The STG and Me take on 2001 Bordeaux

I happened to be visiting Roy Hersh on a weekend when his STG (Seattle Tasting Group) were doing a blind tasting dinner featuring 2001 Bordeaux. They were kind enough to invite me along and I was pleased to join in. After this tasting, I feel like I am on the verge of "knowing" this vintage, having previously tasted all the '01 First Growths and several others blind at the Wine Olympics in Vegas.

Susan developed the flights and told us this one was assembled of wines that all had "saint" in the appelation.

• 2001 Château La Confession 80 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru

  I strongly disliked this wine. The nose did me in. There was some rich surmature fruit, but there was also a chemical smell (maybe vitamins) that I could not get past. On the palate the wine is VERY tannic and stemmy with some iron filings. The nose did not improve for me with about 1/2 hour in the glass.

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• 2001 Château Gruaud Larose 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

  Sweet, nicely ripe nose with cassis and fresh herbs. Round and ripe palate, but tannic on the finish. There is some lead pencil on the palate along with a bit of cherry cough syrup and roasted lamb. Needs time. 91+

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• 2001 Château Cos d'Estournel 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe

  Coffee/Mocha + cassis on the nose. This wine tastes like it has high Merlot content. Nice round palate with soft, fine-grained tannins. There are bleackberries and some caffe latte on the palate. Comes across as less structured than the previous two wines. Nice wine.

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• 2001 Château Beausejour (Duffau Lagarrosse) 86 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru

  Tastes more advanced than the others in this flight. A touch of decay on the nose. On the palate, some tree bark. This wine comes across as lacking structure, but it may just be closed.

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This flight showed remarkably well and the group's individual notes and scores on this flight showed incredible commonality.

• 2000 Château d'Armailhac 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Reticent nose showing some talc minerality - not giving much yet. On the palate, the wine is more open. A lovely round wine with nice balance and good structure. Some coffee grounds and underbrush. Good fruit. Really nice wine.

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• 2001 Château Lynch-Bages 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  My favorite WOTN. Gorgeous perfumed nose. Asian spice and tea on the nose follow onto the palate, where thay are joined by sweet blueberries. A touch surmature and about as ripe as I want in a Bordeaux, but thankfully short of over-the-top. A spherical wine that fills the mouth. Really nice.

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• 2001 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Ripe with clean fruit, blackberries and cough syrup. Medium tannins. Solid, but ultimately lacks the excitement of the Lynch from the same vintage.

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A nice flight, with the Quilceda ringer proving to be a major disappointment.

• 2001 Château Palmer 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  Sweet confected wine at first. But then some freshening acids arrive to balance the wine. Black cherry and cassis dominate. Very nice palate weight on this wine.

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• 2001 Château Pape Clément 90 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  What a funky nose on this. Stinky. Some urine and ripe cheese. Reminds me on the nose of Bandol. Decent fruit, but again the horsey/sweaty profile comes through on the palate. Unique, especially in this tasting of young, "clean" Bordeaux. Enjoyable on its own terms.

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• 2001 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 82 Points

  USA, Washington

  As a ringer in this 2001 Bordeaux tasting, this wine failed. It stood out quite badly and was not flattered by the company. At first, the nose was holding back. (Later the nose opened some and Roy called "butterscotch", which was right.) Surmature, raisiny palate with both cola and root beer. Brown sugar too. Just too sweet. Hot on the finish. Not good. Called this ringer as not Bordeaux in a second.

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• 2001 Chapelle d'Ausone 86 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru

  Vinyl/new car smell on the nose. Nice enough palate, which is smooth and correct, but lacks something and is a bit dilute.

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• 2000 Red Rooster Winery Canadian Vin Santo 70 Points

  Canada, British Columbia, Okanagan Valley

  The nose started off with classic botrytis, which I hoped was a good sign. Alas, the wine was just bad, crammed with nail polish remover/VA. Some wondered if this was a bad bottle, but as the Canadian at this tasting, I had to concede that this was probably how this awful wine was meant to taste. Canadian Vin Santo? Whatever.

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• 1998 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Himmelreich Riesling Eiswein 93 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  My third time with this wine and my first (relative) disappointment. The prior two bottles rated 100 points from me. This one has the great acidity that this wine has always shown, but lacked a bit of the focus that I've come to expect. Still mouthfilling and honeyed, but not as precise as prior bottles. I think I'll hold other bottles for awhile and see if this is a phase, which I believe it is.

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• 1994 Niepoort Porto Broadbent Vintage 88 Points

  Portugal, Douro, Porto

  This was brought by Roy, who had us each taste a small glass before the dinner/tasting began, and then again after. The wine certainly changed over this period. Not in a league with the big boys, this port is pleasant/above-average and clearly from a good 90s vintage, but lacks some concentration and some breed. I guessed it blind as a Broadbent.

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A very nice tasting and dinner! The '01 Quilceda is a great disappointment to me, as I actually own a number of bottles.