May 16, 2024 - Decanted for about 1:15 minutes and placed back in the bottle, then consumed at Sancho restaurant in a 2 hours spam. At first the wine was still tight and sort of mute, the body is medium, good legs, with another 30-40 minutes of air in the bottle it reached the highest point of the night, good dark notes, well balance, just still linear for the real potential of the wine.
92+
Drink with 2+ hour decant or HOLD.
April 26, 2024 - Dark ruby in the glass. Nose shows some alcohol but also lots of cassis and bramble, with a touch of aromatic wood. Medium+ acidity, then cassis, blueberries, cherries, some plums - fruit is very refined, expressive, and precise. Cocoa, some pencil shavings, grippy tannins even after 2 hours decant, and long, lingering, cherry-filled finish.
This is an intense, young, very enjoyable wine already. Still quite primary, but elements are integrating very well. Decant a couple of hours and you are good to go. Very Margaux in its refined elegance. 94 now, but likely 96+ in 5-6 years.
April 19, 2024 - Deep ruby in colour, purple, opaque in the center, with very slight bricking on the rim, but overall still very wide and translucent. Decent amount of legs as well.
On the nose, very floral right off the gate. Quite black fruit forward as well with blackberries, cassis, blueberries, slight greenness and herbs, along with wet earth, forest floor, tobacco, mocha, and espresso. Wow, such elegance.
Medium bodied on the palate with earthy and leathery notes upfront, with the fruits lingering around in the mid palate. Leather, black tea, wet earth, forest floor, along with the black fruits and cassis. This is quite structured with powerful and grippy tannins, but the acidity keeps all the elements in check and makes me keep going for more. There is minimal heat despite the somewhat high alcohol. Finish is quite exception with a savoury note towards the end.
This is very delicious and elegant, and is drinking quite nicely despite its young age. Can't wait to revisit this in a few years with a bit more bottle age.
March 19, 2024 - Seductive, floral nose. Fine and delicate on the palate. Beautifully complex and multilayered. Slight hint of alcohol on the finish, of which the wine has 14.5% vol. The latter prevents a higher rating. 92-
March 17, 2024 - No sediment. Inky, opaque red with tinges of purple and the barest hint of orange at the rim. Nose moderately open - forest floor, mushroom, anise, mint. Acid and tannin predominate on the palate. Over the next few hours it evolved somewhat starting to evidence the slightest hints of port notes. A solid offering. No rush to drink this up, I'm curious where it will be in a few years.
February 28, 2024 - All of the prior tasting notes are accurate. This wine started off with a very closed nose, quite differently than what I was expecting - especially from a very warm, ripe vintage in 2010. It is not a modern, plush fruit-first 2010 Margaux like perhaps a Brane-Cantenac or Issan. But the wine is in perfect balance right now and doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere for a very long time. Garnet colour with red brick at the rims, very well integrated tannins and lovely pure fruit which is not in your face. This is a very sophisticated Margaux for the vintage. Would recommend a 90min to 2 hour slow-ox and bringing up just a touch from cellar temperature. I don’t like to decant wines unless very old and laiden with sediment or else very young and needing violent and quick oxidation. The French very rarely decent, especially with burgundy, as they feel that this “breaks” the wine and I agree with them here. This “super second” growth could very easily pass in blind tasting for Château Margaux or other of the 2010 first growth offerings. It’s lovely, will remain so for another 20-30 years, and makes me very grateful that I have a half case of 2015 waiting in my cellar.
February 25, 2024 - The overall impression is that the wine is extremely well balanced, elegant, and completely put together. Almost perfectly middleweight, delicate dark fruit around the center, and a lovely graphite persistent finish. Drinking well now, seems like it has plenty of time left in it.
January 28, 2024 - My last of these, and this is showing quite a bit better than I remember. It has so many qualities that I've come to expect from the '10 vintage - a real 'aliveness' on account of the acidity, along with a subtlety and purity. There is virtually no nose to this I could detect, but on the palate it oozes quality. This feels more intellectual vs. hedonistic. There are oodles of black fruit on the palate with some richness and classy expression. The quality is unmistakable. Everything is so resolved, with beautiful fruit that is delicious, though it feels somewhat restrained and reserved too - an aspect I find in many of the '10s (I've generally been more of a fan of the more generous if not obvious richness of the '09s). This is worth the price of admission and a great example of a tasty wine from the legendary '10 vintage, showing better than last year - am guessing this just keeps getting better for the next few years. 97++pts.
November 16, 2023 - Elegant and refined on the concentrated nose. Very polished on the well structured palate. Too young at this stage so worth waiting.
WSET Notes:
Deep ruby.
Pronounced on the nose with blackcurrant, cassis, graphite, liquorice, cedar, vanilla, clove, chocolate, leather. Developing.
Pronounced and dry on the palate. Fully body, high alcohol, high acidity, high tannins, long finish.
Too young.
November 10, 2023 - Served by Edwin to accompany Cocody’s pork stroganoff for takeout dinner and karaoke at Katy. Decanted for about 90 minutes (3 bottles’ worth), then consumed over another couple of hours. On the nose and palate, mixed red and black berries, black currants, plums, char, dark earth, mocha, ground spice and light floral, graphite and tobacco notes. Crimson, medium to full bodied with thick legs. Powerful tannins and acidity, still integrating but not nettlesome, no heat. Tremendous persistence, VG+ intensity and complexity. We had a stunning dinner the night before with a large group, though it was accompanied by an undistinguished RB BDX (alas not the Leos, Haut Brions, 100 Acres or Lokoyas I saw sitting around in the wine cellar), but Edwin brought these out saying he knew he had to up his game, and up it he did. I’ve sipped these before, but this was my most considered chance to taste and consider, from a wonderful vintage, and this definitely impressed. Dusty, dusky and soulful, this dark feeling wine showed with subtlety, savoriness and a touch of saline, almost a prototype of what I hope for in a LB BDX. This was terrific on its own but even better with the dinner, and while pretty tight on opening, was ready with air, although its continuing development and increasing depth while we consumed it seems to indicate that it’s at most at the start of its peak drinking window, like many of its vintage mates, with a long and promising future. I’m a sometimes skeptical BDX drinker, often having my best experiences on the qpr side with bottles in the sub $100 range like Barde Haute or Fleur Cardinale, or bumping up the price point a bit, LB or the $$$ range like LaFleur, Latour or Haut Brion, and finding that at the $150-300 range, I often prefer the local bottlings, but this shows really solidly at its price point, with even a promise of some further improvement. This added to the sheen of a wonderful evening and would certainly be something I’d buy at around its WS price. 94-95++