Leoville Poyferre masterclass with Didier Cuvelier

Part of the 2009 World Gourmet Summit, hosted by Didier Cuvelier from the Chateau, Dr. NK Yong and Lisa Perotti-Brown MW. Very enjoyable tasting, with quality high throughout the board. There is a clear shift of style towards the modern in recent vintages, but I was actually quite impressed with the consistency of the quality. Apart from the 1982 and 1989, none of the wines were really outstanding, but none were bad, even in the weaker vintages. I suspect the wines may now and then run into the danger of being non-descript, especially in vintages that are not as strong as 1982 and 1989, but overall very enjoyable wines with quite a bit of quality.

In terms of style, Poyferre speaks rather nicely of St Julien, with a nice litheness on the palate (even in the more powerful years), a lovely freshness and herbs, wood spice and incense usually laced through the cassis tones. Quite a few of the wines showed little hints of crushed flowers as well. I found them also to have a nice sense of structure, but with the tannins usually being rather ripe and friendly.

• 2006 Château Léoville Poyferré 90 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

  A well-made wine for the vintage, but so oaked that it became a dead-ringer for toffee candy on the nose. Started alright, with some flowers and sweet cassis along with telltale coffee, toffee and pain grille notes. After some time though, the buttery toffee scents just more or less obliterated everything else - you could smell it from half a metre away. Thank goodness it was not so overwhelming on the palate - the coffee, butter, toast, toffee etc were still there, but there was plenty of primary cassis fruit that stood out too. Okay struture, with good mouthwatering acidity and tightish tannins, and yet the whole thing was still rather plush and almost silky textured above that backbone. All rather polished in a modern way. Past the midpalate, flavours like orange peel, sandlewood, a touch of cola and perfumy notes emerged, along with some chocolate and more coffee as the wine slid into a mid-lengthed finish. Pretty good effort, fun to drink in its youth. It is a real pity that the new-worldy oakiness obfuscated everything else on the bouquet. Hopefully it will tone down with time.

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• 2004 Château Léoville Poyferré 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

  A good wine, intellectual, serious and interesting, but perhaps at a slightly awkward place in its evolution. Lovely nose, with fresh cassis and a hint of capsicum notes, followed by earthier tones of mushroom and leather with some treacle and toffee oak notes. I thought I detected little whiffs of alcohol here and there. The palate had quite a bit of structure, so it seemed a little more tightly put together than the plush 2006. This had clean acidity and firm tannins lending their weight to a solid backbone, with flavours of cassis, a touch of leather and some bittersweet herbs making up the rest of the wine. I got notes of bitter roots, a touch of prunes and more toffee moving into the finish. There is quite a bit of complexity waiting to be revealed in future, but it is a little tough right now. I did find it more interesting than when I tried it last year though. While I am not sure this will ever be a great wine, I think it will be at least a very good one given another 5 years or so.

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• 2002 Château Léoville Poyferré 88 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

  Not a bad wine in itself, but probably my least favourite of the tasting. Nice nose - prunes, plums, dried fruit (figs?), and earthy leather and undergrowth tones. Very attractive, very St Julien actually. The palate was unfortunately a little disjointed. Ripe tannins, a little mouthcoating, but not hard in any way. Very fresh acid, but so much so that it was rather sharp and astringent, distracting from what were otherwise pretty decent, if just a little simplistic flavours of cassis and orange zest. Again, this had the familiar bittersweet herbs moving into a mid-length finish. With time, I got a touch of menthol. I think this needs time and food, neither of which we had at the tasting. Something to visit again (hopefully over a nice lamb dish) in a few years perhaps, but not one I would rush out to buy

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• 2001 Château Léoville Poyferré 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

  The best of the post 2000 wines that we tasted. A bit closed when we started, but really quite nice by the end of the tasting. The nose opened with coffee, mocha and pain grille from the oak, but this toned down and integrated with the other notes of dark fruits, cassis and an earthy undertone with time. It was a lithe, medium-weighted wine. Lovely balance on the palate, nicely fresh, with silky tannins. This had a very nice, elegant feel. As with the nose, I got dark fruits on the palate, with some secondary flavours of earth, forest floor and leather. The finish was a little shortish at first, but filled up a little with time to show orange peel and a lingering flavours of bittersweet herbs. Very young still, will be very nice in several more years.

