Some personnal impressions on the 2015 BWE convention wines.

[Nicklasss]

I think that Comte Flaneur made a good listing of all the wines we had during the week. So I won't repeat or détail all the wines, but just give some of my personnal impressions, as wine appreciation is very subjective.

Sunday first dinner : I brought a 2008 Montelena Estate Cabernet Sauvignon as non Bordeaux wine to drink at that dinner. When I saw the competition and the number of bottles/magnums on the table, i did not get my bottle out. I'm not like that normally, as BWE is a generous community, but I feel the Montelena would be better at another moment (we finally had it at lunch Thursday). So on Sunday night, the magnum of 1975 Château Cheval blanc was at a perfect place, and amazing of complexity of the can franc with good oak. The magnum of 1993 Château Haut-Brion was roaring on all cylinders. Frankly, I liked all the 1993 I had but that Haut-Brion was also at a very good place, and could be the wine of the vintage. The 1988 Château Latour was also excellent, as was the magnum of 1998 Château La Mission Haut-Brion, but I found these two were in need of 5 more years.

During the week, so many wine were excellent and great. But one thing that was hard, was to taste the 2014 left bank containing cab sauvignon. I really don't know how you can predict their future. On the right bank. It was a bit easier, as merlot showed better, but not easy at all. For me, the "best" 2014 (let say the more balanced) was Château La Conseillante. Château Pibran would be my second choice. Conseillante was already starting to show some very niçe fruity and violet flowers aromas and flavors. And third one would be Giscours, that was a bit severe, but full of concentration and promises.

From that week, I would say to forget 2013. No producers talked too much about them, or made it taste. The one who did it took risk. The 2013 Château La Lagune, 100% cab sauvignon, was very hard. 2013 Château Pontet Canet was ok, but you could See and feel that 2013 is a vintage that no good vineyard practices or winemaking techniques could save...

The 2011 Château d'Yquem was complex, shining, glorious. An impressive young Saiternes, from the best producer on Earth.

During the week, for the wines that were not 2014, these made some impression on me:

2004 Pavillon Rouge and Château Margaux: silky, complex fruit, would drink these for a week! And what was impressive, the Pavillon Rouge seemed not that far away from the Grand Vin.

2012 Château Léoville Las Cases: all the 2012 tasted there where excellent, but expectations were high (and met) with that wine. A perfect Saint-Julien, in a very good vintage, that deserves respect.

2012 Château Smith Haut-Lafitte: probably my second favorite 2012, with lot of Graves character. I preferred that to the 2009. The 2009 is a beast, that will be better in Many years, but I thought it was slightly overdone and not a 100 points wine.

2012 Château Pontet Canet was also well made, in a very natural style. Complex mineral, fruit and light roasted red pepper aromas, with a rasberry/blackcurrant cedar and lead flavors.

2006 Château Palmer was a real charming wine, still young, and with lot of potential still in it. Intense Berry merlot.

All the wines at Château Pichon Longueville Baron were delicious. But the 2009-2010 duo are very very strong wine. Comparing them to Tell which one is the best is very hard. Both had strong blackberries, dark red berries fruit, light oaky aromas, strong taste, drinking superbly that day. Personnally, I preferred the 2009 that day, but both wines deserve over 95-96 points...

The 2003-2005-2009 Chateau Pontet Canet were slightly different and each one representing it vintage perfectly. The 2003 was very open that day, showing a part of it potential but needs 5-10 more years to show all it charms. 2005 was very 2005, concentrated, a 50 years wine. Many superb wine that week, but the number one for me is the 2009 Château Pontet Canet. Why? I guess I'm a traditionnal guy and that wine IS a perfect Pauillac, that you can't mix with other AOC. It was already expressing itself with strong lead, cedar, blackberries, blackfruits, mineral, strong ripe structure, superb balance and incredible length. I guess this will give the First Growth some really good challenge in future blind tastings... The two other kinda young wines that made that impression on me, in the past, were the 1996 Château Grand-Puy Lacoste and 2003 Château Montrose, but even if I would have rate these last two high, the 2009 Château Pontet Canet is the first young wine I would rate 97-98+, for all it qualities and pure Pauillac character.

Nic

[AKR]

It's hard to taste those young wines. I don't understand how the pros do it.

But then again, I've never understood how baseball scouts look at 18 year olds and separate out the Derek Jeters from the Frankie Rodriguez's.

[robertgoulet]

Yes...tasting young wines is very difficult..a wine expo of 2010 here in Orlando many of the big boys were tiiiight, even the wines containing lots of merlot, but u could see the crazy structure...I have tasted 03 montrose and 96 gpl in the last yr...I like the gpl but not as high on this vintage as 95...the 03 montrose is real good...I need to retaste 10 pichon b....I liked it out the gate...impressive wine but I felt it was all attack..WHAM!! A crazy smack of impressive fruit, but not Pichon-like....sounds like some time in the bottle has leveled it out a bit..and wow on '93, I thought '93 was a poor yr!!

[robertgoulet]

Here is what Leve said a out the '93 bordeaux vintage

If you are seeking a special wine for a birthday or anniversary celebration, look for California Cabernet Sauvignon. Although you must be selective as some producers were much more successful than others in this uneven vintage. You can also seek the stunning wines of Zind Humbrecht from Alsace as well as red Burgundy.

