Community Tasting Notes 56

• SpenceP wrote: 93 points

  February 11, 2024 - This was the seventh time I've tasted this wine (yes--lucky me!)--you can find my earlier notes at 11/1/19, 2/11/20, 9/13/20, 6/12/21, 2/24/22, and 1/25/23. And my very consistent experience (after I realized that this wine absolutely needs one to two weeks upright to allow the massive and very bitter sediment to settle out) has been that the wine has been a deep disappointment immediately after opening, and only hit its stride after something very vaguely like an hour and a half in the glass. I'm not a big fan of decanting, since for me one of the great pleasures of wine is following how it changes in the glass--but an hour and a half is a very long time, and risks that by the time the wine is at its best, I will no longer be myself at my best! So this time I decided, as an experiment, to find out how decanting would affect my experience. I started tasting about half an hour after decanting, since I assumed that decanting would expose the wine to a lot more air and significantly speed up the process. I was wrong. It was still about an hour and a half (or slightly less) before the wine was really enjoyable! The big advantage of decanting (for me!) was that the temptation to keep tasting prematurely was greatly reduced, so I had more of the wine when it was finally enjoyable than I had in earlier tastings! Whether you decant, or merely open and pour the wine long before you plan to drink it, I really do urge you to wait something like at least an hour and 20 minutes unless you're a big fan of pungent road asphalt. When it finally is ready, this is a suave and graceful mix of barely ripe black plums, timid cherries, tobacco, unsweetened cocoa, and coffee, followed by a lovely and wonderfully long aftertaste ending on a slightly, but not unpleasantly, bitter note. I scored this a point higher than in the past, but I haven't the faintest idea whether this reflects the development of the wine, the decanting, or the development of my appreciation of the wine. But it really is lovely. [Tasted from the Jancis Robinson glass.]

  Comment

• portman63 Likes this wine: 90 points

  September 8, 2023 - Decanted and followed for about 2 hours before the meal. Still showing tart red currant and cherries and a lot of earthiness with some tobacco. Soft tannins, just a bit in the finish, but very nice given the age and vintage. I have had good luck with the right bank from this year. Certainly a drink now, but after almost 30 years, should be the same for a few more.

  Comment

• SpenceP wrote: 93 points

  January 25, 2023 - It turns out, this wine is quite sensitive to the glass from which it's tasted. I started out with the Jancis Robinson glass, which has become my favorite glass especially for older wines (my previous tastings of this wine--the most recent was 2/24/2022--were from the Riedel Vinum Cabernet Sauvignon glass). As in the previous tastings, immediately after the bottle was opened this wine was very disappointing. After about an hour in the glass, while still disappointing, it had significantly improved--but, on a hunch, I switched at that point to the Conterno glass, and that glass turned out to be surprisingly better for this particular wine. The score and the following description reflect both glasses and probably can't be replicated exactly with just one glass, alas. Initially (Jancis Robinson glass), cherries, grilled meat, smoke, cocoa, significant tannin, austere, very disappointing aftertaste. Over the course of an hour and a half (the last part of which was in the Conterno glass), this gradually shifts to cherries, blueberries, minerals, herbs, vivid acidity, still some tannin, enjoyable and generous aftertaste with a hint of ripe strawberry and a touch of bitter coffee. My guess is that there's no hurry with this wine. Probably a good candidate for decanting.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• SpenceP wrote: 92 points

  February 24, 2022 - Very much like the bottle of 6/12/21. Unpleasant immediately after the bottle was opened--this needed a full 45 minutes in the glass to become enjoyable. Then smoke, coffee, cherries, cocoa, and leather. Long, slightly bitter aftertaste. Be aware that this wine has a very bitter sediment, and needs a couple of weeks upright for that sediment to settle out. Should be fine for 3 or 4 more years, maybe longer. [The remainder of the wine was stoppered and kept cool for 24 hours. When poured it was very much as it had been the night before. However, after an additional 3 hours in the glass (!), most of the smoke receded, allowing the cherries to come to the fore. No change in overall score.]

  Comment

• ikkaariainen Likes this wine: 92 points

  September 12, 2021 - Tasting notes otherwise very consistent with previous bottle but this one decanted for over an hour and it made a significant difference hence the higher score, 92+ points tonight.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

Pro Reviews 0

• No pro reviews found.

Wine Definition

• Vintage 1994
• Type Red
• Producer Château Monbousquet
• Varietal Red Bordeaux Blend
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country France
• Region Bordeaux
• SubRegion Libournais
• Appellation St. Émilion Grand Cru
• UPC Code 802236000829

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 1 (0%)
• In Cellars 342 (53%)
• Consumed 301 (47%)

Food Pairing

Who Likes This Wine

More About This Wine