on day 2, initially I'd have given it a B+

Picture of the Rauzan Gassies robe here; I think it shows the color gradations best looking at the white cutting board underneath the glass

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3vRkWGCAdrGGwEXUA

[stefan]

That's a great picture gallery, Arv.