TN: 2000 Ch. Rouget

[JimS]

As I find my tastes shifting more and more toward Bordeaux and away from Napa (which also makes it far easier on the wallet!), I thought I'd join the community here as I've found many notes here to be very helpful / enjoyable reading, and hopefully there are notes / experiences that I can share to now reciprocate....

As a background story for this note, we hosted a college friend of mine (and his significant other) at our house this weekend, and to welcome them, we decided to open a few bottles of wine. They are new to wine but found our love of the hobby to be contagious, and as I hear back today, they are already asking for wine recommendations to begin their own journey! As much as the wine itself, it is the friendships, experiences, and generosity that has made me into the passionate hobbyist that I am today, and to share it and watch peoples' expressions when they have their first non-supermarket two buck chuck wine, it's priceless.

Anyway, on to the note....

This was very nice, and to my tastes, just entering early stages of maturity and beginning to hint at more secondary characteristics, although the fruit was still firmly present with plums, black currants, mocha, raspberry, truffles, and cedar. Medium to medium+ acidity with a very nice, round mid palate with tannins near fully resolved, making for a graceful and layered finish. I picked up some very interesting nuances of rhubarb on the finish after much air. This was a very pleasant surprise - very balanced and drinking quite well at the moment well above its paygrade in my opinion. I haven't had many other 2000's recently, but if this is any indication, it seems like they are starting to come around and may be worth checking in on now...

[JimHow]

Welcome JimS, and thank you for your report!

[AKR]

Nice. I'm fond of Rouget

[DavidG]

Welcome Jim and thanks for the note. It's especially fun to see the love of wine kindled in a friend.

[dstgolf]

Welcome to the board. Yes more to wine than drinking it and sharing with like minded friends makes the experience all that much more fun.

Rouget is an old styled reliable wine with little flash but still well priced for Pomerol. The 98s are almost all gone and the 2000s are down to a few bottles left. Haven't bought any since the 2000 mainly because it never wowed me. Certainly drinkable but nothing exceptional to keep me on their buying list. Glad that you enjoyed and as you've seen by reading the 2000s generally are coming in to their own with most still a lot of life ahead but enjoyable now. Enjoy and welcome.

[JimHow]

I found the only Rouget I've ever had -- the 2005 -- to be very internationalized and boring.

[dstgolf]

Style must have changed Jim because I never found modernization in Rouget through 2000 but boring maybe.

[JimHow]

I just had that one bottle of the 2005, Danny, my recollection is that it was kind of like what Clos Marsalette has become, like too flawless, no rough edges that can give a great Bordeaux that extra personality.

[AKR]

I always think of the word 'chewy' when I taste a Rouget.

It's fattier piece of meat than its classy neighbors.

I purchased a bottle of the 2012 somewhat recently.

[dstgolf]

Jim,

I'm more along with Arv on this one however can't comment on the 2005 which being a ripe year you may have drank an exception??. A little rough around the edges and certainly no over extraction/modernistic crafting here with the Rouget that I've known however things can change rapidly in this region to up their game. I thought you were trending towards the modern enjoying the likes of Fleur Cardinale, Clos l'Oritoire and Tour Carnet to name a few from recollection so your your bipolar approach to too flawless and lack of rough edges are somewhat contradictory. I had thought How was crossing to the dark side with next stop Napa!!

[AlohaArtakaHoundsong]

Jim,

I'm more along with Arv on this one however can't comment on the 2005 which being a ripe year you may have drank an exception??. A little rough around the edges and certainly no over extraction/modernistic crafting here with the Rouget that I've known however things can change rapidly in this region to up their game. I thought you were trending towards the modern enjoying the likes of Fleur Cardinale, Clos l'Oritoire and Tour Carnet to name a few from recollection so your your bipolar approach to too flawless and lack of rough edges are somewhat contradictory. I had thought How was crossing to the dark side with next stop Napa!!

Jim is just a bit like the Donald Trump of wine appreciation: mercurial, bombastic, off the cuff, sarcastic, self-promoting, Suckling-baiting; in other words, he brings all of Trump's better qualities to bear on wine criticism. And he would like to build a wall around St. Emilion and make them pay for it.

[JimHow]

As Omar and Patrick chanted at the last BWE convention:
"We're going to make Lynch Bages great again!"

[dstgolf]

"We're going to make Lynch Bages great again!"

Says he who`s lips kissed the hallowed ground!!......Wish I could post the picture.

[Comte Flaneur]

Jim - ostensibly there is so much to like about Rouget. It is good honest Pomerol, not pretentious, nor hifalutin, and very reasonably priced.

At the same time in my experience - focused around the 2001 and the 2000 - it ultimately comes up a little short - metaphorically speaking. It lacks the excitement, pizzazz and sense of occasion you often get when you open a VCC or Conseillante...or even a Gazin.

It is prosaic by comparison. That's why in another thread started by Patrick I said I was 'ploughing' through my case of 2000, and I drink them early-mid week.

The first half of the bottle is always better than the second half. I have given several away as presents and those receiving them have been more than complimentary.

But I don't know, when I open a bottle of a Pomerol I an looking something a little more dangerous and exotic.

[JimHow]

I thick you nail my sentiments exactly Comte about that one bottle of Rouget that I had...

[stefan]

>>
The first half of the bottle is always better than the second half.
>>

This calls to mind how Lucie and I judge a wine when we dine at home by ourselves. If we don't care to finish the bottle we do not buy any more. If we finish the bottle with gusto we buy more. If we want to open a second bottle of the same wine, then I immediately check to see if we can get more.

[JimHow]

I like it, the "StefaLu Method."