What'syour favorite chateau?

[Blanquito]

I think it will be fun to poll BWE on your favorites...

1) What's your stranded-on-a-deserted-island, it's-the-last-wine-of-your-life, money-is-no-object, year-in-and-year-out all-time favorite Bordeaux chateau?
2) What's your favorite all time single Bordeaux (chateau plus vintage)?
3) What's your favorite Bordeaux "sleeper" chateau (usually less than $50 in 2009 dollars)?
4) What's your favorite QPR Bordeaux chateau (usually less than $30 in 2009 dollars)?

The only rule is you have to have actually tasted the wines (no 1900 Chateau Margaux pipe-dreams).

My answers:
1) Pichon Lalande (*I haven't had enough 1st Growths to really know I love them)
2) 1986 Mouton
3) Lagrange
4) La Vieille Cure

[William P]

Blanq this is very weird.

Pichon Lalande
1982 Pichon Lalande
Lagrange (first) then Branaire Ducur or Grande Puy Lacoste
Gloria

[jal]

1 Haut Brion
2 1990 Beausejour Duffau (a delicious aberration)
3 Lagrange or d'Issan
4 Gloria or du Tertre

[Corr]

1. Sociando Mallet
2. 1982 Beychevelle
3. Ummm, I rarely spend more than $50, so this is Sociando again
4. Poujeaux

[Claudius]

1. Margaux
2. Margaux 82 or 83 for current drinking.
3. Branaire in recent years, though Lagrange, GPL and SM get a look in
4. Bellevue Haut Medoc

[JimHow]

1. Lafite Rothschild (the '96 we had in Maine a couple weeks ago was stunning).
2. 1988 Dal Forno Romano Amarone
3. Duhart Milon
4. I can't think of any wines that really excite me for under $30 in 2009 dollars. Gloria and Cantemerle from the NH Liquor Store have been quite good at that price level in the past couple years, I guess.

[DavidG]

1) Haut Brion
2) 1959 Lafite (by a hair over 3 or 4 others)
3) No single Chateau - has varied too much over time
4) See #3

[DavidG]

Jim, when did they move Amarone to Bordeaux?!?

[JimHow]

Ah misread that, DavidG, then in that case there is a certain wine from the vintage of 1989 that was harvested from the Bages Plateau that would satisfy the criteria of question #2....

[DavidG]

Now that sounds more like our BD!

[Ramon_NYC]

1. Cos d’Estournel
2. 1982 Lafite Rothschild (may soon change to the 1989 HB or LMHB)
3. Brane Cantenac
4. du Tertre

[stefan]

1. Lafite
2. Too hard. Maybe 1982 Mouton for drinking now.
3. Too easy. La Lagune.
4. du Tertre now; used to be D'Armailhac.

stefan

[JimHow]

Where can we get du Tertre for under $30?

[billfgrady]

1. Ducru Beaucaillou
2. 1983 Chateau Margaux
3. Domaine de Chevalier
4. Lafon Rochet

[Blanquito]

Until the 2005 vintage, I consistently purchased du Tertre for less than $30 if I bought as futures.

[Comte Flaneur]

First (second, third)

1. Lafite (Margaux, Le Pin )
2. d'Yquem 1937 (Petrus 1964, Latour 1970)
3. Haut-Bailly (Leoville-Barton, Calon Segur)
4. Batailley (Gloria, Moulin De La Rose?)

Supplementary question: favourite all time estate?

La Conseillante (Ducru Beaucaillou, Figeac)

[Tom In DC]

Answering from Zurich, after most of a lovely bottle of 2004 Il Colle Brunello di Montalcino (a recco of our favorite wine merchant in Firenze), I feel like I'm channeling DavidG...

1) Haut Brion (allows for drinking their great blanc when the menu demands a white, as well as access to La Mission, Laville, and all the other relatives!)

2) 1959 Lafite (I've had this at least six times, and all six might be in the top 20 wines I've ever had.)

3) At any price point below the Firsts and Super Seconds, there isn't anyone I'd just throw money at (and I don't throw money at the 1sts or 2nds without tasting and/or a lot of reading.)

4) See #3!

Auf wiedersehen,
Tom

[DavidG]

My one experience with the '59 Lafite was thanks to the generosity of Tom in DC, who served it at a pre-Millenium party he hosted almost a decade ago. I can still taste it if I close my eyes.