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• 1998 Château Léoville Poyferré 88 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

  Very decent in its own right, but paled in comparison to the rest of the flight, save perhaps for the 2002. Lovely nose - capsicum, forest floor, eucalyptus, cassis and wood spice, all mixed up in a nice, integrated bouquet. Palate was a little flattened out though. Not that there was no acid - it was there, almost a little too sharply so. But there seemed to be less structure and backbone to this than the rest of the Poyferres on show. Flavour profile was rather consistent - cassis, a touch of green capsicum amd some bitter roots after midpalate. Enjoyable, but not a great wine. Reinforces my opinion that 1998 was very much a right-bank vintage.

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• 1995 Château Léoville Poyferré 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

  Very nice indeed when poured, but it faded rather worryingly after half an hour. Nose was plush and luxurious. Tea leaf, undergrowth, leather, wet earth, rich blackcurrants and a seam of Chinese medicine. I like the fresh balance on the palate, and there was lots of power in the attack, with cassis at the fore, followed by a touch of wood spice. Quite a bit of 1995 hardness on this one though - fine powdery tannins, but rather mouthcoating, giving the wine a sculpted in feel.The finish closed rather abrubtly when I first tasted it. Got a bit better, lengthening out with time to show some crystallined dark fruit, but that started fading shortly after it appeared. Time should do this wine some good - lots of quality material in there, just needs time to integrate, round out and stretch out.

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• 1989 Château Léoville Poyferré 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

  Lovely. Mature ruby colour with a garnet rim. Gorgeous nose. Lush, rich and genteel, with cassis and plums wed to a touch of incense, leather and dried herbs and earthy, foresty smells - like walking through an autumnal forest, with scents of mushrooms, sous bois, moss, boiled herbs, wood spice and tobacco leaf. Mmm... very nice. Palate was rich and lush as well, but ever so integrated and wonderfully balance, with lovely freshness and soft velvety tannins holding up mouth filling flavours of cassis, orange peel and savoury notes moving into a finish that gently caressed the palate as it faded away with a linger of wood spice and a final flourish of sweet fruit. A Grace Kelly wine, a happy wine - beautifully prorpotioned, and very lovely. It put a smile on my face. Drink up if you have any. It is absolutely beaufitul now, but started to fade a little towards the last sip. Might even have rated it higher if it was not blown away by the stupendous 1982 that we had next.

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• 1982 Château Léoville Poyferré 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

  What a great vintage, what a lovely wine. Orangey ruby colour. I loved the nose - funky for sure, almost a little sewage like, until a few swirls revealed a whole world of rich scents - wet earth, damp forest floor, tobacco leaf, chinese herbs, a whiff of sweaty leather... all this leading to a sweet backlift of high-toned cherries, cassis and incense. All very rich and complex. Lovely as it was, I thought the nose on the 1989 probably a little more attractive. The palate on this wine, however, was stupendous. Ever so fresh for a wine nearing its 27th birthday, and full of power. Sweet cassis, plums, prunes, at the midpalate, some white fleshy fruit that reminded us of pears, and flavours of perfumed, crushed flowers just weaved their way through the mouth towards a longish finish. Even so, there was a sense of buried complexity, all integrated into the bones of the wine. It ended with a gently fading flourish of orange peel, wood spice and smoke. While the 1989 faded with time, this just kept getting better, with the beautifully rounded finish lenthening out and the flavours filling the mouth. Lovely, feminine, yet with a great sense of presence and structure. Outstanding. A great example of St Julien and absolutely perfect drinking now.

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