Saintly wines including 03 Malescot & 98 Canon La Gaffeliere

[Michael Malinoski]

I was happy to join my friend Ed’s regular tasting group back on November 1st, which was All Saints Day. The theme, appropriately enough, was any wine with the word “Saint” in the name of the winery or its vineyard. All of the wines were served blind in an order determined by the restaurant staff for us.

2003 Chateau Malescot St. Exupery Margaux. I thought this was an excellent showing for this wine. I like the bouquet a lot—it hits on many notes I find highly appealing—including aromas of cherry paste, red berries, leather, dusty earth, toasted herbs, soy, mint leaves and fine balsa wood. In the mouth, it seems younger than the complexity of the nose might suggest, but it is quite smooth-textured and delightfully plush-feeling as it makes its journey across the palate. There is a solid and mouth-filling core of black cherry and black currant fruit here, supported nicely by an interesting streak of iron ore. The tannins start to assert themselves later in the evening and the fine balance starts to waver a tad, so while I like this a good deal right now, I’m sure it will be even better down the road. My #3 wine of the night.

1995 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Saint Georges. This opens up very slowly on the nose, eventually showing some nice aromatic notes of leather, balsamic, jalapeno, brick, and chocolate to go with funkier scents of musky sweat and tobacco juice. In the mouth, though, it almost immediately makes the mouth pucker right up with its searing tannin and acidity levels. The fruit is sour-edged and certainly rather tart—with the tannins coating every inch of the tongue and almost hurting the mouth. It seems to draw every molecule of saliva out of the cheeks and leaves behind only sensations of tough austerity. I wouldn’t even look at this wine again for 10 years.

1993 Michel Esmonin & Fille Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques. This is a warmer, sweeter, more giving sort of wine all around, starting with the baked red fruit that dominates the bouquet and following up with aromas of roasted nuts, shoe leather, caramel strands and fine spices. In the mouth, it is showing some nice resolution and mellowed age character, with a slightly rustic edge running through it. It is medium-weighted and has a firm acidic backbone and a grippy feel to the long finish. The pleasantly sweet but mellow red fruit is well-accented by some earth and fur elements that all work together nicely. I like this wine a whole lot and it as my #4 wine of the night.

1999 Michel Magnien Clos St. Denis Grand Cru. The bouquet of this wine provides an interesting mix of spiced plum, animal fur, musk, black smoke and menthol aromas to consider. In the mouth, it is solidly-structured but pliant, with an absolutely smooth-textured and glycerol mouthfeel that gives the wine an effortless sense of flow. It just rolls across the palate with nothing out of place and delivering a solid dose of pure flavor pleasure. To my taste, this is a paragon of balance—with the black cherry and dusty earth flavors perfectly framed by the acidity and the baby tannins. And I can see this improving even more, so my advice is to drink now or hold. My runner-up WOTN.

1992 Edmunds St. John Syrah Durell Vineyard Sonoma County. The aromatic profile of this wine is pleasantly dense, dark and fudgy—with exotic overtones of incense, mulling spices and toasted orange peel riding atop plummy fruit, dark wood and lead pencil scents. In the mouth, it is rounded out and easy-going, with a resolved, somewhat open-knit texture that makes it nice and easy to drink. Tasty flavors of dark cherry, chocolate, peppers and spice go really well with my gnocchi dish—making this a real winner at the table for my tastes.

2007 Domaine Saint Prefert Chateauneuf du Pape Collection Charles Giraud. I’m sorry, but this blend of 40% Mourvedre and 60% Grenache just isn’t my cup of tea. I don’t much like any of the aromas on the nose, especially the briny black olive juice, star anise, tire rubber and strong varnish scents that blast up out of the glass to combine with more acceptable notes of roasted meat and asphalt. In the mouth, it is absolutely inky black in tone, with an amazingly super-smooth glycerol texture to it, but out of balance with youthful alcohol poking out all over the place. It certainly delivers a massive dose of rich chocolate, mocha paste, baking spice and black licorice flavors, but I take almost no pleasure in any of it. It just seems like a wine in a terribly awkward place that needs a lot of time and may never match my tastes anyway. It was later revealed to be a 100 point wine, so to each their own, I guess.

2009 Clos Saint Jean Chateauneuf du Pape Vieilles Vignes. This is another youthful bouquet but I’m more appreciative of this wine’s aromas of clear red fruits, tangy dried citrus bits, black tea, savory meat, olive and cool stones. In the mouth, it is very dense, chewy and savory-flavored, with rather obvious tannins in play. Still, one can sense the depth of flavor present in the profile of black cherry, dark chocolate, singed earth and mulling spices. It is certainly rich and dense and packed with flavor, but those tannins are a lot to contend with right now.

1998 Chateau Canon-la-Gaffeliere St. Emilion. In reality, this wine didn’t actually meet the criteria of the tasting—only having the word “Saint” in its appellation—but since I liked it so much you won’t find me complaining! For me, it is just wonderful on the nose, where I find it rather refined and gentlemanly, yet dense and contemplative--featuring aromas of leather saddle, clean horse barn, cigar wrapper, dusty earth, blackcurrant, savory game and mildly exotic spices. On the palate it seems lithe and ropy, with excellent tension and intensity but a smooth texture and fine layers of resolved flavor. It is complex and delicious, with gorgeous flavors of spiced black plums, toasted orange peel, chocolate and earth that have a little mysterious edge to them. It shows outstanding balance and seems to be right in the zone for current enjoyment. My WOTN.

1983 Domaine des Baumard Coteaux du Layon Clos de Sainte Catherine. This is a dark gold color and takes a fair bit of time to start showing a whole lot on the nose, perhaps because of some low-grade TCA that others detected but I did not or due to it being served far too cold initially. Either way, one eventually senses some sweet aromas of dark honey and yellow raisin but also a lot of steel, wet wool, limestone and root vegetable sorts of notes, as well. In the mouth, it is waxy and woolen and lightly tropical in nature, but a bit tamped down all around—lending credence again to the notion that this has suffered from some taint. However, the longer I stay with it and let it warm up and take on air, the more I begin to like some of the apricot, nectarine and tropical fruit flavors that surround the rocky center of it. Just as I really start taking to the wine, the finish begins to squinch up a bit, so my take is that better bottles of this are probably pretty darned good, but this one just can’t quite get there.

2005 Domaine des Baumard Coteaux du Layon Clos de Sainte Catherine. This is an obviously younger wine, but also much lighter and prettier (and frankly, a lot finer). The nose is lovely, fresh and lilting—with wafting aromas of dried pineapple candies, light apricot, strawberries, other tropical fruits, wax candle, chalk and a distinctly steely minerality. It is sort of light and pretty on the palate, with moderate sweetness to the flavors of spun sugar, coconut, pineapple and lemon peel. It is tangy, fresh and airy but fairly intense and deeply-flavored at the same time. It is a great way to wrap up any evening.


-Michael

[Michael-P]

Michael:

Wonderful TNs and sounds like quite an evening (great idea re the saint).
Sadly, I have no 98 Canon Gaff in my cellar.

Thanks!

Michael-P

[marcs]

I think Canon La Gaffeliere for its quality is a really good deal. It is consistently highly pleasurable, flexible in its drinking window, and generally under $100 even for celebrated vintages. I picked up five bottles of the 2009.

[Ramon_NYC]

I'm in the "Like" camp with the 1998 Canon-la-Gaffeliere.