Chateau De Ferrand 1998 has been opened

[Comte Flaneur]

The last bottle of 1998 ever purchased from the Chateau.

[Comte Flaneur]

[Comte Flaneur]

[Comte Flaneur]

Served in a Bordeaux Zalto, cracking glasses

[Comte Flaneur]

Clean and garnet bricking. This is nicely resolved and really is in the sweet spot. It is definitely old school with a hint of rusticity, which I find most attractive.

It has cedar and Mediterranean herb notes, subtle but adequate fruits, some leathery notes emerging to indicate that it is no longer a spring chicken. The tannins are smooth and gently grippy giving the wine a good lift and tension, without it being a nervous wreck.

It is medium bodied and lithe as it glides around your taste buds. It has a Burgundian quality and elegance to it. Very happy with this. Time to take the lamb chops out of the oven. I think this going to be a match made in heaven.

[JimHow]

Very nicely done Comte.
I know it wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but I personally thought it was a nice solid wine. I liked their attitude.

[Roel]

Wonderful. Old school Bdx at its best. Enjoy.

[Comte Flaneur]

Me too.

Lovely with the lamb chops, with air it has developed an alluring truffly note. A delightful wine. I think I caught this in the sweet spot.

It is is not Cheval Blanc but for what I paid...30 euros iirc, it was lovely.

I really liked the 2000 - I see I have a bottle, perhaps I should have snagged a few more.

My impression was that this is an estate that does well in trumpeted vintages: like 1998 of course, 2000 most definitely and 2009 and 2010. I don't think we had a 2005 or did we? The 2001 was sold out.

[AKR]

Quite a pale red there.

[Comte Flaneur]

Wonderful. Old school Bdx at its best. Enjoy.

Yes Roel it was one of those 'off the beaten track' kind of estates...I think Alex lined it up.

[JimHow]

Yes it has a distinctively RED color.

[Comte Flaneur]

Quite a pale red there.

Yes almost Burgundian...it had a nice truffly sous-bois complex note after an hour or so.

I know I shouldn't bang on about it, but I found this so much more satisfying than the Angelus 1994...with this wine you get the impression there is nothing forced...like Leoville Lascases 2012, but I wouldn't pretend that this is remotely comparable to that benchmark.

[Comte Flaneur]

We had a maximum today of a rather pleasant 75 Fahrenheit...right now it is a delightful 66F (10 PM)...yesterday the Mercury clocked 98F in London, the hottest since 2006.

[DavidG]

Another nice 1998 right banker, well done! And I love those Zalto glasses. We've got both the Universal and the Bordeaux. There's a lot of love for the Burgundy version but they are just too big for me.

[AKR]

We had a maximum today of a rather pleasant 75 Fahrenheit...right now it is a delightful 66F (10 PM)...yesterday the Mercury clocked 98F in London, the hottest since 2006.

Perhaps one plus of global warming is that we'll be able to make wines from more marginal climes.

[Comte Flaneur]

Just drank the 2000 and it was not as satisfying as the 1998, a little bit lacking by comparison in depth and length. Not as good as I remember the one at the chateau.

[AKR]

I'm massively generalizing here, but I've drank tons of 98 and 00 right banks, and would generally say the 98s are a touch grippier, and the 00's a touch fleshier.

And probably on the margin for drinking today, would go with a random 00 over a random 98.

So the comparison between your 98 and 00 Ferrand seems to fit my general experience.

This may not be all that useful color since I'd be personally skeptical of buying either vintages after market now.

(I've not used Zalto's before but I don't like the visuals of that shape. I was given a gift of some Schwott - Zweisels, which I quite like. But Crate & Barrell has lots of dishwasher safe and inexpensive stemware that is 80% as good as the fine crystal people use...and at 20% or less of the price, one doesn't have to get vexed when kids/dogs/drunks smash them up)

[robertgoulet]

Anyone have the '98 la grave a pomerol?

[Blanquito]

Anyone have the '98 la grave a pomerol?

I had one bottle, cellared since release, opened 2 weeks ago, terribly corked.

[AKR]

Anyone have the '98 la grave a pomerol?

Yes. I think its the best one I ever tasted, maybe 10-15 different years of the good ones, although nothing 2005 or later.

I was way too casual drinking them when I was younger.