de Myrat - backstory

[AKR]

I think the de Myrat served at BWE SF was relatively new/unknown for many of us, and I mentioned that NM had written up a long note on it last fall. I'm taking the liberty sharing that, sans pictures and TN's. I'll likely delete it in a week or so, since I think Neil is single handedly making the the WA worth reading again, at least with his articles. (I wonder if brodway shared one of these with us a decade or so ago, or maybe it was de Malle? don't remember)

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NEAL MARTIN
28th Oct 2016 | The Wine Advocate

Imagine the day when you make the momentous decision to discontinue your vineyard. Not sell it off to another guardian, but rip out every single last vine so that no vestige of viticulture remains. Imagine making that dreaded telephone call. Bulldozers arrive at your behest, belching fumes on the perimeter of the vineyard, waiting your nod to enter. Two centuries of history will be destroyed in a day, ancient vines that looked to you as their protector, smashed and broken under grinding bulldozer tracks, ripped from the ground in a mass of flailing roots, chain-sawed and thrown on a funeral pyre. It might sound melodramatic and yet this is the fate that befell Château de Myrat.

This is the story of how a reputed Barsac property severed its connection to wine. More importantly it is a story about a Damascene resurrection, a second coming that has seen de Myrat inching its way back towards its former glory. It is a story entwined with a family that once occupied an exalted position within Bordeaux five centuries ago, whose association with wine hung on a single thread.
...........

[DavidG]

Fun read. I do like Martin's writing more than any of the current or former WA staff, including Parker and Galloni. He tells a good story. Thanks for posting, it's been a bit over a year since I let my subscription lapse.

[AKR]

It seems like he is cranking stuff out every month, now that the WA have gone to internet/real time publishing.

Each month NM will usually have a vertical plus a mixed bag he calls 'up from the cellar'. And then over the course of a year, he does barrel tasting, an in bottle report, and usually a cru bourgoise report (4 mos before), and 10 and 20 year reprises. That's a pretty industrious tasting/publishing schedule. But I suppose he has much more vim/vigor/focus at his age. Plus he also writes books, even if his last tome, Pomerol, is expensive and hard to find, so I will just have to patient for that.

All that is a lengthy way of saying: NM's writing alone makes WA worth the money now. I too had shitcanned my sub for maybe ten years.

I don't really know (yet) how my tastes line up with his, and if anything, I'm suspect he likes 'cooler' wines than I do, but we'll see. I don't think the difference between him and RMP is going to be as stark as the difference between Parker and say, Gilman or Mark Golodetz for example.

[AKR]

I've been enjoying a bottle of the 2005 de Myrat [Sauternes] the last couple of nights. After it's well chilled it feels like a good balanced dessert wine. I get orange peel and lemoncurd on the nose. My example is light colored and just medium bodied. It doesn't have the crisp edge some estates can show, but its not flabby. I guess I'd call it balanced. We had the 2001 at the BWE SF confab a year or so ago....but after so many wines, its not a distinct memory, I can not fairly compare the 2005 to it. It's easy to drink, and at 13.5% abv, a glass goes by quickly, and a soothing buzz emerges. Neil Martin wrote up a long form exposition on this in a WA maybe a year ago, prompting me to pick this up. Solid, and something to consider, if a deal flares up. I'd consider it a B+ sticky. But its not going to move me off my favorites like Coutet.

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What I posted originally was only their teaser opening to the article. The WA article was actually quite long and worth reading. Unf, NM has left the WA, and I'm going to let my subscription expire. If he's not writing for them, it's hard to believe that Bordeaux coverage will be credible. Even if my palate didn't line up with Neil's English one.

[William P]

Good memory Arv. I did bring a 2001 de Myrat to the SF gala event.

Bill

[stefan]

My tendency has been to drink Sauternes when it is young and boisterous or when it is 15-30+ years old. I am rethinking that. The 2007 Lafaurei-Peyraguey we drank last night is about as close to perfect as an L-F can be--honey that flows like lava with more minerals than are in lava. After going through 2 Champagnes and four bottles of OR PN at dinner, three of the six of us drained the bottle of L-F while the others had difficulty in drinking half a bottle of another OR PN.