09 Malartic Lagravière and others

[Nicklasss]

Dinner at a colleague house last night. We drank:

2019 Séguinot-Bordet Chablis: strong whiff of candied banana at the opening. Calm down and became mineral after 30 min. Quite good actually, and ripe pears, flowers and shell mineral flavors.

2017 Domaines des Lises Croze Hermitage: medium red. Nice nose of rasberry, meat and smoke. Medium body in mouth, with good fruit, good acidity with cherries. Not that long but good.

2009 Chateau Malartic Lagravière: dark red. On the nose, glossy milk black chocolate, sweet spices, ripe merlot berries, light plums and even a touch of eucalyptus. In mouth, caressing, good core of sweet fruit, mixed with light chocolate and luxurious wood. Good length, low acidity, sweet blackberries with long smoky minerals. I think this is the 4th bottle i had and the previous were more fruity with blackcurrants. Seems like it will never be shut.

2015 Chateau la Tour Saint-Bonnet: quite good, already more drinkable than the 09 Pessac. Good tones of red and blackfruits, mouth full of elegance, light earthy vegetals, more fruit and nicely integrated wood. Less long than the Pessac but drinks beautifully.

Nic

[JoelD]

I have one bottle of the 09 malartic. Would you suggest drinking sooner or later?

[Nicklasss]

Hi Joel.

The 2009 Malartic has lot of stuff, made in a charming concentrated modern way. I would recommend to wait 5-7 years to have more complexity and the fruit back on top of oak.

Nic

[JoelD]

Hi Joel.

The 2009 Malartic has lot of stuff, made in a charming concentrated modern way. I would recommend to wait 5-7 years to have more complexity and the fruit back on top of oak.

Nic

Thanks Nic, I'll (try) to wait Maybe I'll try a 2015 instead to see how it is young and if I want to buy more. Or the 2012

[William P]

A little off topic but had the 2016 Malartic the other day. Your description still holds for this vintage also. Very smooth, tannins offset by ripe fruit. Medium plus body but not flabby at all. Average acidity making for a well balanced wine. This modern style seems to allow both pleasant drinking while young and ability to age.

[JimHow]

I think I've told this story before, but we had a BWE dinner in Boston, I remember Arv was there, I remember Mark was there with his '96 Cos and coffee pot decanter. It must've been circa 2004-05, I'm thinking? Pretty sure SteveH and Josh were there, likely EricP as well, and others. SF Ed was there as well. I brought a bottle of Malartic Lagraviere, I don't recall the vintage.

I remember saying to Ed, sitting across the way: what do you think about the Malartic Lagraviere, Ed?

Ed said: It's good, but Parkerized...

Or something to that effect, that it was good, but too modernized, internationalized.

And I've been reluctant to purchase Malartic Lagraviere ever since. I think I have one bottle in my cellar.

[AKR]

I've only had a few vintages of Malartic Lagraviere, mostly at UGC events years ago, and neither the rouge/blanc really stuck out to me. It has always seemed kind of $ for what it was, but I guess SHL was that way year ago too....and now look how much more it is!

At least on the bright side, I don't think modern/international styled Bordeaux is rare, and its easy enough to find 'fungible' replacements. The distinctive AFWE ones are harder to replace, but at least there one can find some by word of mouth, or these boards, but it seems their bigger problem is that the estates themselves end up getting 'rebooted'. The truly unique flavors (Pavie Macquin, Latour a Pomerol and so on) are the ones that that I hope stilll remain accessible to ordinary consumers. The 2009 Latour at $1300 or whatnot has no more relevance to my life than 50mm Mayfair mansions....

[Nicklasss]

The Malartic of today remind me a bit where was Smith Haut Lafitte in 1994-2000, when oak was heavy. Since 2004, SHL has achieved to get get a classical touch to the early modern style.

In the few latest vintages of Malartic, 2005 is my favorite, while it is still modern but the vintage gave it an extra twist of fruit and structure.

The price of Malartic is not up the sky yet, so it is always a relative interesting choice in the modern style red Bordeaux. I guess it would be a very good match to whoopie pie.

