2000 Lanessan -- or why do I spend so fucking much on wine?

[marcs]

I picked this up the 2000 Lanessan on sale for $25 a couple of years ago. To my eternal regret, I got only ONE bottle, thinking I would taste it and then decide whether to buy more. Well, because of my classed growth prejudice I wasn't particularly excited about tasting it and just got around to doing so last night. Unfortunately, there are basically no retail bottles of this wine left in the U.S.

Drinking this wine made me wonder why I spend so damn much on wine. This bottle was fantastic, people. I don't grade on a curve either -- granted, I would be less excited about it if it cost $200, but this wasn't just good "for a $25 Haut Medoc", this was GOOD good, period.

On the nose, it had that beautiful cool, pure mixed berries and earth scent to it that is one of my favorite things about left bank Bordeaux. On the palate, it had a fine sweetness to it without in any way compromising its savory quality or Bordeaux typicity. It was beautifully structured and the line from the initial taste to the back palate was just classic, so smooth. If one wanted to nitpick you could say that in comparison to the major classed growths there were some layers of intensity missing in the midpalate or finish (although only in a relative sense, there was no sense that the wine was thin), but you know, those layers of intensity can create problems as well as add complexity/depth. Seeking those extra layers through extraction is all too often where clumsy tannins, excessive alcohol, new-worldishness, or perpetual "not ready yet" types of issues enter the picture. None of that here, this was just right. Just a perfect wine to scratch your Bordeaux itch, drunk at the perfect age (although it still has years to go).

If you see well stored cases of this wine at auction, DO NOT BID. If I see them I will just bid up your price and we will both lose. Instead, INFORM ME. If you tell me about a good source of this wine that I didn't otherwise see I would be glad to just send you a couple of free bottles. Not kidding!

[OrlandoRobert]

Ha! You finally had that epiphany!

And the 2000 Lanessan can do that to someone. It's in a perfect spot right now. I've prolly gone through a case in the last 2 years.

This, to me, as why we mature Bordeaux.

[marcs]

Ha! You finally had that epiphany!

And the 2000 Lanessan can do that to someone. It's in a perfect spot right now. I've prolly gone through a case in the last 2 years.

This, to me, as why we mature Bordeaux.

Yup, exactly. I shared this with my partner (not a wine person but tastes plenty being around me) and asked her to guess how much it cost, she guessed $125. Her jaw dropped when I told her it was less than $15 on release and I got it for $25. The magic of aging Bordeaux -- very few other wine regions can do this.

Early in my wine career I drank some less expensive Bordeaux that was just bad, and that definitely had a big influence. on me. But when you have that experience of aging an "average" Bordeaux and it's perfect then that really changes things. I basically bought the 95 GPL and 99 LB to try to get similar experiences as this -- I'm sure those two wines could be somewhat better than this but they are also three to four times the price!

The problem is finding those gems. Like, with Lanessan I don't even know if there are other vintages equal to this one. I got kind of burned on the Haut Bergey where the 2000 was wonderful and I bought a case of the 2005 but the 2005 was meh at best.

[OrlandoRobert]

Marc, that's why I rail so hard on the modernization we see in Bordeaux, with all these classic estates flipping to consultants like Rolland, Bouard, et al. It fundamentally changes the style, taste and ability to mature, of the wine. I have sampled enough of their wines over a 15-20 year period to see that quite definitively, for my palate of course. This is why Chateau like Lanessan and Sociando Mallet, among some others, have always been so important for Bordeaux. If we have been drinking them for years, we know the styles, we know the variabilities between vintages, and thus are 100% comfortable buying new releases and futures without tasting them first. Once these estates flip to the dark-side, it changes this entire equation. Lanessan is no longer the Lanessan of old. They brought in Bouard, and he made vintages 2015 and 2016, presumably more thereafter. And the wines are different, more glossy, plumper, more wood. I did not like the 2016. Commentators like Leeve now say "best ever". In all candor, I do not like hardly anything Bouard touches, but that's another story. I am now done with Lanessan. I think if you like 2000 this much, you can count on most quality vintages up through 2014 performing that way. I think 2014 is outstanding, as is 2009. Backfill like crazy. I'd specifically target 2005, 09 and 14, but I also really like 01 and 99, but going back that far, prior storage really becomes important.

[marcs]

By the way -- one note: this wine was WAY WAY better than the 2015 Malescot Exupery that I also had recently, from the celebrated Margaux 2015 vintage. Like no comparison better.

But look at the scores. Malescot has 93.6 Cellartracker / 94 Neal Martin / 95+ Antonio Galloni ("one of the highlights of the vintage") etc. etc.

