2009 Lafite, Latour, Margaux, and Palmer

[AlexR]

Lafite Rothschild

They are renovating the cellars at Lafite, so the en primeur tastings were held at Duhart Milon this year. I was grateful for this because it is one of the great growths that I had never visited before.
Monsieur Chevalier, manager of Lafite, is a very good-natured and personable man, fully prepared to answer annoying questions from people like me --------
Carruades:
Nose: lovely subtle ethereal bouquet. Soft and perfumed, showing more black cherry than blackcurrant and a touch of (albeit high class) spirit.
Taste: Plenty of volume on the palate with medium-heavy mouth feel and despite the freshness there is a slight flabbiness here. Silky texture and a shortish, very soft finish.
Nevertheless perhaps the best Carruades I have ever had. Question is, is it worth the recent price hikes? M. Chevalier confirmed that Les Carruades is sold in Asia as "baby Lafite". He also confirmed that they had encountered a certain number of problems with counterfeiting and were taking people to court over this.
Duhart Milon:
Nose: rather closed-in and neutral
Taste: chunky, round, vibrant, and pure. Charming more than serious. Fuller and better than Carruades. Long candied fruit finish. Fairly linear and easy-going. More or less on a par with the Carruades (my own personal provisional rating is 15.5/20).
Lafite Rothschild:
Nose: subtle trademark bouquet of cedar, coffee/vanilla
Taste: Soft, silk underwear, sensual, sexy, Madame de Pompadour. Full-bodied with weighty mouth feel and develops beautifully on the palate. Tight, dynamic tannin. Perhaps the aftertaste could be longer, but who am I to complain? I'd give it 17.5-18/20, and this is the type of wine that will be delightful young or old.
Alcohol: 13.5°

Latour
Pauillac: The third wine of Ch. Latour is good news. It amounted to over 38% of production in 2009.
Nose: deep berry with chocolate overtones. A little jammy and there's a spirity quality.
Taste: very appetising and sensual on the palate. Juicy, thirst-quenching and forward. Will be nice young.
Les Forts de Latour and Latour: These wines were not showing well at the present time. It was simply the wrong time to taste them, but the media circus wants them to be presented in late March so, by Jove, that is when they will be…
The potential is clearly there, but the latter two wines we tasted were lacking focus and definition. The grand vin has a very long, interesting finish, but I will need to come back at a later time.
We were shown the "proof tag" that is put on all bottles of Latour starting with the 2007 vintage. In fact, there are three tamper-proof identifications on the bottle, including one behind the back label!

Margaux:
There is always a tremendous atmosphere at Margaux during en primeur week. Paul Pontalier is not only a gifted manager, but also a showman and a first-rate orator… in English. As usual, Corinne Mentzelopoulos was there with her dogs, and in high spirits.
Margaux produced 23% of third wine in the 2009 vintage that will be sold off in bulk. This wine is apparently good enough, but is mostly Merlot and mostly too high in alcohol. The second wine weighs in at 13.4° and the grand vin at 13.1. It is interesting to note that these levels are lower than in 2005.
Paul Pontalier says that the vintage was not homogeneous, but that this was a stellar year for those vats that were selected to go into the first and second wines.
Pavillon rouge:
Nose: very upfront and seductive. Perfumed and penetrating.
Taste: medium body, terribly classy, juicy, and very attractive even at this stage. Soft grip on the tarry, rich finish. Paul Pontalier says this is the best Pavillon rouge the château has ever made… He even says that in blind tastings he believes it might be taken for the grand vin…
Margaux:
Nose: deep, elegant, ethereal, lively, and fresh
Taste: tremendously soft with velvety tannin. Very distinctive. Strong and rich, but with quite an acid backbone. 90% Cabernet Sauvignon. This vintage of Margaux has the highest tannin (measurable index) of any vintage in recorded history, but you wouldn't know it because of the softness. Paul Pontalier says it's a "gifted child" but, he says, make no mistake about it - as appealing as it is now, it he swears that it will make a great bottle… in 50 years.
I rated this on a par with Lafite.
Pavillon blanc (100% Sauvignon Blanc):
This vintage marks a break with the style of previous wines. Gone are the opulent, tropical fruit overtones. The château has specifically sought a more toned-down, classical style.
Color: medium deep, fairly brilliant
Nose: first impression is of assertive, New World type fruit, but there is less of an oaky presence than in previous vintages and the main aromas are citrus and (subdued) pineapple notes, with nothing in your face. A slight "wild and woolly" aroma.
Taste: Pains were made to produce a (relatively) low alcohol wine. "Just" 13.9°. Good acidity and a very subtle flavor. Restrained and more crisp than in the past. Easier to drink. Reminiscent of a fine great growth Graves.
The wine will be bottled in June or July of this year.

