Chasse Spleen 04 - update and apology

[rjsussex]

Now this is seriously good wine and I'm seriously sorry for underrating it badly in my note some months ago.

I was offered some more bottles at a very keen price so I cracked open another bottle from the first case to help decide. I decided. And last night I put a bottle beside Armailhac 04. No contest. The Armailhac is decent enough, with some warm/rich summer fruits and a fragrant finish but it's more forward and less vivid than the very good 02. And compared to the Chasse Spleen it was simply nowhere.

Spleen 04: lovely natural colour; very classy nose for Spleen, berries, warm bread, reminded me of du Tertre from the late 70s, certainly more Margaux than I've ever noticed in Spleen before, really lovely nose, though still reticent; lovely richness on palate but also quite tight, this is serious for an 04, fine fragrant length and real tannins, big but ripe. Above all, a perfectly balanced wine, though really needing time.

The cellartracker notes seem to me seriously underestimating it, as I did earlier.

I love 04s, definitely my style of vintage - in the best examples there's the cut and grip of the 02s combined with the succulence and length of the 01s. And I love those 2 vintages as well. This Spleen is for me up with the absolute bargains of the vintage - I'd put it above Issan and quite a bit above Clos du Marquis and La Gurgue, it's in the same ball-park as Langoa and Lagrange if maybe not quite at that level but much cheaper than both. It's not of course up with Soc Mallet (which is for me above Poyferre, GPL, Brane and Pontet C), but it has that crucially impeccable balance, in its own more modest way, as the brilliant Soc M.

Hope you agree.

Best

Richard

[Chasse-Spleen]

A commendable reconsideration, Richard. Great news. I tried the '04 C-S once and liked it but thought it was somewhat as a few had described, commercial, not terribly serious. But I love the vintages you mentioned, and of course, Chasse-Spleen. I think it's a wine that's often underestimated and can provide serious drinking pleasure, both of the cerebral and hedonistic variety. Great notes. It sounds like you're a real fan. I need to find some recent vintages of Chasse-Spleen and retry. I have the '05 on hand but I'm holding it as you might imagine. Loved the '01. The '02 was a big, brute of a wine, probably a real winner one day. Very enjoyable. I look forward to trying the '06.
-Chris