CellarTales International Wineroundtable Edition No.8

I tried this wine for the first time a couples of weeks ago and remained very impressed about its complexity and depth. Also today it showed a healthy and absolute clear golden-yellow color and flattered us right from the start with an incredible nice Chardonnay bouquet without any wooden influence. Simply mature Chardonnay exhaling overripe apples, bread crust, dried flowers, hazelnuts and soft honey scents. In the mouth with a solid acidity and framing fine tannins in the background sustaining the good pressure of this wine until the very long and smooth finish. As main actors we enjoyed a plate with baked apples and wild pears covered with some melted butter and roasted hazelnuts. A great wine at its peak. No carafe or other things needed anymore. Open it, pour it, enjoy it !!

For all those who are intending to visit the Piedmont region don’t miss to drop by at this winery. Close to Monforte d’Alba you will find this very special producer and meet with very warm and welcoming people. Beside their excellent reds we have been also lucky enough to try a very rare white one made out of Rossese bianco. In a future post I will tell more about our last trip to Italy and also more about this particular winery. Just this much. This wine is refreshing different and therefore outstanding. Very intense golden color with a soft amber hue and a very complex nose. Less fruity scents but astonishing flavors of cereals, caramel, hazelnuts, violets and very ethereal, minty notes. Absolutely amazing how this wine developed in the glasses. At the palate almost like a Chateau Chalon, finest Jura style, very nutty, vigorous and with a racy acidity until the long aftertaste. Here we found soft notes of cough syrup, malt coffee and fresh baked bread. A very unusual but very balanced and multilayered wine with a lot of character. Chapeau !!

I really looked forward to try this wine because I am a big fan of this particular Château. In the beginning it has been just a little bit moldy and I thought this would disappear with some aeration. Unfortunately it didn’t. It became a more and more pronounced cork taint and once again the cork itself has been and remained unsuspicious. Bad luck …

For this wine we planned a pink roasted venison saddle with a puree of smoked cauliflowers (epic!!!), quince confiture and red cabbage with caramelized walnuts. An amazing dish and fortunately we have had a substitute for the wine, too. A 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon fitted perfectly. Still a bit too young but this savory dish asked for some bold tannins Very nice combo !!

This wine showed a clean but ripe, medium deep garnet red color with a distinct red-brown margin. The nose has been right from the beginning very aromatically with lots of dried plumps and dark cherries paired with some earthy, darker notes. With more time in the glasses it also developed Port and cacao/mocha flavors. At the palate plenty of dry tannin and in return almost no acidity anymore That made this wine a little bit lean, fleshless, one dimensional and in the aftertaste quite soapy. Here also soft traces of metal and plastic indicated a wine at the end of its life circle. During the first 10-15 minutes it benefited also here from the aeration in the glasses but then it became harder and very brittle. I think in the next year this wine will “dry out” so it should be consumed now because for those who love mature, edgy BDX’s it offers still plenty of drinking pleasure.

Also here we faced a mature wine with a fine dusty depot and a clear, garnet red color with an orange, almost yellow rim. I think the wine finished a marathon shortly before we opened it because its bouquet has been pretty sweaty and paired with the smell of some old socks you thought rather about a gym than a red wine. But with aeration those more unpleasant smells disappeared almost completely and made room for typical Pauillac flavors like Havana, mint, fresh sharpened pencil and plenty of sloes and soured cherries completed by spicy, earthy notes of wet autumn foliage, leather and cold coffee powder. Very complex and varied. In the mouth medium bodied with a lot of milk chocolate and again mint with a bold acidity and an intact, sustaining tannin structure. Very good finish. A fine, mature Claret which is still good for a couple of years more.

To cut a long story short : For me this has been the wine of the evening. Beside a superb price-quality ratio it offered everything someone may expect from a Margaux starting with a still very healthy ruby red color with just a shy, soft red-brown tinge. The nose right from the beginning a dream out of coffee, milk chocolate, truffles, black berries spiced up and interwoven by ethereal scents of fir needles and asphalt/bitumen – genius ! And the wine developed even more in the glasses. Gripping but well defined tannins in combination with a good integrated, very precise acidity gave the wine structure and perfect balanced and it didn’t loose pressure until a very, very long aftertaste. Here Cassis, rosemary and chocolate flavors fought for the best seats. A yummy combination. Lush nose, elegant, powerful palate and a finish made to measure… what else can we wish for ?

A decade younger but the style very similar. Of course the ruby red color has been a bit more intense and less ripe than the one of the ‘85 and the bouquet appeared more ethereal with more tobacco. But also here we found this delicate Margaux components like Cassis and black berries, new leather, coffee and plenty of dark chocolate. At the palate the wine showed still bold, a bit dry tannins but also a surprisingly restrained acidity. Due to this and a soft sweetish, long aftertaste it appeared smoother, fuller the the older brother. But I doubt that this ‘95 will have the long life of the ‘85. The older vintage has been much more complex, more complete showing more class. The younger fellow seemed more prepared, more adapted yet also very nice to drink.

