2019 tasting - 12 wines version 2

[Claudius2]

Guys
My tongue is rather black coloured and battered by tannins and acid, but the wines were very good.
These wines show me again that 2019 is the real deal - there is plenty of structure and fruit and they will live a long time.
The right bank wines showed good red fruits and tobacco meshed with structure and oak.
Th left bank wines were tight and structured, with plenty of ageing ability.

There was no one wine that stood out, but Giscours was the wine voted WOTN largely due to its richness.
Okay, L'Evangile was by a mile the most expensive but frankly, wasn't THAT much better to justify the lofty price (don't forget wines are more expensive here than Europe or Nth America).

RIGHT BANK

La Croix St Georges Pomerol
Not a wine I know a lot about, only tried it once before some years ago.
Nice dark red colour, mahogany rim.
Nose was savoury, with red fruits, tobacco and spice.
Palate was softly fruity - red and black fruit - plus nuts, tobacco and plums.
With time, showed richer and sweeter plummy fruit. Moderate acidity and tannins.
Not as complex as some others but very good at least.

Le Bon Pasteur Pomerol
Nice dark red/black colour, slightly pink/purple rim.
Nose showed French oak - cedar, vanilla, pencil lead - plus some herbs and earth.
Palate was quite rich, with moderate acidity and tannins. Well balanced and savoury.
Very Good+ maybe better with age. Needs time. The fruit did show through with more air and maybe it will be excellent with time.

La Dominique St Emilion
Very dark red/black, pinkish rim. Quite dense.
Dark fruit, leather and iodine/ink on the nose.
Palate is medium to full bodied, with red and black fruits, mocha, tobacco and earth.
Well balanced with moderate acidity and tannins. Shows the Merlot well.
Quite drinkable now and performs above its ranking.
Excellent. Will drink well before several others.
This wine was voted the best of the less expensive labels. I agreed, though partly due to its more open profile.

Trottevielle St Emilion
Not as dense as La Dominique and a touch of mahogany at the rim.
Nose was quite spicy, with tobacco, savoury undergrowth characters and red fruits.
Medium intensity, good acid and tannins.
There is more Cab Franc here and it shows a more savoury, herbal character but also offers good fruit.
Opened well with more time. I really like this but needs some time.
Excellent.

L'Evangile Pomerol
This was by some way the most expensive wine and probably led to higher expectations than all the others.
Good dark black/red colour, without that pinky/purple rim of other right bank wines.
Nose was very reticent at first. Smoky, oaky, earthy, dark fruit, tobacco and truffle.
Took a few hours to show the complex fruit, but the wine is silently powerful and well balanced.
Palate was complex though not particularly fruity - it is very smoky and oaky now, yet clearly a classy and tightly wound wine.
It was met with some discussion - many did not think it was vaguely worth the price (relative to others) yet to be fair, it was stylistically unique in this company.
I have not had this wine for some years and it was still quite closed. Yet the oak, acid, tannins and fruit are all there for ageing and I can imagine that in 20 years, it will make the other right bank wines look simple.
Judgement reserved though I did enjoy it a lot.

We had three St Juliens that all showed well:

Beychevelle
Dark colour with black/red rim.
Nose was initially earthy, oaky, with tobacco and cassis fruit.
Initially quite firm, it opened to a complex and interesting palate with cassis and red fruits.
Good acid and tannic balance and it should age well.
I like this a lot. There is ripeness and balance, the components are well in proportion and there is softness and sweetness meshed to good structure.
The initial palate characters of firmness and tannins opened to reveal good fruit and acid.
Excellent.

Branaire Ducru
Maybe it did not show so well after the Beychevelle, but I saw a lot of structure for ageing.
Bright red/black with pink/purple rim.
Quite tightly wound nose, with iodine, ink, vanilla oak and cassis.
Palate was medium bodied, with moderate acid and firm tannins.
With a few hours in the Riedel glass, it showed more fruit, a touch of espresso and red fruits, some cassis and earth.
Very good+, maybe a notch below Beychevelle. But a nice wine in its own right.

Langoa Barton
Not sure why we got this wine again after the last tasting.
Like the prior event, the colour was dark and pink/purple at the rim.
The nose was more obviously oaky than any other - there is a lot of vanilla, smoky, nutty oak and soft, ripe fruits.
There is a touch of savoury characters, plus a little balsamic vinegar and iodine.
A touch of alcohol heat though not too bad.
Opened well to show a lot of fruit and oak, with moderate acid and firm tannins.
Excellent-.
This wine seems more open than any of the other left bank wines and I am still wondering if it is a change in style from the Bartons?