Palmer
Thomas Duroux was pouring and commenting the wines.
Alter Ego (great pains are taken to explain that this is not actually a second wine):
Nose: touch of oxidation, jammy fruit, and a brambly quality
Taste: heavy mouth feel, fine, develops sensually on the palate. Commercial-type wine. Good, but will be better to taste in a while.
Palmer (13.9°)
Nose: deep, exciting, with that same brambly quality
Taste: soft, round, caresses the palate, developing lots of volume but displaying some hotness on the finish. Sheets of flavour. Big, sweet, and juicy but not showing at its best at this stage.
Like Margaux, they have never produced as tannic a wine.
It is a no-no to talk about pricing at these tastings, but Thomas Duroux is confident that demand is strong and sees the kick-off a little later than usual this year, probably in time for Vinexpo Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong in late May.


Best regards,
Alex R.

[stefan]

Thanks for the excellent report, Alex.

38% of Latour's grapes in Pauillac!?!?! Did they say how many cases of Latour they expect to produce?

[JimHow]

What's the gossip on pricing?

[DavidG]

Well done, Alex! Lafite and Margaux sound great. I bet first tranche pricing for those wines will be ~$500/btl here in the US, and in the $600-700 range for the later tranches. Anyone else care to make a prediction?

[dstgolf]

Joyeuse Paques Alex,

I'm surprised these tasting are going on on Easter Sunday. What happened to the catholics in France or did this take place on Saturday. Great notes and I must say every time I hear or read about PaulPontelier and Corrine Mentzenopoulus I am thrown back in time to when BWE 2005 was treated to one of the most amazing wine experiences of my life!! Thomas Duroux doesn't have the same effect at all even though we had a nice but sad ending dinner at Palmer with him on our last night in Bordeaux. The only thing that comes close is the emotions around lynch Bages and Jean Michel Cazes. Maybe the BD has a little to do with that but we sure had a great lunch with him.

Nice notes not that I'm in the market for more wine. I might selectively look at the vintage as stuff becomes available depending on pricing.

Danny

[greatbxfreak]

dstgolf,

You got it wrong - Alex and me went to taste above mentioned wines Thursday afternoon the 1st April.

Agree with Alex on the description of these wines, but for me those three FGs aren't 100 point wines and aren't better compared with 2005 vintage.

[JonB]

Thanks for the notes; sounds like it may not be a vintage of the century, if the first growths are not knock-outs.

I'm glad to see efforts are being made to make it more difficult to counterfeit (or identify counterfeits).

[JonB]

Well done, Alex! Lafite and Margaux sound great. I bet first tranche pricing for those wines will be ~$500/btl here in the US, and in the $600-700 range for the later tranches. Anyone else care to make a prediction?

I'll make a wild guess....I'll say $700+ for 1st growths in the early tranches of any appreciable quantity. My guess is demand here in the U.S. will be down from 2005, but if they are waiting to release prices until UGC tastings in Asia, the producers must really feel (and maybe rightly so) that they'll get strong futures sales there.

[aimeedogdogdog]

Thanks for the reports, Alex!

Werner

[rjsussex]

Thanks Alex

Looks like I'll be pitching well-down, if I buy at all, at predicted prices: Potensac etc.

One UK merchant I trust has emailed to say many Margaux classed-growths and most of the upper bourgeois brigade are guilty of heavy extractions.

Richard

[Michael-P]

Alex:

Great visits and tastings - Thanks!

Michael-P