4 Blind Bordeaux

Four nice wines from Bordeaux, all served blind and paired with a fantastic Private Reserve Prime Rib from Bryan Flannery

• 2003 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Previous bottle I opened just a tad over two years ago showed a closed up wine with lots of potential. Now, two years later and with about a 4 hour decant, the wine is just starting to emerge from hibernation and was fabulous. Pencil shavings, a touch of earth and cassis on the nose with great fruit, balance, and texture from start to the very long finish.

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• 2003 Château Angélus 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru

  Decanted about 4 hours. Deep red violet color. Nose shows a nice spicy oak element with some ripe crushed black berries. Even though the blend has more Cab Franc than Merlot (58/42), it seems that the Merlot perhaps achieved a little better ripeness and it's bright fruit flavors come through a bit more on the palate but the spicy Cab Franc is still present throughout. Very long finish and continued to improve all night. Overall it's quite complex and a very exciting wine to enjoy. If it picks up a bit of an earthy element as it ages, it could easily score a couple points higher. We'll save the next bottle for a few years to find out.

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• 2004 Château Léoville Las Cases 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

  Decanted about 4 hours. This wine has a slightly meaty element on the nose that set it apart from the other 3 wines this evening. There's also a bit more of a mushroom influence as well. There's a nice hit of fruit up front but it starts to fade a bit towards the finish. Seems to be in a bit of a dumb phase at the moment which makes it hard to fairly score but I'd put this in the 90-92 range right now. We saved a little to try at the 24 hour point so I'll update the note once I give it a re-taste.
  
  Update from the next day: The wine seems to have integrated a little better with the extended rest. I'd peg this for a bit more of a long term wine.

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• 2006 Château Pontet-Canet

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Of the 4 wines noted in this little event, this was the biggest surprise but not necessarily in a good way. I've had relatively young Pontet Canet before and they always seemed to show some pretty nice elements that give you a hint of what's to come down the road but this bottle, while showing some nice ripe fruit flavors, became quite a tannic mess on the finish. Once you get past mid-palate, a wall of tannins is thrown up that stops everything in it's tracks. Over half the bottle remains for today so once I re-taste at the 24 hour mark I'll update the note.
  
  Update from second day: Still doesn't really impress or show to the level that I would expect from Pontet-Canet. Where's the structure that will tell me that this wine will eventually be really nice?

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