Looks like his advice is premature and potentially missing out on some gems

[Nicklasss]

I'm with ou robertgoulet on the 2010 Pichon Baron, a super wine but the Pauillac characters are hiding behind tons of fruits.

Nic

[mek]

Almost four weeks on, the trip remains as vivid and memorable as if yesterday. LLC 2012 was stunning, and as you say surpassed expectations, the highlight of the trip for me.

[AKR]

Here is what Leve said a out the '93 bordeaux vintage

If you are seeking a special wine for a birthday or anniversary celebration, look for California Cabernet Sauvignon. Although you must be selective as some producers were much more successful than others in this uneven vintage. You can also seek the stunning wines of Zind Humbrecht from Alsace as well as red Burgundy.

Looks like his advice is premature and potentially missing out on some gems

I had a bunch when they were younger (would not have saved them) and in general they were washed out. There were a few good ones (Trotanoy!) but on the whole I would not make efforts to chase them today. Not even sure I would chase Cali Cabs either at this point, beyond stalwarts like Montelena, or BV GdtL.

[JimHow]

I was standing next to Ian and Maureen while we were sipping the 2012 LLC.
That was a stunning, stunning effort.
It was near perfection in its balance, finesse, elegance, but with a strong backbone.
It's $139 at MacArthur's, I'm going to buy a couple of bottles.

[Nicklasss]

Can someone comment the wines we had at Château Léoville Poyferré? Seem like they went under our radar? The dinner was very niçe, but that first day was so exhausting, seem like everyone were low energy.

I liked the 2003, 2005 and 2008. But did you feel that they were made for contest more than for enjoyment? In comparison, the 2004 Pavillon Rouge was a very high quality enjoyment wine...

Nic

[mek]

I wrote notes on almost every wine we imbibed, except the LPs.
Uniformly unmemorable Nic, as if we were never there.

[JimHow]

That 2004 Pavillon Rouge was outstanding.
Have I missed it, or has Jean Nicolas Maltais not yet announced his wine of the trip?

[Nicklasss]

From the Chateaux: the 2009 Château Pontet Canet. You can read why, earlier in that post.2012 Château Léoville Las Cases would be my second fav. Third would be the 2009-2010 duo of Château Pichon Longueville Baron, with a little preference for the 2009 that day.

From BWEers generosity: 1975 Château Cheval Blanc. But the 1934 Petrus bluffed us all. Third would the magnum of 1993 "wine of the vintage".

Nic

[stefan]

The Leoville Poyferres were disappointing as a group. The '05 is very classy with great structure, but the nosed is closed now. It has enough stuffing towithstand the overoaking that L-P is doing, but I am not sure that the other vintages do. The '03 is probably best for drinking now, but it still tastes of oak. The '08 has good fruit and fairly soft tannins. The '07 has way too much oak. The '06 also tastes of wood but is much better than the '07. The '12 should be good if the oak recedes properly.

[Comte Flaneur]

Bill - did you think they tasted of reverse osmosis too?

From what I gather Rolland has varying amounts of influence on the estates he consults. Pontet-Canet is at the low end but I gather that he has a big influence at Poyferre. Anne Cuvelier admitted as much when I asked her in London last autumn. So is the over-oak ing down to him?

Thankfully when it comes to manipulation the other two Leovilles seem to be at the other end of the spectrum. Poyferre remains one of my least favourite Bordeaux wines, while Leoville-Barton and LLC are now more than ever firm favourites. It is striking how different Lascases and Poferre are when they make wine in top of each other.

[DavidG]

Ian was that a serious question about reverse osmosis? Is there a specific characteristic unique to RO, and if so, what is it?

[mek]

If I may, I am sure Ian will concur, cross-flow filtration (commonly known as reverse osmosis) leaves a very characteristic mark - saline!

[Comte Flaneur]

They say it tastes if cryoextraction, a term I am sure you are familiar with David.

[robertgoulet]

I like saline notes

[DavidG]

Interesting. Do you think it's obvious even if they use it just a little? Or is there no such thing as just a little RO?

[dstgolf]

I don't see why reverse osmosis should have any effect on salinity. Basically all the machine is a big milipore filter used in many labs. Many households have reverse osmosis machines to purify the home drinking water and get rid of foul tastes for city water.

In the vinification world they can change the pore size to remove what they want but typically they are playing with water/alcohol content. If they get a rain before/during harvest then all is not lost. Zip the juice thru reverse osmosis and you can dial in your preferred brix/concentration just by changing pore size. Small molecules go through filter because its one of the smallest in wine. Ethanol will also go through to a lesser degree and they can also dial down a 15.5% wine to a 14-14.5% wine at the whim just by adjusting pore size. All color(anthrocyanins,tannins etc) are held back and not filtered through. They can take the filtrate and distill out the alcohol from the water. They can put the water with some of the micromolecules back in and if they've removed too much alcohol they can add beet sugar back to the juice(chaptilize) to increase the alcohol content.They can also remove sulfides,acids etc with various filters and make the process a much more alchemist soup than than the natural winemaking process that they all want us to believe. There is more chemistry/manipulation involved than they let on.

Salt should not have any place in this process. And no this this is NOT a cryoextraction process so I'm not sure what the term has to do with anything in the context of reverse osmosis.

[stefan]

I have no idea what reverse osmosis does to the taste of wine, Ian, but it certainly improves the taste of our local water.

[DavidG]

Does the local water taste salty?

[stefan]

Very salty and also of chlorine, David. That keeps our pool chemical bill down.