The 2000 Lanessan has 89.2 Cellartracker / 88 Robert Parker (who predicted it would only drink well for 10 years BTW)

Of course I tasted one at peak maturity and the other at a 4-5 year stage that can be awkward. But I really doubt the 2015 Malescot will ever be as good as the 2000 Lanessan

[Nicklasss]

Very interesting Marcs.

10 years ago, I bought a bottle of the 2000 Laffitte-Carcasset, and it was an amazing wine for the price. We underestimate these less expensive red wines from Bordeaux, but with some age they can show lots of greatness. And you don't have to wait too long like for some Crus Classés.

Nic

[AKR]

I'm still chewing through my 2000 Lanessan, and have always quite liked it. I think there are a bunch of estates that are all roughly comparable i.e. good wines that will last for a couple decades at the $20 price pt. In this group I'd put Cambon La Pelouse, Charmail, d'Arsac, Lillian Ladouys, Greysac, Bernadotte, Tour de Mons.

Lanessan might be more consistent/reliable than the other names but I think those all ought to cellar well in good years.

[brodway]

I've had this sort of epiphany with the 2000 Du Tertre...drank my last bottle recently....a tear dropped into an empty glass as i watched two decades of enjoyment come to an end

[tim]

I just spent 5 grand on wine this week. It was kinda crazy. Considering I don't make the same money as I did a few years ago, it was rather over the top. But I don't regret it.

[Claudius2]

Guys
It is a pity that CB’s and Cru Artisan wines often get ignored - maybe with a few exceptions such as Sociando Mallet.
In lockdown we have been drinking numerous non-classed growths and some have been much better than expected. We bought quite a lot from the airport a month or two ago and wines such as Haut Medoc de Beychevelle and also HM de Lagrange were surprisingly good as were Loudenne, Remparts de Ferriere, Corconnac and Beaumont. Vintages were from 2011 to 2016 and the only dog was a Medoc called Roc Tiallade 2016.
In short several wines were way better than expected and it made me realize what a hard time of it that non classed properties can have. I wonder how many can stay in business and hope that the current virus does not lead to bankruptcy.

[OrlandoRobert]

I agree, Claudius. As a daily wine drinker, these are important wines for me to have. I have tons of expensive stuff that I just can’t pull on a nightly basis, and these $30 and under CBs are thus so important to have. And many of them age quite gracefully like the big boys, just perhaps for not as long. If I had more storage, I would have gotten 10 cases of the 2014 Sociando and Lanessan. Hard to beat in terms of quality, and back then the Sociando was around $30 and the Lanessan could be found under $20. Amazing buys. Sounds like 2019 pricing may be back down to this level.

The problem today is that some of these lovely Crus have flipped to the dark-side, bringing in the creatures like Bouard and Rolland, to boost their critics’ scores and sales. Hard to criticize a business for doing this, but as a consumer, it’s a shame, as it fundamentally changes the wine. The 2016 Lanessan is so very different from the 2014 since Bouard came in. I have been buying Lanessan for 25 or so years, and now that run has come to an end. Others that have gone dark, include all faves like La Louviere and Cambon La Pelouse. Even Siran flipped.

Would be great to have a thread just about Crus, and perhaps break it down between classic and modern, as I’m sure some folks here like the modern stuff.

[JCNorthway]

Would be great to have a thread just about Crus, and perhaps break it down between classic and modern

I personally would find such a thread useful - to learn from the experiences of others to inform my buying from among producers about whom I know little.

[marcs]

I'm still chewing through my 2000 Lanessan, and have always quite liked it. I think there are a bunch of estates that are all roughly comparable i.e. good wines that will last for a couple decades at the $20 price pt. In this group I'd put Cambon La Pelouse, Charmail, d'Arsac, Lillian Ladouys, Greysac, Bernadotte, Tour de Mons.

Lanessan might be more consistent/reliable than the other names but I think those all ought to cellar well in good years.

I haven't had all of those but I have had some -- Greysac and Cambon La Pelouse in particular. I really like them (Greysac was one of my initial introduction wines to Bordeaux) but I doubt they could have held up as well or been as good as this Lanessan. From my recollection (been a while) wines like Greysac have a lot of merlot to drink well young and are nice but a little flabby. I don't know the specific cepage for the Lanessan but it had a nice structural through line along with the fruit that made me think it must be at least 50-60% cabernet. But I could be wrong.

[Blanquito]

I think Lanessan is a top 4-5 cru bourgeois and it is (was?) made in a more serious vin garde style unlike many other CBs.

I was going to open an 05 Lanessan yesterday but I wasn’t sure those are ready yet. Any recent experiences here with the 05?

[marcs]

I just spent 5 grand on wine this week. It was kinda crazy. Considering I don't make the same money as I did a few years ago, it was rather over the top. But I don't regret it.

