Bordeaux Tour Nov-Dec 2017: part three

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Comte Flaneur
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Bordeaux Tour Nov-Dec 2017: part three

Post by Comte Flaneur »

It was an early start on Saturday for the ‘portes ouvertes’ in Pessac-Léognan in the southern suburbs of Bordeaux, outside the ring road. Early because Alex likes to visit at least a dozen estates in a day. In the end we did manage 12, as I struggled to keep up, in addition to lunch and a tour of the wine shop at Leclerc in Léognan.

On a crisp bright winter morning at 945 am sharp, we started at Carbonnieux and over seven hours took in Bouscaut, Couhins, La Louvière, Larrivet-Haut-Brion, Haut-Bergey, Chateau Léognan where we had lunch, Mancedre, Chateau De France, Grand Maison, Olivier and Chateau Brown.

Most estates showed their white and red, second and first wines. The tastings were well attended by the - often effortlessly sassy - Bordelaise who are able to go along and buy good quality wines, often at discounted prices, in their own backyard. Some of the estates got very busy, especially after lunch, notably La Louvière, Chateau De France and Olivier. Alex will be posting his notes on his Bordeaux Wine Blog in due course, but I would make the following observations:

- These wines generally offer good value for money, with nothing over the low €30s for the top wines at the estates we visited (note: we didn’t go to Pape Clement - ‘like Disneyland’ according to Alex - and estates like DDC, SHL and Haut-Bailly were not open. Neither, of course, were Haut-Brion and La Mission).
- Some of the second wines offered notable relative value, and the price differential between first and second wines often didn’t appear justified.
- The best value for money proposition was Grand Maison selling good, clean wines with great typicite for €14.
- The estates which impressed me most were Larrivet Haut-Brion and Mancedre, and I bought one bottle of each’s white the former being the second wine. Both already consumed and delicious, see last picture.
- If I had my car I would have purchased quite a few bottles (actually cases more like). These wines in the €15-20 ballpark are perfect for mid-week drinking, and right in my wheelhouse.
- In fact I would go further and say these wines are worthy substitutes for mid to lower priced white and red burgundies, which I regularly drink. After a long search, I have found what I have been looking for. Now just a question of getting some over to Blighty.

We had lunch at La Menege in Chateau Léognan, a nice hanger steak with a glass of Chateau Léognan 2012, quintessentially Gravesy, a perfect combo. Mid-afternoon we stopped at Leclerc in Léognan, where you can buy any vintage of Ch. Haut-Brion from your birth year. I wasn’t tempted by the €663 they wanted for the 1963.


In the evening Alex and Christine put on a dinner party for eight, including Dewey Markham and his wife Catherine and John Salvi MW and his wife Nellie. We had two bottles of champagne, of which I preferred the Rothschild Blanc De Blanc to the Cuvee William Deutz 1999. Both were good, the Rothschild delicious and the Deutz more structured.

I preferred the Henri Boillot Puligny Montrachet Clos De Mouchere (Monopole) 2010 to both the champagnes, which had a nice matchstick flintiness, mineral and yet unintegrated oak. The next wine had a noticeably darker aged colour, and was easily recognisable as a white Graves/Pessac, I guessed from the 1990s. It turned out to be Laville Haut-Brion 2000. Very lovely, but surprisingly evolved I thought.

The first red was easy to pick as a Bordeaux but less easy to pick as a left or a right bank. It was clearly on the young side with a lot of class and potential. I chose right, the rest of the table left, and they were correct; but I wasn’t too embarrassed because it was La Mission Haut-Brion 2004 (a wine with roughly equal proportions of cab-sav and merlot).

The next wine was similar only it had more abrasive tannins, which took me up a St-Estephe cul de sac, because it otherwise lacked text book left bank traits. None of us got that it was Haut-Brion. And from the same vintage. I was surprised by the spikey-ness of the tannins, until I remembered that the 1998 Haut-Brion had exactly the same characteristic at a similar age, masking a fine wine underneath. But the table and I preferred the Mission.

The next red wine was also quite forbidding, but oozed class and authority as it fanned out across the palate. Knowing Alex it was something good, and fine claret. But it clearly wasn’t Latour, neither was it Margaux and it definitely wasn’t Mouton ... so it had to be Lafite. However, the 2004 is more inviting than this, which is telling you - politely - to go forth and multiply, and come back in ten or more years. Alex revealed it to be Chateau Lafite 2001. Exceedingly generous of him to broach his only bottle.

We had two dessert wines: a Doisy-Daene 1996 Sauternes and a 6 puttanyas Tokaji Kiralyudva, which frankly stole the show and stole our hearts. It had a mesmerising nose of rich exotic chocolate and fudge carrying through to the palate. This would have to be my dessert wine of the year. Extraordinarily generous of Alex to open so many illustrious bottles, matched to a triumphant meal featuring, among other things, a crab and prawn salad and a superb quail dish.
Last edited by Comte Flaneur on Fri Dec 08, 2017 5:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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JimHow
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Re: Bordeaux Tour Nov-Dec 2017: part three

Post by JimHow »

You guys know how to live!
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Claudius2
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Re: Bordeaux Tour Nov-Dec 2017: part three

Post by Claudius2 »

Excellent report.
What was the old car by the way??
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Comte Flaneur
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Re: Bordeaux Tour Nov-Dec 2017: part three

Post by Comte Flaneur »

Thanks Mark, it’s a Riley from the 1930s...
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AKR
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Re: Bordeaux Tour Nov-Dec 2017: part three

Post by AKR »

A Laville H.B. ?! There's one we never see

Great notes and pictures.

It looks quite cold and blustery there.
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greatbxfreak
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Re: Bordeaux Tour Nov-Dec 2017: part three

Post by greatbxfreak »

Funny thing with Alex,

Ian, you are very priviledged.

I won't get these wines at Alex' house. He tells me I've to fall down from the sky.
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