Blacklock City
Tasted Monday, March 25, 2024 by oenanthe with 66 views
A chance to try out the 2004 vintage in Bordeaux, neither fated nor feted, how would the wines be at age 20?
Well the answer is that the ones that we tasted for the most part felt fresh and pretty youthful, with a lot more left in the tank and generally with a lot more oomph than we expected; the CT drinking windows would seem rather conservative based on Monday night’s showing. This is good news as the prices remain fairly subdued for this vintage and you can pick up a lot of nice wine for comparatively little outlay.
Blacklock on Philpot Lane was an excellent venue, corkage £10 every day, and food that matched the wines very well indeed. We had a decent table, the glasses whilst not spectacular were perfectly acceptable, the service was great and the overall bill was a welcome relief from some of the higher-priced venues we have used lately. Thank you to all who attended for bringing such excellent wines, and particularly to Joe for saving the day with some fine couriering of wine to get around a last-minute illness suffered by one of the team.
Voting (excluding the Rieussec) resulted in the following scores on the doors:
1. Leoville Barton - 17 points (and gaining votes from all 7 of us)
2. Vieux Chateau Certain - 12 points
3. Leoville Poyferré - 5 points
2004 Château Calon-Ségur 90 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
Tight. Tighter than the Montrose, as least to my palate. Marked note of herbs, mint tea, not exactly fruit-laden. This is as straight-laced as they come, not gruff or grumpy, just very linear and strict. It gains some sweetness, some red fruit peeking out with time, whereas the Montrose remained dark the whole way through. An overwhelming feeling of restrained elegance, of having been made to be reserved and distant. And fully fulfilling that objective!
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2004 Château Montrose 91 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
Deep and dark. Initially quite closed on the nose, however it is fruitier on the palate, fine acidity and some salty tangy notes. Whilst this never strays far from austerity, a good swish and a bit of time does allow it to unclench a bit, show a few curves amongst the straight lines. I found it more exciting that the Calon-Segur it was paired with, but it’s still rather foursquare and not very pliant. Needs more time basically, though doubt it will ever truly blossom! We started these before food arrived, which I suppose is objectively best, but food improved this and the Calon dramatically.
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