[dstgolf]

Tough one.

1) Margaux
2)59 Ducru courtesy of Werner and Chris with 82 Certan de May neck and neck
3)Lagrange
4la Pointe or d"Aghuile

Danny

[brodway]

Leoville Las Cases
1990 Montrose
Sociando Mallet
2000 Du Tertre

[stefan]

Tom, would you explain

>>
3) At any price point below the Firsts and Super Seconds, there isn't anyone I'd just throw money at (and I don't throw money at the 1sts or 2nds without tasting and/or a lot of reading.)

4) See #3!
>>




stefan

[Nicklasss]

Of course, this is always a tough question to answer.

1) Chateau Léoville Las Cases (from 1975 to now).
2) 1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild or 1995 Chateau d'Yquem.
3) Chateau Branaire-Ducru.
4) Chateau La Dauphine in Fronsac.

Extra question from Comte :

Chateau Sociando-Mallet.

Nic

[Tom In DC]

stefan,

I guess I'm basically saying I don't have a favorite sleeper or QPR estate. I'd accept Lagrange, La Lagune, Branaire-Ducru, Sociando-Mallet, Poujeaux, du Tertre, and many others mentioned as qualified for the category, but I would never decide which ones to buy without tasting. I would buy (and have bought) any of these estates, but in my opinion none of them represent good value every year.

I guess one could say the same about the firsts and super-2nds, but to my way of thinking they're a more reliable buy if you like the house style. Of course, I don't buy any of these every year, either!

Tom

[sdr]

I'm with Tom on questions #3 and #4.

As for #1, it's Latour. Not too many off vintages for them and a lot of great ones that last forever.

#2 - '61 Petrus from magnum, the only wine I've rated 100+ points because I had tasted it before from 750s and rated it 100 but this one was better. A friend of mine picked it up at a fancy wine shop in one of the major hotels in Las Vegas for something like $3000, which was really cheap even then, about 10 years ago. It was prominently displayed under bright lights and although the condition appeared good by inspection, no provenance history was available. It being Las Vegas he (and another guy) rolled the dice and bought all three magnums, sold one and drank the other two for free.

~stuart

[hautbrionlover]

1. Either Haut Brion or Cos
2. '82 Pichon Lalande
3. La Lagune
4. Hard to say, but probably Meyney

[Blanquito]

Ok, the tally so far...

Haut Brion (3.5 votes)
Lafite (3 votes)
Leoville Las Cases (2 votes)
Margaux (2 votes)
Pichon Lalande (2 votes)
Cos (1.5 votes)
Sociando (1 vote)
Ducru (1 vote)
Latour (1 vote)

I find this interesting reading. I guess there's no big surprizes in Q's #3 and 4, but if I ever have some big bucks to spend on auction or want to lay down some great growths, I've got some good ideas from this thread. For instance, no votes for Mouton as go-to first growth, despite numerous votes for great bottles, etc.

[stefan]

I see, Tom. Over the years I have had enough busts from 1sts and super 2nds that I don't regard them as being more reliable than some more modest estates. That might have changed in the last decade or so; at least my experience with younger Bdx is much more limited.

stefan

[aimeedogdogdog]

1. Ducru Beaucaillou
2. '82 Ducru Beaucaillou (One bottle happened once only. The other 10 or so bottles of the same wine not even came close. Pretty odd. Would it be the separate bottling from different vats in the old days when there were no big enough tank to mix up the juice from the entire vintage?)
3. D'Issan
4. don't know and for the same reason of Tom.

[robertgoulet]

1. Smith Haut Lafitte
2. Palmer

[JonoB]

Late to the party but...

1. Lafite
2. 1961 Chateau Palmer
3. Durfort-Vivens
4. Poujeaux

[Ramon_NYC]

Time to update mine:

1) Ducru Beaucaillou
2) 1989 Haut Brion tied with 1989 La Mission HB
3) Malescot Saint-Exupery
4) Camensac

[salilb]

1. Haut-Brion.
2. 1985 Haut-Brion (birthyear bias)
3. Used to be Haut-Bailly before prices jumped. Now I just buy older Haut Bailly vintages or mid 80s Talbot. Otherwise, Cantemerle for new releases (though I never buy young Bordeaux).
4. None, I buy Loire Cab Franc at those prices instead.