.Anyway-I'm back and am glad to read your posts and learn from the group.
Based on some notes here, I picked up a handful of 2014 half bottles and gave them a try over 3 days. Poor notes below, but I'm trying
.2014 Cos d’Estournel-St. Estephe- (375ml)-certainly not in the heavyweight category, but a nice, floral aromatic nose-somewhat restrained compared to the Pontet Canet. Dark fruits, herbal, good length, and a dose of fine tannins. Day 2 was much of the same, but started getting some licorice, coffee, and became a bit juicier. Certainly a long life ahead, glad I got to sample this today.
2014 Montrose-St Estephe-375ml-Much darker the Cos d’Estornel. Day 1 was big and brooding. Lean and tannic, but displayed an amazing richness. Day 2 and this started to emerge, still dark and tannic, but also a velvet and rich element-iron fist in a velvet glove to be sure. Long finish, dark fruits, hints of licorice, and minerality. While this was tough to get a handle on day 1, but evolved over the next 2 days. I will definitely grab a few bottles of this-no idea how many years this will need to smooth out, but it should be great when it does.
2014 Leoville Las Cases-St Julien-375ml-Beautiful ruby red, especially next to the darker Montrose. Restrained nose with red fruits, cassis, herbs poking through. Flavors of red and blue fruits, even got a hint of caramel at some point, but that slipped away over time. Picked up some coffee flavors, and minerality in the following days. Full and rich, long finish.
2014 Pontet Canet-Paulliac-375ml-amazingly, next to the other 3, the nose explodes from the glass from the moment it was poured. The other 3 seemed tight and restrained, not the Pontet Canet. Easily the most expressive of the bunch. Red fruits, spicy, certainly tannic, but a long beautiful finish. Very much Paulliac. I’ve read notes about pencil lead, but I really didn’t get that, but fantastic nonetheless.
In the end, I really enjoyed all 4 of these. While all were young and tannic, none were tough to drink. Certainly tannic on the finish, but none were difficult or harsh (although the Montrose was the toughest at the beginning). If I were to have to rank them, it would look like this:
• Pontet Canet
• Montrose
• LLC
• Cos
The Cos was no slouch, just good competition. I will definitely be buying the Pontet Canet and Montrose, wouldn’t be surprised if I got the LLC and Cos as well.
I need to find some St. Emilions to try in the near term too…
