TN: 2006 Clos de l'Oratoire (France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru)

[JimHow]

• 2006 Clos de l'Oratoire - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (7/3/2009)
  Parker uses terms like "opulent" and "flamboyant" to describe this wine, which is comprised of 90% merlot. I guess some of the flamboyance came out in the end, about six hours after initial decanting. Lots of sediment. This is a young, fruity, aromatic wine, but I can't rate it high in the category of "personality". Still scratching my head over this enigma of a vintage. It's a tasty wine now, although I have no idea how well this will age. Right now I'm rating 2002 ahead of this vintage, but that assessment could change. This wine seems to be finishing strong with the last sediment-filled sips, displaying sweet right-bank chocolate. (90 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

[Claudius]

Jim
Why do you decribe 06 as an enigma??

[JimHow]

Claudius, I've had about six different wines now and I'm trying to figure out the style of the vintage, what past vintages to which it compares, etc.

[jal]

I think it's a vintage where manipulated wines will not shine and where good winemakers can succeed with just the raw material. Lagrange and Chasse Spleen are both delicious with minimum manipulation but for a change I disliked La Tour Carnet and Malartic Lagraviere.

[DavidG]

I've never been able to figure out wines when they are at that awkward tweener stage. It may be that some of the '06s are already there. As our old buddy Pomerollover wrote of his recent trip to Bdx:

"I did not taste many 06 on this trip. Most producers feel the vintage shows very poorly at this time and would not want to show the wines."

[JimHow]

...which seems to be my limited experience with this vintage, but that would seem to be very unusual. Normally the wines show well for a year after bottling, then shut down for 4-8 years or so.

[DavidG]

Agree - seems early for them to be shutting down.