33rd Austin Wine Salon - Bordeaux
Max's Underground
Tasted Sunday, March 4, 2012 by steffenpelz with 1,016 views
Introduction
Yesterday, we met for our 33rd Austin Wine Salon. In attendance were a number of Austin's sommeliers and sommeliers in training, as well as collectors. The theme was Bordeaux, and it is not an understatement to say that the tasting was awe inspiring both in its scope, as well as with respect to the quality of the wines present. On to the notes.
Flight 1 - The Appellations - Part 1 (4 Notes)
Flight 2 - The Appellations - Part 2 (4 Notes)
Flight 3 - The Appellations - Double Blind (7 Notes)
This flight turned out to be extremely challenging. I joked before we started that it was time for me to eat some humble pie, but little did I know that I wouldn't guess a single appellation correctly. Fortunately, I did much better on identifying the respective banks the wines came from. As always, tasting double blind is very educational and fun.
Flight 4 - Free-for-All (10 Notes)
At the end of the Salon, there were tons of wines lined up for tasting and it was not a structured part of the tasting. Nevertheless, you can see the wines were pretty amazing. There were many other wines that I didn't even taste because they were either reportedly flawed and because my palate was getting pretty tired.
Closing
Thanks to Brian for organizing this Salon, as well as all the generous donors of the incredible lineup of wines.
2005 Château Haut-Bergey
France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan
Very primary, juicy, black currant tar and coffee. Nothing to write home about, but nothing to scoff at either. At the going rate of $40/bottle, this would be a pass in my book.
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1999 Château Monbousquet
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Dark fruited, vanilla, spice and violets. A certain meatiness and charcuterie quality. But all the good fruit and nuance is killed by excessive oak which shows itself as rough tannins on the palate and burnt espresso beans on the finish. Time has not been kind to this wine. I think it was better in its youth when the fruit was bigger an more vibrant.
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1999 Vieux Château Certan
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol
Amazing bottle of wine. Full of earth, truffle spice, cherry fruit, tobacco, leather and a hint of anise seed. Elegance, finesse, and exceptional purity. Fantastic texture and finish. Universally the wine of the flight and my personal runner-up wine of the tasting (WOTT).
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1999 Château d'Issan
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux
Very soft and feminine. Light cherry fruit with leather, tobacco and balsamic on the palate. Finish was OK. Good wine, but not something I was viscerally excited about. Maybe a touch too soft and non-descript for me.
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