Then two Margaux:

Giscours
Very bright pinky/purple rim looking like a young shiraz.
Nicely expressive nose with an array of fruit - violets, plums, redcurrant and cassis.
On the palate, medium to full bodied, with firm tannins and balanced acidity.
This wine stood out on the palate with mulberries, raspberries, cassis and plums.
Quite layered and creamy, with some vanilla and smoky oak.
With more air (and heat) the fruit jumped out of the glass.
Yet it also had good structure and I expect it to be quite a mouthful with age.
Excellent+

Prieure Lichine
A sterner, firmer wine than the Gascours, more tannic and less expressive at this stage.
Similar dark red colour and pinky/purple rim, with a nose of dark fruit and French oak.
Cassis and mulberries on the palate, medium bodied, firm acid and tannins.
Wendy found this a bit too firm, but it opened quite well with air.
It was longer, cooler and firmer than the Giscours though maybe not as interesting or complex.
Still I like the style and it showed the structure and power for ageing.
Excellent-.

Two Northern Medocs - HB was also a repeat.

Phelan Segur St Estephe.
"Only" a CB. But pretty good.
More mahogany at the rim, slightly stalky nose with more savoury/tobacco characters than the other left bank wines.
Palate was a little closed and seemed less interesting.
It shows firm acid, tannins and oak with savoury fruit, though not the ripeness of the St Juliens or Margaux wines..
My least favourite wine but I also think it will need some ageing to show its best.
Good to very good.
Wait and see.

Haut Batailley Pauillac
Again, a wine tried at the previous tasting and it showed pretty well, offering good cassis fruit and structure.
Very dark black/red and touch of purple at the rim.
Typical Pauillac structure with firm tannins and good balance. It did not offer quite the richness of the Margaux or St Julien wines but carried itself with composure and balance. Long and cool rather than round and open.
It reminded me of the 2005 at the same age. Opened well with well balanced, medium bodied fruit, good length and firm acid and tannins.
Exellent-.
Similar to what I recalled but maybe this sample was a bit more open and balanced.
Needs some years but surely will be very nice.

During the first take, I ate a t-bone steak with Portobello mushrooms which accentuated the fruit and tamed the acid and tannins.
I re-tasted all wines a few hours later and unsurprisingly, the fruit seemed richer but the tannins and acid were there in abundance.

2019 is a top vintage based on the two tastings.
The right bank wines today were better than the prior tasting - probably understandable. There was good complexity, and without flabbiness or overt sweetness. They showed tobacco and savoury characters along with the fruit. This is definitely a vintage to buy.

The left bank wines were quite tannic. Even now, 2-3 hours later, the tannins are firmly on my tongue but there is everything in the bottle to expect a long life and pleasurable drinking for decades.

Not sure of the alcohol in any of these wines, but I did not get the feel of overt, spirity alcohol in any.
That was a relief. The balance is very good - maybe I noticed alcohol once or twice but never did I get that prune like character of over-ripeness in any wine.

cheers
Mark

[AlexR]

Mark,

Thanks for your excellent notes.
They make for interesting reading.

It makes you wonder how the same wines would show in, let's say, 5 years, maybe 10.

99 is, in my opinion, a good vintage that is more approachable than most.

All the best,
Alex

[Claudius2]

Alex
Interesting that you mentioned 99.
It was never a highly rated vintage though the few I have tried aged better than expected.
cheers
Mark

[Musigny 151]

There have been several delays over here getting the wines. I was hoping to do a dating before they shut down, but it seems from your tasting, some have already started.

[Comte Flaneur]

Thanks for those excellent notes Mark. Even though I don’t own any of those wines they provide a useful insight into the vintage.

I found your comment about Langoa particularly interesting because when Alex, Patrick and I went to see Lilian Barton in October she opened some 2019 Leoville and I was surprised at how easy, user friendly and inviting it was - not what I expected - so perhaps you could be on to something about a change in style.

[Nicklasss]

Thank you Claudius for the excellent notes.

Looking forward to receive my 2019 this fall, to open one for the science.

[Claudius2]

Ian
I have now sipped the Langoa Barton twice and whilst I quite liked it, it not much like any other vintage I’ve tried. Not sure if it will shut down but the group was generally a bit surprised with its style. It didn’t have the savoury characters of several other wines. The only Langoa I have in any volume is the 2005 - not opened the wooden case yet - and I’d be happy if it ends up like the 2019. I’ve been reticent to try it as the 2006 I found to be rather boring and unimpressive.

The Langoa showed more vanilla than any other wine though quite a few did have firm oak. I suppose it is more modern than I expected but after the 2006, maybe that isn’t a bad thing.

[Ambrose]

Thanks for the notes Mark.

I bought 6 x Langoa 2019 en prem and am now suitably intrigued. Yet to try an 18 or 16 yet but have been howing the odd bottle of 14, 15 & 17. Seems like quite a personality change - don’t much like the sound of that vanilla!

