Checking in on some mature right banks

[Comte Flaneur]

On Monday night we had a dinner at Hawksmoor, Guildhall in the heart of the City of London, with £5 a bottle corkage, and the theme was right banks from 1995, 1998, 2000 and 2001.

The first flight of 1995s was very good and evenly matched.

Gazin was very good with a beautiful strawberry fruit attack, with plums, floral and coffee notes overlaid, and still with big-framed tannins on the palate, which softened over the evening. It had impressive persistence on the finish - 92 points

Latour a Pomerol was well resolved and the most seductive wine in this flight, with a sexy milk chocolate, mocha and caramel entry and a silky and caressing palate - it was like an aphrodisiac - you could almost hear Serge Gainsbourg on the organ and Jane Birkin whispering Je T’Aime in the background - it was a big hit with all the fellas around the table - 92 points

Magdelaine came off the bench, was popped and decanted, after my bottle of L’Evangile was flawed. The most regal wine of the flight it was still unfurling when I took my last sip. Reassuringly old school and self-assured, dispatching the ball off the middle of the bat with aplomb, it had a beguiling a leafy coolness. This is a very good Magdelaine, which is more accessible than the 1998 and 2000 - 92 points

The next flight was dubbed the oddball flight

The 2001 Le Dome is an unusual wine with 74% cab franc, and 24% Merlot. You would never guess you were in St-Emilion. In fact you would be ever so confused as to where you might be. I would have guessed llama country. This has an alluring cool, fresh - almost Andean - menthol-infused attack, a theme which continues on the palate. It is in no way spoofed; in fact, quite the opposite. But it is not particularly interesting or complex either. My guess is that you would get bored drinking this pretty quickly (we had one eighth of the bottle each). But it was appreciated by the group - 89 points

I feared the 1998 Troplong Mondot would be discombobulated because I vaguely remember an encounter with a very out-of-sorts bottle of this several years ago. So it was a relief that this wine came across as being well resolved and in a good place. It had some exotic notes - my friend Neil detected some charred banana leaf - others cough mixture. However, being relieved that it is not a horror show is not the same as hailing this to be a great wine. You can do an awful lot better in 1998 on the right bank - 89 points.

The last flight matched up Figeac, La Gaffeliere and Tertre Roteboeuf

The 2000 La Gaff was flawed.

The 2000 Figeac was sensational and by far the most exciting wine. It was spikey and feral with a riveting green overlay an emerging tertiary complexity, and it had a terrific finish. Eric d’Aramon, who got his marching orders in 2012 after failing to secure an upgrade to Premier A status, was roundly criticised by some of the critics (no need to name them) for picking his 2000 too early; but he was vindicated in my opinion. What a wine this has turned out to be. Unfortunately the market has figured this out and prices are now in the stratosphere. I regret not owning any with the consolation that I own the 98 and the 01. I asked Paul, who brought it, to trade some of my 01 for some of his 00 - 96 points.

The 2001 Tertre Roteboeuf was as you would expect exuberant and a salacious pleasure, and easily bagged my second place. This is an estate which seems to specialise in doing well in less heralded vintages - 94 points

Tertre, 18 points on the Comte Flaneur patented scoring system, was comfortably the group‘s wine of the night as the Figeac divided opinions, and came second, with nine, narrowly ahead of LaP, on eight, Troplong on five (somebody made this his wine of the night), Dome four (two had this as runner up; each to his own), Magdelaine three, and Gazin one. I put Gazin third because I was so pleasantly surprised by it but the three 1995s were really neck and neck despite being quite different.

To finish we had two halves of 2001 Lafaurie-Peyraguey and Suduiraut. I did not take notes but enjoyed them both about equally. Neither blew me away though.

[Comte Flaneur]

[Claudius2]

Ian
You mention green characters in the Figeac 2000. You clearly were not put off by it, but I’m trying to understand the nature of it, given the 2000 vs 2001 thread here. I have not tried the 00 but have had several earlier vintages and none to my memory ever showed such flavours.

The only 2000 I can recall showing green characters was Sociando Mallet - and it was too prominent for me. The 2001 was also rather green and these vintages put me off this estate for some time.

As an aside, Coonawarra Cabs can have some capsicum characters but they are with very few exceptions well handled now. However, one of the most famous Coonawarras was the 63 Mildara which earned the nickname Peppermint Patty.

Cheers
Mark

[AKR]

What a stunning collection of wines! I'm 'green' with envy.

What ever happened with Le Dome? I hardly ever hear about that any more?

[Antoine]

Ian,
My only bottle of Figeac is a 2000 (I drank a 77... 20 years ago)... should I drink or should I wait?

[Musigny 151]

The other 2000 that showed a lot of green in its youth was Pichon Lalande. The green has mostly disappeared leaving a phenomenal wine. The Figeac also has shed a lot of the green, but not all . Very clearly a wine some love and some loathe.

[Blanquito]

The magnum of the 95 Figeac last night was fantastic, and for several of us it was right up there with the best of the many wonderful wines. Like the 2000 and presumably all vintages of Figeac at this point, it is now prohibitively priced.

[OrlandoRobert]

Killer lineup and really great notes. Thanks for sharing.