Jim Dove's home
Tasted Saturday, August 16, 2008 by BordeauxNut with 1,657 views
This Saturday, our weekly group decided to compare several red Bordeaux wines from the 2000 and 2001 vintages. We were shooting for an ‘educational experience’ with the tasting and, modeling our process very loosely after the GJE tastings, we attempted to collect some data points about the wines and vintages in as objective a way possible. To accomplish this, my wife and Geri Fanning helped organize the wines, each of which was placed into identical, numbered, odor-free decanters based on an order established by drawing the names of wines from a bucket. At the beginning of the tasting, all wines were at 58 degrees. Almost all were decanted two hours prior to the tasting.
Wines were served in flights of two, based on the numbering established by Rasha and Geri during the random drawing. No one else knew the totally random order. We served the wines one flight at a time and observed a six minute period of total silence to review the flight. At the end of the period, I asked our tasters to record three things on an index card.
* Score
* Vintage guess
* A single word or phrase that stands out when thinking about the wine
While this may seem like a waste of wine or an afternoon to some, it proved to be both entertaining and a great education. Here’s what we tasted – unless identified as a ‘mystery wine’, the noted wine was understood by all tasters as being represented in the tasting. I selected the mystery wines, but, like the others, did not know the order of placement.
From both vintages:
Chateau La Conseillante, Pomerol
Chateau Pavie, St. Emilion
Chateau Montrose, St. Estephe
Chateau Pichon Baron, Pauillac
Chateau Leoville Barton, St. Julien
Chateau d’Issan, Margaux
Chateau Sociando Mallet, Haut Medoc
Mystery wines:
2001 Chateau la Tour Carnet, Haut Medoc
2001 Chateau Barde Haute, St. Emilion
2000 Chateau Fougas Maldoror, Cotes du Bourg – from magnum, inserted into two flights
Attending the tasting were Saturday regulars Craig Fanning, John Mann, John Joyce, Tim Delaney, Joel Pulver, Paul Goldblum, Todd Snyder, Larry Zeid, and guests Steve Zang and Geri Fanning. Several members of this group have been blind-tasting wine weekly for many years – so, on balance, the tasting group can fairly be described as quite experienced.
The notes that follow are my best effort at objectively representing the tasting commentary of the group. At the same time, my own notes do factor heavily into the overall picture. For several of the wines, I’ve also commented on my impression of the wines on day two. The scores and vintage average are simple data points. Scores reflect removal of the single highest and lowest score, and represent a simple average from the event.
Some interesting summary observations:
* The 2001 vintage average was 0.35 points higher than 2000 for the wines tasted. This includes the bottom rated wine, la Conseillante, which was an off (and quite possibly fake) bottle.
* Under the conditions we tasted, it is very hard to reliably distinguish 2000 from 2001. I think the inclusion of wines from the right and left banks compounded the difficulty.
* Somewhat to my surprise, the GJE performance of La Tour Carnet was repeated in our tasting. The wine showed brilliantly in this format, despite being paired with 2000 Montrose, which was also scored highly.
* 2001 Chateau Pavie, the wine of the tasting by over one full point, performed much better than the 2000 Chateau Pavie, which placed 8th, just behind the $12 2000 Fougas du Maldoror from Cotes du Bourg. Having had the 2000 Pavie from many sources, many times, I can say with confidence that this was a representative bottle.
* Producer was often easier to spot than vintage, with the herbal, currant bush aromas of Sociando Mallet and, to a lesser extent, Leoville Barton, standing out.
* The bottle of 2001 la Conseillante was not representative. After opening a bottle from my cellar today and tasting them side-by-side, I believe the wine we tasted was a fake or was cooked. Interestingly, our tasting bottle sounds very, very similar to the bottle problem experienced in the EWS tasting.
* Two wines stand out for fooling the group as to their vintage – both 2001 Montrose (a favorite of the EWS tasting) and 2001 Pavie were nearly unanimously guessed to be 2000s.
* The 2000 Pichon Baron was consistently guessed to be a 2000. Otherwise, all bets are off.
* It's very tricky to host and participate in something like this.
Before I go on with notes, I want to offer a big thank you to my friends from the Saturday Club for indulging me this past week. I hope they found it to be as fun and educational an experience as I did.
As always, thanks for reading.
BordeauxNut
2001 Château La Conseillante Flawed
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol
Surprisingly ripe for Bordeaux and a very strong aroma of eucalyptus that dominated the wine and was thoroughly out of place. Odd. Poor showing here. Note: I opened a bottle from my cellar the next day and shared it with a friend who was at the event. We tasted it side-by-side with the leftover wine from the tasting and concluded that these were not the same wine or, at the very least, that the sample for the tasting was cooked. Rank: 18/18 Vintage: 2001.00
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2000 Château d'Issan 91 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux
Very floral, pretty nose, something mentioned repeatedly by tasters. Awkward, austere, and big tannins were also noted. I found the wine to be tight and there was an odd natatorium (swimming pool) scent to it initially. Some potential here -- needs time.
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