Nic

[dstgolf]

Ever since our BWE visit in 2005 I've been a fan of malartic with multiple vintages of both red and white in the cellar which I still find the red a very good value and less so for the white which is more expensive by far.

[JimHow]

I had an absolutely gorgeous 2014 Malartic Lagraviere last night, a true revelation, as Comte would say.
What a stunning vintage 2014 is. Man, I wish I had more than that one bottle. I need to hunt out some 2016s.

[JimHow]

Just checked the NH website, man they don't give that stuff away, do they.

[William P]

Jim the 2016 Lafon Rochet is also a very pretty wine and about $10.00 cheaper than the Malartic. Its body is leaner that the Malartic but still has the stuffing to please. Again, 14, 15 and 16 will be memorable.

[JimHow]

Indeed, Bill, I have 10 bottles of the beautiful 2016 Lafon Rochet and am planning on adding more bottles when they go on sale in NH in a couple weeks.
They are just about ten dollars less than the Malartic.

[robert goulet]

'14 (vintage in general) may be the best of the '14/'15/'16 trio....'14 is 100% btr than '15, that's w/o question...still on the fence whether '14 is better than '16...'16 is no doubt a wonderful vintage, but, big 'But' it has some of that glossy texture that I am not the biggest fan of...still the quality is obvious.

[robert goulet]

From 2009 to '19..the vintages that I am most interested in is '10/'12/'14/'16/'17

[JoelD]

I went ahead and sampled the 2012 Malartic last night. It was a very good wine, fairly balanced, a little more floral than rustic. Not a ton of fruit, and tannins already integrating fairly well. Open for business but should improve with a few years in bottle. Not nearly as good as the 2005, which I would say falls in line with other thoughts on being somewhat modern. The 2012 felt like fairly classically styled Bordeaux to me and very enjoyable. TN 91-92 tonight.

[Nicklasss]

I also liked the 2012 in the past. Your description JoelD is similar to what i remember from that wine. And in the modern vintages, i think it is also my second favorite after the 2005.

I had the 2005, 2008, 2009, 2012, that i would rank in that order 2005-2012-2009-2008.

I bought some 2019, and i will suraly sample some other modern vintages someday as i think JeanFred has more different vintages of that wine than me.

Nic

[JoelD]

I also liked the 2012 in the past. Your description JoelD is similar to what i remember from that wine. And in the modern vintages, i think it is also my second favorite after the 2005.

I had the 2005, 2008, 2009, 2012, that i would rank in that order 2005-2012-2009-2008.

I bought some 2019, and i will suraly sample some other modern vintages someday as i think JeanFred has more different vintages of that wine than me.

Nic

I have a 3-4 bottles of the 2015 that I was able to get for about $42 per. I can get more for around 53 so I might have to try one of those soon. Will report back.

The 2005 was awesome, hopefully the 2009 comes around with age. I'll wait on my bottle

[JimHow]

The 2016 is $70 in NH, will be $60 on sale in a couple weeks.
A bit pricey but, based on the '14 I had the other night, I'll buy 2 or 3 bottles.

[dstgolf]

In the last 2 weeks we've had both the 2005 Malartic Lagraviere and Lafon Rochet. Two different kettles of fish and both drinking very well with ML showing typical Pessac leather/tobacco notes and LR more cedar/lead pencil closer to Pauillac than St Estephe. ML a little more modern and LR classic in style but both crafted well. These are different wines and bot Chateau are worthy of being in ones cellar and the $10 difference in price is inconsequential.

For a more economical Pessac that I haven't seen commented on here I sampled the first bottle of a 6 pack of Clos Marsalette from St Estephe the is recognizable from the Neippberg stable of wines very much along the lines of Canon la Gafaliere and d'Aiguilhe in terms of dark brambly extraction and very balanced with long finish. Great qpr for St Estephe in a modern style moreso than Malartic but in a good way. Here the 2019 futures release price is $37cdn so should be mid $20s usd and that's a very good value.