2015 Château Bernadotte

Community Tasting Notes (26) Avg Score: 89 points

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  11/28/2023 - Jake Barnes Likes this wine: 90 Points

  First of a half case purchased at retail. A totally different wine than the single bottles sourced from a different location of this retail chain. Almost no development here—dark and youthful with cabernet dominant characteristics. The same fierce tannins, though. No doubt a much longer life ahead of this bottle than the others, which based on this bottle had obviously suffered low-grade heat damage, making them unnaturally tertiary. I didn’t realize how tertiary they were until I had this bottle. That being said, this one was a little less interesting without the tertiary notes. Best at room temperature. Short finish. As always, though, good stuff for $15 US. Has some definite character, which is hard to find at this price point. 13.5% ABV (good; distinctive/**/87/14.5)
  
  Day Two:
  
  What a difference a day in the fridge under vacuum made! It developed a beautiful nose and palate of black cherry with some very pleasant tertiary notes and coalesced into a very harmonious whole with a longer finish and very good balance. I’m updating my score to reflect day two. (very good; distinctive/***/15.5/90)

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  10/13/2023 - HenrikJ wrote: 88 Points

  2h decant. Fairly light colour for the type. Shows red and black berries on the nose, slight oak, an almost resinous hint, sour fruit roll-ups. Light-medium bodied palate, structured with loads of tannins and acidity with decent finish. Classical, verging on rustic and with an almost burgundian quality. This could stand to gain some complexity with a few years on its back, but I'm not sure it'll get much better.

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  10/12/2023 - Jake Barnes Likes this wine: 88 Points

  Another bottle purchased at retail recently. Showing quite a bit of tertiary notes, red over black fruits. Apparently, the unripe tannins don’t really bother me. Maybe I like unripe tannin. Hmm. That bears some thought… Good stuff with true character. At $15 US/bottle, I should just buy a case already. 13.5% ABV (good; distinctive/**/15/88)

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  10/8/2023 - Jake Barnes Likes this wine: 88 Points

  From a bottle purchased at retail recently. A little less developed than the previous bottle, showing only the vanguard of some tertiary notes. Good concentration of red over black fruits. Same unripe tannins, though. Better on day two. An excellent steak wine. For $15 US, this is phenomenal juice. Every serious Bordeaux lover should have a case of something like this on hand. It has genuine old-school Bordeaux character. It was still going strong and was arguably even better on day three, suggesting a very good future here. 13.5% ABV (good; distinctive/**/15/88)

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  9/30/2023 - Jake Barnes Likes this wine: 88 Points

  From a bottle purchased recently at retail. This was the last vintage before they switched to the plastic cork, which is emblematic of the difference between the 2015 and the 2016 vintages of this wine.
  
  By comparison, the 2016 is not a serious wine. It’s a good commercial wine that was made ready or almost ready to drink, and after having gone through most of a case of it, I would say it is probably at its peak right now.
  
  The 2015, on the other hand, appears to have genuine character, structure, and midterm aging potential. The tannins were a bit unripe and quite drying, which is the only mark against this bottle, but there were a good amount of red and black fruits. It was better on day two and lost nothing on day three. This bottle was already showing a lot of undergrowth on the nose and delivered a lot of Bordeaux pleasure for $15 US. On the strength of this bottle, I’m going to buy a case. If the tannins relax, this will be very good, indeed. 13.5% ABV (good; distinctive/**/15/88)

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