I could have written this very post, not this week, but, ummm, some weeks ago. But although I don't regret it exactly my quarantine drinking experiences have made me wonder how much I have overspent. I was drinking more regularly over March to May than I normally do and not holding back on the quality or price of wines I was drinking. But there just wasn't a ton of correlation between the wine prices and my experience. Not a negative correlation but not a clear correlation.

The wines that stood out for me were the 2009 Chevillon Vaucrains (WOTQ -- "wine of the quarantine"), the 2010 Felsina Chianti RIserva Rancia, the 2014 Thierry Germain Les Memoires, the 2011 Tertre Roteboeuf, the 2007 Huet Demi-Sec Le Mont, the 2012 Jadot Clos St Denis (except it shut down rapidly in the glass) and to some degree the 2001 Pichon Baron and this 2000 Lanessan. The wines I found disappointing and didn't really enjoy that much were the 2015 Chevillon Cailles, the 2016 Pichon Baron, the 2015 Malescot Exupery, the 2005 Rapet Corton Charlemagne, and the 2013 Hudelot Noellat Clos Vougeot and Les Beaux Monts. TBH none of the disappointing wines were really "bad", and my expectations had a lot to do with all of these experiences I think -- like, I had super high hopes for the 2016 Pichon Baron and the 2015 Chevillon Cailles so it was easy to be let down, and absolutely zero expectations for the 2000 Lanessan so it was easy to be bowled over. But still, that describes my pleasure-o-meter for these wines over the last couple of months, and there is not a lot of correlation with price tag there.

One thing that price tag *is* highly correlated with though is resale value, so if I want to clean out my cellar I can always do so.

[marcs]

I agree, Claudius. As a daily wine drinker, these are important wines for me to have. I have tons of expensive stuff that I just can’t pull on a nightly basis, and these $30 and under CBs are thus so important to have. And many of them age quite gracefully like the big boys, just perhaps for not as long. .

I don't drink on a daily basis, maybe two to three nights a week and then mostly weeks that aren't during the super hot DC summer, so I could probably spend the next 10+ years drinking nothing but excellent / expensive wines, especially if it takes some time for the in-person wine socializing scene to open back up again. I don't need cases of $30 wines. But if the $30 wines are going to be as good or actually *better* than some of the fancier stuff that is another story. Regarding aging, the smaller wines may not age as long as the "big boys" but I think a lot of the aging difference will come in the 25-50 year window which, let's face it, is pretty theoretical / doesn't matter that much for a new release. Also, I think the smaller wines may age more predictably. It takes so damn long for some of the big wines to emerge from their slumber that there are a lot more years when you are risking a bad experience opening one up. A lot of smaller wines from the 2000 vintage have been excellent for years now, while the bigger boys were hit and miss until very recently (and some still are).

[johnz]

I was lucky enough to land a case of 2000 Lanessan on release for $12/btl. It was hard, but I kept my hands off them until 2012+ and drank through the case in about 5 years as I didn't see that it would improve, but perhaps I was wrong. What a QPR indeed.

I for one consider the 2000 du Tertre (Margaux) excellent now and in the past, and a good long step above 2000 Lanessan.

-Gary Rust

[marcs]

The wines that stood out for me were the 2009 Chevillon Vaucrains (WOTQ -- "wine of the quarantine"), the 2010 Felsina Chianti RIserva Rancia, the 2014 Thierry Germain Les Memoires, the 2011 Tertre Roteboeuf, the 2007 Huet Demi-Sec Le Mont, the 2012 Jadot Clos St Denis (except it shut down rapidly in the glass) and to some degree the 2001 Pichon Baron and this 2000 Lanessan. The wines I found disappointing and didn't really enjoy that much were the 2015 Chevillon Cailles, the 2016 Pichon Baron, the 2015 Malescot Exupery, the 2005 Rapet Corton Charlemagne, and the 2013 Hudelot Noellat Clos Vougeot and Les Beaux Monts. TBH none of the disappointing wines were really "bad", and my expectations had a lot to do with all of these experiences I think -- like, I had super high hopes for the 2016 Pichon Baron and the 2015 Chevillon Cailles so it was easy to be let down, and absolutely zero expectations for the 2000 Lanessan so it was easy to be bowled over. But still, that describes my pleasure-o-meter for these wines over the last couple of months, and there is not a lot of correlation with price tag there.

One thing that price tag *is* highly correlated with though is resale value, so if I want to clean out my cellar I can always do so.

LOL another thing that stands out in these lists of wine all the wines that disappointed me were way too young -- except for the Rapet and the Thierry Germain (amazing wine) the lists divide neatly into 2013 and after and before 2013. Maybe I just need to take aging seriously.