3 more cheap and good 09-10s
Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2013 3:52 am
Been hitting up Tamura's between golden oldies for some more of these can't-miss recent vintages.This includes one "typical" early-drinking, delicious 09 and possible outliers from the respective 09-10 vintages. Youth before beauty.
2010 Ch. Haut Vigneau Pessac-Leognan. This is a very dark and very appealing wine with tons of smokey, earthy, rich, curranty and even carmelized/maple sugar bouquet flavors. Plenty of substance and depth here, plenty of dense body. And yet, and yet. This reminded me very much of the 2004 Haut Vigneau in its early days (though that wine did not impress a couple of years later - struck me then as perhaps a tad unripe). The fruit here is pretty forward but still dark and not candied or high-toned. It does seem in some sense to have taken a page out of the modern St. Emilion playbook somehow. Very polished, rounded and elastic. You can compress this on the palate and it seems to gently but persistently rebound. Maybe it lacks some "cut" or maybe this is smothered in density. This wine will appeal to a lot of people and yet I found it vaguely unsatisfactory in the second glass. Jim might say it was a bit soulless. There is enough - more than enough - material here to cellar for a while. Then maybe it would speak more.
2009 Ch. d'Archambeau, Graves. So this one is from far to the end of the less-fashionable zone of the former unitary Graves. But I like this considerably more than the Haut Vigneau. This is pretty dry, tannic and cutting for a 2009. Perhaps this makes it seem a tad less concentrated or substantial than the Haut Vigneau. To me it looks a bit lighter and redder and it seems to have more red fruits going on too. Nice clean and soft bouquet and I really like the nearly weightless mouthfeel and the cleansing tannic flourish. Maybe this is less polished or more rustic; to me it comes across as more traditional or at least what I can recall young Bordeaux tasting a bit more like. It has the added benefit of seeming richer and spicier with food. I think I recognize the MO here and I would say this would shut down and come back filled in and quite interesting around age 10. Had it twice and if I was looking add to the base of my wine pyramid with inexpensive yet (to me) older-school claret I would stock up on this. This is the way I like them young.
20090 Ch. de Seguin, Bordeaux Superieur. I think this is from the Entre-deux-Mers region. This is really delicious, mostly merlot and quite a mouthful of sweet-flavored yet still dry-feeling fruit that is very crowd-pleasing for current consumption. Much easier-going than the Archambeau. Expansive bouquet with enough moving parts to make things semi-intellectual and not just woozy. This would make a nice gateway wine for people who haven't had much Bordeaux. Pleasing and easy without being sweet or cloying.
2010 Ch. Haut Vigneau Pessac-Leognan. This is a very dark and very appealing wine with tons of smokey, earthy, rich, curranty and even carmelized/maple sugar bouquet flavors. Plenty of substance and depth here, plenty of dense body. And yet, and yet. This reminded me very much of the 2004 Haut Vigneau in its early days (though that wine did not impress a couple of years later - struck me then as perhaps a tad unripe). The fruit here is pretty forward but still dark and not candied or high-toned. It does seem in some sense to have taken a page out of the modern St. Emilion playbook somehow. Very polished, rounded and elastic. You can compress this on the palate and it seems to gently but persistently rebound. Maybe it lacks some "cut" or maybe this is smothered in density. This wine will appeal to a lot of people and yet I found it vaguely unsatisfactory in the second glass. Jim might say it was a bit soulless. There is enough - more than enough - material here to cellar for a while. Then maybe it would speak more.
2009 Ch. d'Archambeau, Graves. So this one is from far to the end of the less-fashionable zone of the former unitary Graves. But I like this considerably more than the Haut Vigneau. This is pretty dry, tannic and cutting for a 2009. Perhaps this makes it seem a tad less concentrated or substantial than the Haut Vigneau. To me it looks a bit lighter and redder and it seems to have more red fruits going on too. Nice clean and soft bouquet and I really like the nearly weightless mouthfeel and the cleansing tannic flourish. Maybe this is less polished or more rustic; to me it comes across as more traditional or at least what I can recall young Bordeaux tasting a bit more like. It has the added benefit of seeming richer and spicier with food. I think I recognize the MO here and I would say this would shut down and come back filled in and quite interesting around age 10. Had it twice and if I was looking add to the base of my wine pyramid with inexpensive yet (to me) older-school claret I would stock up on this. This is the way I like them young.
20090 Ch. de Seguin, Bordeaux Superieur. I think this is from the Entre-deux-Mers region. This is really delicious, mostly merlot and quite a mouthful of sweet-flavored yet still dry-feeling fruit that is very crowd-pleasing for current consumption. Much easier-going than the Archambeau. Expansive bouquet with enough moving parts to make things semi-intellectual and not just woozy. This would make a nice gateway wine for people who haven't had much Bordeaux. Pleasing and easy without being sweet or cloying.