Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

A few wines tonight:

Marc Morey Batard Montrachet 1990

Picked this up at auction recently for a song. Complex honeyed, evolved colour as you would expect. Heavenly nose, long and fat on the palate, a real pleasure and very fine.

Dominus 2006

Sweet and off-putting tutty-fruity nose, spoofulated cabernet fruit, very young and monolithic, over 14% alcohol, anonymous international style; could come Chile, South Africa…anywhere…just a monolithic alcoholic new world cab with nothing to mark it out. Hugely disappointing compared to the 1990s vintages. Just morose.

Chateau Poujeaux 1997

Really fine, delightful mature claret from an unfashionable vintage; plenty of secondary development and complexity – briar and cigar box – a delight wine which ran rings around the Dominus.Really singing. And less than $30. A quarter the price of the Dominus but four times as good.

Another great showing for the Poujeaux! I've still got four bottles... Really good wine.

My goodness! What has happened to Dominus?

Too bad we can't age white Burgundy any more.

How are the 2001 and 2002 Dominus. I have one bottle each in my cellar.

Comte: I find it unfair to drink a young wine then compare it to a 10 year older wine. I am hardly a Dominus defender, but the 10 years make a difference. Also, whenever someone uses the word "spoofulated" in their review I feel they tip their hand (card playing reference). Namely, you don't like that style, usually young California and complain about it using made up words that mean nothing but damning the wine. To add to the reference, you then pour an aged "old World" wine and sing its praises. I get you didn't like the Dominus and did like the Poujeaux, but your prejudices are showing.

Harry you are absolutely right. And yes I am very prejudiced. The Dominus is probably not a bad wine just not in a good place now. I didn't really care for the lumps of charcoal. I dont think it will ever be interesting let alone great like the 1991.I liked the late 80s Domini, but the style has become more new world over time. In the old days you could mistake it for Petrus. There was nothing Petrus-like about the 2006. Jim the 2001 is highly lauded. I had it a couple of times and it is somewhere inbetween the 1991 and the 2006. I have a case of the 1991 and I will bring one to a future BWE event.

I find the whole wine-describing thing a minefield. Whether a taster uses prejudicial terms or some of the more popular and seemingly neutral/descriptive terms,I often don't get it. And then unless you know the taster, one person's "tannic beast" is another's "drink up." Lately I've come up with what's for me a satisfactory description of what it is about traditional Bordeaux that I like: everything that someone who doesn't like traditional Bordeaux dislikes.

Oh, and I wanted to add, it's thanks to BWE that I have a few bottles of the 97 Poujeaux. Not that it's a big secret but certainly someone like me, who at the time was trying to get a handle on some Bordeaux bargains and apply a screen of expertise to my early purchasing, might not have thought to buy the wine had I just run across it in a shop - as I did at Bassins, but armed with the foreknowldge gained here.

I missed out on the 1997 Poujeaux when it was still affordable. Now it's $56.

You know, I'd rather have someone give prejudicial language in a tasting note than just simply laudatory language. The opinionated note tell me a lot about where the taster's palate is, and allows me to align better. These new wave tasters who never met a wine they didn't love-- at least in the verbiage, if not the score-- provide very little value to me. They just come across as cheerleaders. Maybe there's some place for enjoying what's good about a wine, as we can take the "criticism" part of wine evaluation too far, but I am used critics "calling 'em as they see 'em".

And let's face it, compared to how wine used to be made, there are lots of practices now that do make a "spoofulated" wine (no comment on the Dominus, as I've only had it once or twice before) or a "better" wine, depending on your palate.

I agree Blanquito.

Comte's note on the Dominus pretty much told me all I need to know - I probably won't enjoy the wine and definitely won't drop $100 to try it. There are so many other wines in that price range that I will likely enjoy much more and I am more confident will age properly.

Andy

I have never had the 2006 Dominus, I remember liking the 2000 and the 2001 a few years back, they were both much better than a 2001 Bryant that was all blueberry juice during the same tasting.

The wine I did like lately was Dominus second wine. The 2006 Napanook which I found really good- creamy and full of delicious black fruit. A great representative for California reds and at around $40 a relative bargain.

I have an1984 Dominus I need to pop...

Has anyone given the 1998 Poujeaux a try?

I've tried the 99 Poujeaux which is blown away by the 97, which is the hidden secret of that vintage... 99 had a hint of VA that got worse with air. More red fruit and Indian spice but not in the same league as others. I would guess that the 98 would be more tannic and rich, but unfortunately haven't had the opportunity.

I also think the 97 is better than the 95, although that may change in time.