2000 Grand Mayne

[marcs]

As I’ve become a veteran (multi-decade!) wine collector, I’ve started to accumulate more and more bottles of wines I liked. This has given me an entirely different perspective on bottle variation. Rather than viewing multiple bottles as perfect copies, with their symmetry broken only by some hypothesized “flaw” ascribed without any evidence except subjective displeasure with a bottle, I now view them as more like brothers or sisters from the same family. We expect siblings to be similar, yet different. Is it so impossible that the inherent randomness in the process by which grapes are distributed to barrels and by which bottled wines age according to chemical processes almost completely mysterious to science would induce variation almost as strong as the genetic mixing of two parents?

These are the musings inspired in me by my latest bottle of 2000 Grand Mayne. This is a wine I have had many times previously, always with pleasure. Yet that pleasure has varied from a tepid approval to an awed delight at what was possible for an inexpensive but well aged right bank wine from a fine vintage. I believe here on BWE I have left previous notes testifying to the more moderate end of my experiences with this wine. Tonight, I experienced delight.

It began with the nose, which featured an ineffable ripe fruity juiciness reminiscent of a perfectly ripe sweet blackberry. This is a quality one finds only in right bank wines. Indeed, my ten year old son - not one of these “precocious” children who masters entire fields of study on adult prompting, but a self-directed and frankly somewhat lazy child generally contemptuous of adult priorities - immediately and instantly identified it as a right bank wine simply from a sniff. On the palate, the sweetness was met by a tangy acidity that gave the wine a lifted and medium body and a very pretty ‘wine-iness’ and sense of balance. There was a slight sour cherry quality in the background that was very pleasant at first but grew with time open to become a mildly sour note that did hint that this wine perhaps did not have the pure fruit concentration of a more expensive wine. Yet the pure sense of poise and balance - so often missing in more expensive and ‘worked’ wines — more than made up for that.

[AKR]

I wonder if, as some estates shift over to DIAM, like Lanessan, that the variation will be reduced over time.

From my experience, I have not noticed any unusual variability with Grand Mayne, but I have not consumed as much of it as you have.

[stefan]

I've had good experiences with the 2000 Grand Mayne and still have a couple left. Sounds like it has hit its peak. Fortunately, good Bordeaux takes quite a while to start the downhill slide.

[marcs]

I wonder if, as some estates shift over to DIAM, like Lanessan, that the variation will be reduced over time.

From my experience, I have not noticed any unusual variability with Grand Mayne, but I have not consumed as much of it as you have.

My point in this (somewhat tipsy) post was not that the 2000 Grand Mayne was unusually variable, but that bottle variation is usual and normal for aged wine. I have noticed such variability in many wines by now as my collection has gravitated toward including multiple bottles of wines I like. Also note the variability here is not between good and bad, but between pretty good and very good. Like, I’d say Grand Mayne has varied for me between about a 90/91 and a 93/94 if you want to try to put a subjective point metric on it. I’ve had other wines feel like they vary between 92 and 95 etc.

This is also something I’m noticing more as I orient my collection toward having an exceptional experience most times I open a bottle. Just because a wine is proven capable of delivering an exceptional experience doesn’t mean every bottle will do so - even if it is coming from the same batch, same storage, etc.

[Nicklasss]

Good note Marcs. Those 2000 are really coming aroung. I did not had Grand Mayne on many vintages, but i like it too.

The 2015 is excellent.

[JimHow]

The 1998 and 2000 Grand Mayne were excellent but from what I can tell the property has not done much since.

[jckba]

Nice note and comments regarding bottle variability in the same case as it is something that I frequently comment on to myself.

[Blanquito]

Love the 98 Grand Mayne, but I think we all do. Good to hear the 00 is damn good too.