Already in the glasses obvious very ripe and developed with its garnet to carmine red color and the creepy, dreadful nose with a lot of wax, mold and chlorine scents didn’t cheer somebody up either. This one screamed for some air but also this measure wasn’t a resoundingly success. With a lot of phantasy and good intention you may have found some traces of onion jam, figs and dry tobacco but all further hopes disappeared lately after the first sip. Thin, small, soured, metallic … who likes to drink shoe polish may find felicity. The rest of us has to accept that this one passed away years ago – R.I.P. !!

Completely different because here we faced a mature but still intact garnet color with a yellow margin and the nose seemed to be at least a decade younger. If you granted the wine some time. In the beginning there was a lot of volatile acidity and old leather but the it developed a very nice bouquet out of sloes, smoked bacon, smooth leather, dark chocolate and brown butter and a dash of dried tomatoes with oregano. Also the palate absolutely intact with a stable tannin structure and healthy acidity. The rather lean body was composed out of milk coffee, black berry jelly and mint chocolate and ended in a medium finish. The wine gained complexity and expression with more time but also here it became clear that the peak is exceeded. But nonetheless still a very good wine !!

In the recent years the reputation of Léoville-Las-Cases consistently grew more and more and today it is often mentioned in the same breathe as the famous first growths. And that does have an impact on the prices, too. But once in a while you should indulge in such a wine. The first sign of its class the wine showed by its color. A clear, very dark and still very intact ruby red with just a soft yellow rim – excellent for the age. The nose on the other hand has been nailed down and very closed. This fellow needed air, a lot of air to open up in the end. Then flavors of pumpkin, gingerbread spices, cream, new leather, Port and some rum pickled cherries swirled around our noses. Also more ethereal notes of eucalyptus and radish joined this more understated yet complex bouquet. At the palate still with solid, firm tannins, a fine acidity and a decent pressure until a medium+ aftertaste with bold, cooling notes of eucalyptus . Anyway in those years the focus of the wine style often has been more on the elegant, subtle side. So in the end this one here has been also no exception. Elegant, complex and still with further aging potential. So far so good. The question concerning the prices everybody should answer for him- or herself. If you are free of emotions you will say that it’s too expensive concerning the drinking pleasure. In this case I would agree but since when oenophiles are free of emotions … ?

The younger version was, you may have guessed it already, better to drink. Not due to its color because there have been just nuances of differences. Also the nose of the ‘75 LLC claimed a lot of aeration to open up and strip off the patina of 36 years. But what started then can just be described as a classic BDX fragrance to kneel down. Soured cherries, leather, malt, butter cream, nougat, haws jam wrapped in soft earthy notes of peat, spicy flavors of cinnamon and cloves plus ethereal scents of mint. In the mouth still very tight and compact with a good acidity and very bold tannins. Aromas of Cassis and sloes juice formed a nice pressure and the medium+ finish was again dominated by decent eucalyptus flavors. Can and in my opinion it also has to age a couple of years more to loose this edgy character from the beginning. In the end there’s no doubt, that today the ‘75 has been the bigger wine compared with the ‘70 . But also this one met its match with the ‘85 Prieuré-Lichine.

After all this red fellows we were really looking forward to enjoy in the end something more refreshing, crisp and sweet. And this wine hit the bull’s eye with its bright and shiny, straw yellow color and a Riesling smell you simply wanted to dive in. Aromas of pure Grape juice, green apples, mandarins, acacia honey, warm rubber and honey combs together with soft notes of spontaneous fermentation and warm rubber reset our noses and the juicy, fresh and still very young palate did his own part, too. Of course the wine has been way too young but for this particular purpose it has been simply perfect. Still a bit too dominated by its residual sugar but tamed by a racy acidity it found its balanced and the very good and animating finish made immediately lust for the next glass. Therefor the bottle has been empty in no time. The nicest compliment a wine can possibly get !!

The first bottle of Riesling has been gone rather quickly but fortunately Angela & Ghislain brought another one – just in case and without any arrangement. Well thanks a lot for that you 2 and what else to say – that’s a real oenophile behavior … However. Also this wine has been of course too young but due to the similar aromas, taste and character it was simply an extension of what we started with the first bottle. Its lower residual sugar made it even more drinkable and also a perfect match for our dessert. So concerning the time until it has been empty also this bottle seemed to have more than just one whole …

Conclusion :

First of all I want to thank of course Paul and Octavian for their ideas, their help and their support to organize and to accomplish such a fine tasting. I have also to thank Mona a lot because she supplied personal photos and written information concerning the menu I partial messed up with . Many thanks also to all the other “usual suspects” – without you something like that wouldn’t be possible.

And we intend to continue and are planning already the next “liquid” project . Cellartales WineRoundTable Edition No. IX already took place and will also soon be posted here. So cheers and salute to all of you !!