Ch. La Vieille Cure: Will these be good with age?

[Ramon_NYC]

1989 Ch. La Vieille Cure, Fronsac

According to a few Googled description of this estate in the Libourne, the vines grow on south-west facing plateaus that “drinks up the sun” and enjoys good drainage. This provides some of the reasons for the generously ripe, rich and somewhat concentrated efforts in recent bottling that I’ve experienced and seen on other TNs.

Let start by getting the tannin issue out of the way, there’s none - fully resolved. The nose showed leather, hinting of cream and vanilla subtleties. I detected a slight touch of VA in this fresh-looking dark ruby red wine.

This is a medium-bodied effort that is quite a departure from the big, full mouth-feel of the early-to-mid 2000s bottling that I had tried more recently. Made mostly of merlot (74%), there are plenty of sweet, ripe blue berries which accentuated the modern touch on this rich wine, as well a pleasant sufficient acidity level leading to a dusty, pepper-specked long finish. Although, I get the sense that I would have preferred to have drank this bottle much sooner than I did and expect to elicit a better rating from me.

I only have 2003 and 2005 versions of wines from this producer stored away. With the low-20s that I recall purchasing them at, and based on this tasting, I am satisfied with how these wines can turn out to be in the future and would look to drinking them a lot sooner than well-known so-called vin-de-garde producers. B

[Nicklasss]

I agree with you Ramon. Lately, a 2001 seemed already old and bit dry to me.

Nic

[Jeff Leve]

Vieille Cure is a delicious wine that IMO shows best young. While the estate was purchased in 1986 by the current owner, they did not start making really fine wine until 2000. If you want a little background on Vieille Cure http://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/bor ... eille-cure

[AlexR]

Hi Ramon,

This American-owned château makes good value-for-money wine. I've had it often and think of it as a mid-term wine, i.e. just great about 5 years after the vintage.

All the best,
Alex R.

[Blanquito]

Thanks for the info, Ramon. Good to see a note on an older bottle. I've had the 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005 versions of this wine, and I agree that all but the 2005 can be enjoyed young. I think this chateau offers excellent value and straddles the modern and traditional styles nicely.

I do think the 2005 is an exception though, as it still needs time even today.

[Ramon_NYC]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the additional take on other vintages, as well as background information on the chateau. We seem to post quite a bit about this producer over here, so it's fitting that we get to know it more.

Ramon