2000 Saint-Emilion Grand Cru at Edith and Panos OL
Strasbourg, France
Tasted Sunday, June 5, 2005 by Will with 1,663 views
Introduction
Edith and Panos organised this wonderful tasting at Edith's place in Strasbourg - a really gorgeous location, I must add. 16 participants gathered to taste 15 St-Emilion Grands Crus, mostly 1ers crus classés. Some celebrities from the French food & wine world were attending, namely Laurence Faller, winemaker at Domaine Weinbach in Alsace, and Emile Jung, chef of the 2-star Michelin restaurant Au Crocodile based in Strasbourg. Quite a few other "celebrities" ;) from the board were attending, including some representatives from Brussels (Claudio & Gabriela, Stefan "ConVino"), Frankfurt (Michael and me), Luxembourg (Francois Mauss), Strasbourg (Panos) and also some overseas guests: Charles and Cathy Johnson from Atlanta!
The tasting was done double-blind, ie the list of wines was not known beforehand, although the theme was. The participants then had to vote for their top-3 wines, and the wines were revealed. The last wine was a pirate and a quite obvious one at that and I have not ranked it. After each wine I will indicate the name of the wine, my ranking out of the 14 wines tasted ( as [#x]) and the number of votes it received (1 vote = in the top-3 for one person) as well as the overall ranking depending on the number of votes received in the format (y/#z). Only 12 persons participated in the voting, which should mean a total of 36 votes, but due to some wines being ranked ex-aequo as well as the enthusiasm of some participants (I think Jean voted for 5 wines or so ;)) the total number of votes is 40.
Flight 1 (15 Notes)
Closing
As we can see for the group results, Beauséjour Bécot was the favourite wine by a rather wide margin (9 votes out of 12 possible). In a second group can be found Cheval Blanc (6 votes), Beauséjour Duffau Lagarosse (5 votes), Clos Fourtet (5 votes) and l'Aiguilhe (4 votes). Angélus and Les Gravières both received 3 votes. Lynsolence, Pavie (2 votes each) and Belair (1 vote) close the selection of wines having received at least one vote.
The "surprises" would be l'Aiguilhe and Les Gravières given their pedigree - both clearly outperformed. Another interesting fact is that Les Gravières and Lynsolence are made by the same winemaker (Denis Barraud), Lynsolence being some kind of "parkerized" cuvée (although it has been established recently that they don't exist...). Lynsolence is made from slightly older vines, lower yiels (40 vs 25 hl/ha), vinified in oak "tank" (vs inox tank) with a 7 to 9 days cold maceration (no cold maceration otherwise). It also spends more time in oak (both 100% new oak - between 16 and 20 months for Les Gravières vs 18-24 months for Lynsolence). The reactions to these 2 wines were diverse, and most people preferred the "basic" cuvée (although that was not my case).
Another surprise would be the rather underperforming Pavie that really turned into a non-event. Not only the people usually didn't like it, it also failed to generate any kind of discussion - which probably goes towards Mr Parker's assessment that it is a perfectly fine example of St-Emilion: no controversy at all on that. Figeac also underperformed. Interestingly they were wines #1 and #2 in the tasting...
One final comment on the 96 Pahlmeyer: first of all it was really completely different from all the other wines and was pretty clearly a new world wine. Second, it was a bit too warm and given the structure of this wine it certainly didn't help. Finally going after 2000 Cheval Blanc is tough no matter what... I think Clos Fourtet and l'Aiguilhe have probably suffered from their place in the order too.
Thanks again to Panos for organising this and to Edith for hosting this event!
Guillaume
2000 Château Figeac
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Very toasty on the nose, on the palate very nice, pure fruit. Rather tannic with well-integrated oak, good acidity and adequate finish. The Cab component is rather clear. [#7ex] (0/#11ex)
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2000 Château Pavie
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Not very talkative on the nose, though I can already smell the oak and quite a lot of alcohol. Velvety in the mouty, very "merlot", but lacking in acidity with somewhat green, harsh tannins. Rather hard and austere. Doesn't provide much pleasure. [#13] (2/#8ex)
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2000 Château Trotte Vieille
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Very intense fruit on the nose, going towards exotic, ripe fruit. In the mouth silky with soft tannins but lacking in acidity to the point of being really flabby. Nice nose but otherwise simple wine. [#14] (0/#11ex)
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2000 Château Angélus
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Rather toasty nose but otherwise not giving much. Good mineral component and very fresh in the mouth. Very tannic, a wine that one can chew, literally - very broad in the mouth, powerful with a good finish. [#7ex] (2/#6ex)
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2000 Château La Gaffelière
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
A lot of oak and toast on the nose with some ink, nice tannins, again a wine that one can almost chew. Very concentrated, powerful but still keeping a certain grace and finesse. [#10] (0/#11ex)
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2000 Château Magdelaine
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Nice fruit on the nose and overall good balance between fruit and oak, but seriously lacking in acidity. The alcohol is showing too, especially in the finish. Not particularly inspiring. [#11] (0/#11ex)
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2000 Château Beau-Séjour Bécot
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Enormous oak and toast on the nose, and a completely different feeling in the mouth with superb flower aromas. Pleasing, very fresh with a good underlying acidity. Develops with notes of coffee/torrefaction. Really quite something. [#2] (9/#1)
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2000 Clos Fourtet
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Charming nose, great balance in the mouth between the omnipresent tannins (without the oak feeling) and the good acidity. A sound structure for a wine destined to age. [#4ex] (4/#3ex)
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2000 Château Les Gravières
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Surprising in the sense that it already seems to be developing tertiary aromas (especially mushrooms). Weird aromas in the mouth, I thought there was some cab in it (although it's 100% merlot). Good but nothing special - I had the feeling the bottle was very slightly corked. [#12] (3/#6ex)
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2000 Lynsolence
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Very concentrated fruit on the nose as well as ink - heady and charming. Very good depth of fruit in the mouth, developing towards torrefaction aromas. Silky feeling. A little bit of alcohol on the finish that detracts slightly from the overall impression. [#6] (2/#8ex)
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2000 Château Belair (Dubois-Challon)
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Superb nose, quite charming. Subtle and fine on the palate with some restrained, controlled power behind. [#7ex] (1/#10)
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2000 Château Beausejour (Duffau Lagarrosse)
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
The nose is concentrated, fresh, powerful and profound. The palate is very nice too with a broad aromatic palette. A truly great wine. [#1] (5/#3ex)
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2000 Château d'Aiguilhe
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux
Mushrooms/sous-bois on the nose, superb in the mouth, very fresh, quite close to the previous one (Beausejour Duffau-Lagarosse) and clearly suffers from being placed afterwards, given how well the BDL was performing. Definitely great. [#4ex] (4/#5)
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2000 Château Cheval Blanc
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Very concentrated nose that smells almost like an expresso, and what an expresso! Although lacking a little bit in acidity for me, the palate is outstanding, incredibly fresh and complex. A real treat. [#3] (6/#2)
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1996 Pahlmeyer Merlot
USA, California, Napa Valley
Jammy fruit with a lot of alcohol (the finish in particular is particular marked by it), very harsh tannins. Not much pleasure from this bottle.
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