Second Wine Thread [2015 Saint-Jacques de Siran]
Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2022 1:23 am
Some years ago AlexR had a good overview of secondary bottlings, even conducting a rather rare panel of many of them all at once, which he covered in this thread: https://www.bordeauxwineenthusiasts.com ... hp?p=46359
Poking around my offsite, I've gathered up a few myself too, and will be tasting through them, and putting notes/pix into this consolidated thread. And of course, others are most welcome to join the merriment, and sharing of notes as well.
As Julian Marshall has noted the label of Blason d'Issan looks almost like its big brother, so much so that when I pulled a 2012 from a box, I had actually grabbed the wrong bottling, and had gotten all the way to cutting the capsule off the grand vin before I realized that I'd rather save the flagship until it was fully mature. I had not had their second wine before, and the bottle had been squirreled away near release, so I didn't have the mental memory of what it looked like. There is no clever cellar management software or organizational structure imposing order on the chaos!
The 2012 Blason d'Issan [Margaux] is a polite, medium bodied, rouge that has only a hint of red fruited Margaux berries. The structure is on the soft side, with tannins resolved and low acidity. I'm sure it will continue to keep, but given that there was no evolution on the 2nd day of being open, it's ideal for consumption today. The color is still on the ruby side, with no bricking. With lots of swirling, I pick up some leather and then cedar.
This vintage of Blason is a polished wine, but does not speak of 'place' to me. That may be an aspect that is overhyped anyways, as what I was really looking for was a red wine that I could imbibe with white fish. And one of the universally acknowledged most important wine pairing rules is to combine elements that (quasi) rhyme; eventually I was able to determine that Blason d'Issan and Fresh Water Fish'an were a lawful and valid combination.
Overall, this rouge is a delicious, refined wine that will impress a consumer looking for a elegant Bordeaux. It's a great example to demonstrate the difference between a coarse Lodi AVA blend, or a chunky Languedoc AOC. Maybe a brighter line of acidity would have paired better with supper, but I rarely buy/keep/drink high acid reds, e.g. Barbera and blends. But a hardcore BWE looking for a weeknight wine of character, typicity and value ($20) this might lightly underwhelm, thus it gets a B+ on the scorecard. (The labor intensive preparation for the fresh water trout merited an A though, as evidenced by the bad etiquette my otter+hyena family displayed when they realized J might not finish her slab....)
An open question: how might this do in a blind panel against equivalent peers todays's consumer might choose from - 10 year old d'Angludet or La Tour de Mons etc. It is very strong against the dusty examples of "$20 Margaux AOC" I remember from decades ago. Perhaps stefan can share some context around that....
PS: I forgot to mention that Musigny151 has hosted great events with Emmanuel Cruse that we've attended, and not only does he make interesting wines at d'Issan, he's an unusually handsome & well dressed Bordelais!
Poking around my offsite, I've gathered up a few myself too, and will be tasting through them, and putting notes/pix into this consolidated thread. And of course, others are most welcome to join the merriment, and sharing of notes as well.
As Julian Marshall has noted the label of Blason d'Issan looks almost like its big brother, so much so that when I pulled a 2012 from a box, I had actually grabbed the wrong bottling, and had gotten all the way to cutting the capsule off the grand vin before I realized that I'd rather save the flagship until it was fully mature. I had not had their second wine before, and the bottle had been squirreled away near release, so I didn't have the mental memory of what it looked like. There is no clever cellar management software or organizational structure imposing order on the chaos!
The 2012 Blason d'Issan [Margaux] is a polite, medium bodied, rouge that has only a hint of red fruited Margaux berries. The structure is on the soft side, with tannins resolved and low acidity. I'm sure it will continue to keep, but given that there was no evolution on the 2nd day of being open, it's ideal for consumption today. The color is still on the ruby side, with no bricking. With lots of swirling, I pick up some leather and then cedar.
This vintage of Blason is a polished wine, but does not speak of 'place' to me. That may be an aspect that is overhyped anyways, as what I was really looking for was a red wine that I could imbibe with white fish. And one of the universally acknowledged most important wine pairing rules is to combine elements that (quasi) rhyme; eventually I was able to determine that Blason d'Issan and Fresh Water Fish'an were a lawful and valid combination.
Overall, this rouge is a delicious, refined wine that will impress a consumer looking for a elegant Bordeaux. It's a great example to demonstrate the difference between a coarse Lodi AVA blend, or a chunky Languedoc AOC. Maybe a brighter line of acidity would have paired better with supper, but I rarely buy/keep/drink high acid reds, e.g. Barbera and blends. But a hardcore BWE looking for a weeknight wine of character, typicity and value ($20) this might lightly underwhelm, thus it gets a B+ on the scorecard. (The labor intensive preparation for the fresh water trout merited an A though, as evidenced by the bad etiquette my otter+hyena family displayed when they realized J might not finish her slab....)
An open question: how might this do in a blind panel against equivalent peers todays's consumer might choose from - 10 year old d'Angludet or La Tour de Mons etc. It is very strong against the dusty examples of "$20 Margaux AOC" I remember from decades ago. Perhaps stefan can share some context around that....
PS: I forgot to mention that Musigny151 has hosted great events with Emmanuel Cruse that we've attended, and not only does he make interesting wines at d'Issan, he's an unusually handsome & well dressed Bordelais!