2014 vintage

[Claudius2]

Folks
It has been a very long time since I have written a post here.
I've been in Singapore for over 5 years now, and red wine just never tastes as good here as it does in a more temperate climate. It is hot every day and 100% humidity (or raining).
I still drink Bordeaux, but not anything like as often as when in Australia.

I came back from a trip to France and Spain last week and had a few days only in Bordeaux, so it was good to check out the wines again.
Now I have not bought any wines from 2011, 12 or 13, and after having bought quite a lot of 2009 and 2010, I did not see any real point.

But the views of 2014 when in Bordeaux were reasonably positive - most felt that it is not a great vintage, though at least as good as 2008.
Well, I thought 2008 was a good left bank vintage and a very good right bank vintage - despite some being rather high in alcohol.
All the 08s I bought were right bank wines.

So my question is - what are the views of others regarding 2014?
What will you be buying if any?
I am not interested in wines that are high priced - just middle range wines that will still age well and develop complexity.
I'm more focused on wines in the price range of say, GPL, Branaire Ducru or similar, rather than 1ers Crus and garargiste wines.
Also interested in good St Emilions, an area that has improved a lot in recent decades.

Thanks
Mark

[JimHow]

Sounds like you were in Bordeaux when we were there Mark.
Those comments about 2014 are consistent with what we heard and experienced.
Of course we found the 2014 samples a bit hard to analyze.

[dstgolf]

Mark,

I'm amazed at how the experts can assess from barrel tastings wines that are in their infancy,have not extracted much oak or tannins from the barrels and final blend not made. From what I saw the wines are only a mear approximation of what the wine will be and are crafted by the Chateauto be pleasing to the palate to win points. We had tannic disjointed Leoville Barton to grapey simple du Tertre which I'm sure will have no resemblance to the final product. I think everyone was a little miffed at the whole process of barrel tastings and uncertain as to what conclusions to draw. Mostly the wines that we had were good but I had a very difficult time trying to pass judgement on the individual wines. Probably the best 2014 samples that I had were from the Teyssier line in St Emillion..the garagiste wines with le Carre and Mazerat being hi lights for me and are reasonably priced in the 50-75 euro range. These however are crafted for an earlier drinking window than most of their counterparts in the region and I'll be interested to see how the vintages that I've brought home will evolve.

[AKR]

1974, 1984, 1994, 2004, 2014

hmmm

I feel like waiting

Although I hear through the grapevine that they are sort of selling to customers

It seems like its all because of the superficially lower prices, as in they don't look like 09 or 10 levels

But I'm not convinced that $60 for a second growth that is only good is such a 'value' to begin with.

So I want to wait and see, although a local retailer seems to be offering a wide spectrum of splits, which could be interesting.

[AlohaArtakaHoundsong]

So when you guys troupe in for the tour and you get a barrel sample of the latest vintage, are you getting what the pros get in trade tastings? I get that you are amateurs but you are not novices. I mean clearly if Suckling says Leo P is "pure, focused, seamless and ripe" or whatever you would not taste the same wine and say "harsh and disjointed" would you? Unless of course it was the weather. Was there low pressure when you were there?

[DavidG]

Depends on if it's a root day, flower day, etc., no? Or is that only at the biodynamic Chateaux?

[Comte Flaneur]

So when you guys troupe in for the tour and you get a barrel sample of the latest vintage, are you getting what the pros get in trade tastings? I get that you are amateurs but you are not novices. I mean clearly if Suckling says Leo P is "pure, focused, seamless and ripe" or whatever you would not taste the same wine and say "harsh and disjointed" would you? Unless of course it was the weather. Was there low pressure when you were there?

Art I think the difference is that while we are definitely not novices, we are not used to, or attuned to, tasting barrel samples. So we are thrown out of our comfort zone. The pros taste them all the time, in different environments and at different times over many vintages of EP, so they have many points of reference, which we don't have. They provide a useful service to us enthusiasts, albeit amateur enthusiasts, because they are probably better equipped to judge these wines than we are. Of course sometimes they get it wrong, and more often than not they are sitting on the fence.

As far as 2014s are concerned there seems to be a pretty cosy consensus and no-one is really going out on a limb. There seems to be little attraction in splashing out. Watching and waiting seems like the best option.

[AKR]

Some guys on another board were carping that their preferred retailer sold out of 14 VCC in under a day.

I'm not sure I'd consider that a prototypical example of market demand for the 14s, but is the kind of wine that I think might make sense to buy on futures even in a (reputed) Medoc oriented vintage.

[greatbxfreak]

Claudius2,

Concerning 2014 vintage - please check my website http://www.greatbordeauxwines.com
I've purchased few bottles of Beychevelle, La Lagune and Calon Segur and one bottle of Mouton R. Will buy Montrose when it is offered.

dtsgolf,

Actually one can predict how the wines develop from barrel - I'm pretty good at it I must admit, it's only 2-3% of wines that I misjudge. I've tasted from barrel since 1984, but from 2001 vintage during UGCB tasting.

I tasted fantastic 2005 Tertre Roteboeuf yesterday, my friend guessed it to be 2009 or 2010 Cheval Blanc. From barrel TNs to bottle TNs, it's always been the same - exceptional, velvety, silky, mind-boggling stuff.

AKR,

2014 VCC was OK, but not that stunning. And it's very expensive. You may be interested in purchasing f.i. Calon Segur, which is excellent value for the money in 2014. It's almost 1/3 of VCC price.

[Harry C.]

Claudius@-are you by chance the President of Singapore? He was there in Bordeaux when we were there. Fess up!

[Claudius2]

Jim
Actually I should have read BWE more regularly - I could have easily changed the itinerary to suit.
Oh well.

Harry
Er, I'm not a descendant of Lee Kwan Yew so no chance of being in charge of anything here.
It's actually a good place in some respects - I have thought of returning to Australia several times but not likely in the short term.
Just that nobody in Singapore can cook good French, Italian or Spanish food.
I'm now used to a climate that is 33 degrees (or about 91F) every day of the year, its just that red wine never tastes as good here than in a moderate climate.

[AKR]

Claudius2,

Concerning 2014 vintage - please check my website http://www.greatbordeauxwines.com
I've purchased few bottles of Beychevelle, La Lagune and Calon Segur and one bottle of Mouton R. Will buy Montrose when it is offered.

dtsgolf,

Actually one can predict how the wines develop from barrel - I'm pretty good at it I must admit, it's only 2-3% of wines that I misjudge. I've tasted from barrel since 1984, but from 2001 vintage during UGCB tasting.

I tasted fantastic 2005 Tertre Roteboeuf yesterday, my friend guessed it to be 2009 or 2010 Cheval Blanc. From barrel TNs to bottle TNs, it's always been the same - exceptional, velvety, silky, mind-boggling stuff.

AKR,

2014 VCC was OK, but not that stunning. And it's very expensive. You may be interested in purchasing f.i. Calon Segur, which is excellent value for the money in 2014. It's almost 1/3 of VCC price.

Thanks. Despite the lower prices (than recent vintages) I'm going to wait a bit more to see where the vintage ranks among the last 20-30 years, before getting involved. And whether rational or not, I don't seem to recall any good vintages in recent decades ending in '4' !

[AKR]

This hit my inbox either yest or today

http://www.klwines.com/staff/3005pdf/Ju ... eaux14.pdf