Dinner at Gourmet Plus with two Bordeaux Blends

Gourmet Plus, Frankel Avenue
Tasted Tuesday, April 20, 2010 by Paul S with 358 views

Introduction

Elsa and I brought Alex, Fiona and Charles down to one of our favourite haunts after the La Chapelle tasting. We had a really excellent dinner with some outstanding French Bistro fair. Interestingly, the blinded bottles that both Alex and I brought were very rather similarly styled 2005 Bordeaux blends from two very different areas!

Flight 1 (2 Notes)

  • 2005 Château Pape Clément Clémentin de Pape Clément 89 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

    Pretty pleasant. Alcohol was the first thing to hit me on the nose. It was always more or less present in the wine, but toned down a little with some swirling to show floral notes, some plums and prunes, smoke, gravelly earth and some minty eucalyptus. Made me think new world Cab at first. The palate added to that impression as well. Sweet, ripe, thick, plush. Not OTT though. In fact, it showed nice clean cassis tones, some mineral, some earth, more smoke and some amount of acidity. A nice elegance in spite of its size I thought. Finish was shortish and brambly, but certainly not unpleasant. Guessed it as a Graves when told it was not a new world. A very decent second wine.

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  • 2005 Bloodwood Cabernet Sauvignon Maurice 89 Points

    Australia, New South Wales, Central Ranges, Orange

    Quite a different impression from my last time round at the cellar door. Still a very pleasant wine, but the nose certainly started out clearly candied, with sweet blueberries, a minty top-note, some preserved nutmeg, and a whiff of glycerol. Still nothing unpleasant or artificial, just far sweeter than I remembered it. Palate was rich and ripe, with plenty of cassis, plums and berries, along with peppery spice, all layered over a well-structured backbone, finish had a nice length as well, showing off fresh fruit and the wine's nicely balanced fresh acidity. Why the difference? Travel-shock maybe? Must say that the couple of glasses that I left in the bottle for the day after showed quite a bit better. On this showing, the remaining bottle will remain under-wraps for some time.

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