TN: Some recent reds

[DavidG]

• 1988 Château Talbot - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (6/16/2012)
  Perfect fill and cork. Bright red core, bricking at rim. NIce nose of cassis and sweet damp earth, bit of cedar and tobacco. Medium body, sweet mature fruit and aged complexity, well-balanced with a smooth long fininsh. Even better than the bottles opened over the last year or two. Still has plenty of life left. Excellent-outstanding.
• 1994 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (6/14/2012)
  Perfect fill and cork. Dark red core, lightening and bricking at the rim. Fairly intense nose of red berries, cassis, and sweet damp earth. Medium body, red fruits and sweet earthy complexity on the palate, beautifully balanced, nice medium-long finish. Another great bottle, this has been drinking really well the last 5 years or so and is still going strong. Outstanding.
• 2005 Clos Les Lunelles - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Côtes de Castillon (5/25/2012)
  Dark red to rim. Powerful nose of cassis, coffee/mocha/oak, menthol, violets. Full bodied, ripe dark fruits, lots of tannins, still young. Some hints of earth after being open a few hours. Pretty modern. Could use several more years to integrate the tannins. Will it develop complexity? Time will tell. Excellent to outstanding.
• 2009 Jean-Paul Thevenet Morgon Vieilles Vignes - France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Morgon (5/19/2012)
  Dark red core, lighter at rim. Bright red berries and cherries on the nose with a few earthy/viney notes, medium body, ripe fruit, nice minerally acid balance, a bit of complexity, medium finish. Outstanding.
• 1995 Château L'Evangile - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol (5/12/2012)
  Dark red core, lightening at rim with just a hint of bricking. Cassis, plum, and a hint of iron and iodine on the nose initially. With more time additional complexity comes forward, with some earthy forest floor. Medium body, nice ripe fruit mixes in with some sweet earthy complexity that grows over time, medium-long finish, this is drinking very well right now and has many years ahead of it. Outstanding.
• 1996 Château Monbousquet - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (5/10/2012)
  Dark red to rim. Nice nose of ripe dark fruits, some oak. Starts out big, lush and plush with cassis and dark ripe fruits following the nose, pretty modern but well enough balanced, not flabby, still plenty of tannin present, medium-long finish. The next day it's showing some nice aged Bordeaux complexity mixed in with the ripe fruit, and the tannins have receded. Should continue to improve. Outstanding.

Posted from CellarTracker

[jmccready]

Your notes on the 95 L'Evangile has me searching online to find a few bottles. The current stage of maturity you describe makes me wish I had
a full case to enjoy over the next several years.

[DavidG]

I'm seeing a fair amount of '95 Evangile on WS for $150. Depends on your tolerance for provenance risk, but that's not a bad price for a nice Pomerol with 17 years of age. Probably because it didn't get raves from RP and it isn't a blockbuster type of wine. But it's still outstanding based on its complexity and its ability to make me stop and think about the wine, which counts for a lot in my book.

[Michael-P]

David:

Thanks for the good TNs.
I am generally an 88 fan, so maybe I need to find some Talbot.
I was surprised about the 95 given its mediocre reviews. I love many other 95s.
Not surprised about the 05 - it really is a great vintage.

Michael-P

[Ramon_NYC]

That TN on the 1995 L'Evangile is reverberating on me and will likely have me scouring winesearcher for a good source. I'm regretful that I 've bought very few '95s earlier, as I've started to like most of the Bordeaux that I've had from this vintage. Although the ones that I've tasted were still tight, I am positive on where they seem to be headed.