[Claudius2]

Ambrose
I actually like some vanilla provided that it does not overpower the fruit.
In this case it does walk a fine line but I’d expect that with time, the oak will integrate. The is still good structure to the wine with enough acid and tannins to carry it. Yet Langoa and Leoville Barton are not wines I’d normally think of as showing overt vanilla.

Having a long memory, the 1982 Langoa is the closest match I can think of. That vintage was in the late 80s and early 90s squire similar with some vanilla and milk chocolate, which is partly why the English questioned the style of 1982. The Leoville Barton was better (82 was the first vintage I bought en primeur) with more structure but again with that chocolate like character. I drank most of the case relatively young and never regretted it. So I think the 2019s will be similar and likely to change over time.

So I think just wait for several years and try it then. I am quite confident and overall think 2019 is a vintage to buy.

Cheers
Mark

[JimHow]

I howed a couple bottles of the 2018 Langoa. Liked the style, although, very sweet as a result of the high alcohol vintage, of course. Still, clearly a high quality effort beneath the flaws of the vintage.

[Claudius2]

Jim
What was the ABV level?
I have not tried any classed growths from 2018 but have had a few GC St Emilions that were quite good though pushing it a bit with alcohol.
Cheers
Mark

[JimHow]

It was 14.5% Mark, and to me the alcohol is not “hidden” in the 2018 vintage, it is right there up front. It does seem to tame down a bit as the wine opens up, as with the 14.5% Siran I had the other day, but it is definitely a problem with the 2018 vintage.

[Claudius2]

Jim
I got a mailer from a local retailer yesterday offering numerous tight bank 2018s at reasonable prices. They showed the labels and I noticed that some were 15.5% alcohol. Despite that they listed high points etc (96, various gold medals and awards) for them. 14% was the lowest and that was uncommon.

The tasters at the 2019 event were loading up on 2016 and 2019, yet seemed rather indifferent for 18, 29 and 21.

So I’m giving 2018 a miss. However I’ve bought more 2019s and the 22 wines I’ve tried this month were all pretty good and offered complexity and balance without overt alcohol. I did notice some alcohol in a few but not the hot character I get with wines with 15.5%.

Cheers
Mark

[Dionysus]

Thanks for the great notes Mark, appreciated.
It appears that 19 is delivering on it's early promise...most commentary is very positive thus far.

Re 18 & 20, would definitely act somewhat cautiously when it comes to ABV but many estates did manage to manage it appropriately. St Estèphe always tends to fair better in hotter years, plus those estates close to the banks of Gironde.

I wonder could you trust the stated ABV for the 18 and 19 vintages given the tariff situation?

[DavidG]

I bought 2019 en primeur. Only a couple that were in Mark’s tasting but all the notes were very useful. I had no interest in 2018, 2020, or 2021. My Bordeaux purchases this year have been 2016 backfills.

[jckba]

My Bordeaux purchases this year have been 2016 backfills.

Ain’t nothing wrong with that!

[JimHow]

I’ll be buying 3-4 bottles of my annual favorites from 2019, and then the occasional Burg or whatever from time to time, but I think the David G plan of “leaving a modest sized cellar to my heirs” is to me the perfect idea…. I get the nuance…. There will still be some great stuff in there, I hope to be able to drink at least some of it, but if not it’ll go to my heirs to drink or sell or celebrate or do with it whatever they please! Wine and life, they go hand in hand!

[Claudius2]

Conor
I really can’t say but wine imported into Singapore has the same issue - the alcohol is taxed and not the value of the wine. In my old country (Australia) it is the other way round. The tax is 46% thus top wines are an easy target for revenue for the tax office.

The stated level is generally rounded to a half per cent in most cases so 14% can be more or less, though there are reasons to understate it and I really doubt if anyone tests or verifies it for import duties and taxes.

One anecdote I can verify is that some famous labels vary the label for different markets. Not sure if the actual contents varies - I know for a simple fact that is doesn’t in at least some cases. However I did a Zoom based online tasting with Turkey Flat from the Barossa last year and the stated alcohol was 13% (2017 Shiraz) yet the maker said it was actually 12.7%. This led to some questions about why many wines from the same region were way higher. He simply said that they wanted to make Shiraz with balance and freshness.

I’ve written about this numerous times but the high alcohol monsters coming out of south Australian regions - Barossa and McLaren Vale mainly - are being produced to suit a market and the Australian Wine Research Institute encouraged them for some years. Recently they have backed off as the hi alcohol wines are losing favour and prices on secondary markets have fallen.

Here in balmy Singapore where it is always hot and humid, the higher alcohol wines taste much worse than they do in cooler climates. I was back in Australia a few weeks ago and the temperate late Autumn weather was much better for bigger wines and avoidance of such wines is something of a necessity here.

Cheers
Mark

[AKR]

Nice spectrum of wines. If you have the patience, La Croix St Georges and Le Bon Pasteur will keep better than one might think.