CWG Tasting - Is Bordeaux still a Benchmark?

This was a fun tasting, where we discussed the age-old comparison between Bordeaux reds and the rest of the world. Four flights were split into different countries, and each flight was compared to Bordeaux.

• 2014 Château Montrose 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Estèphe

  (Tasted Blind): Deep garnet in colour, this is a classic left bank with graphite, tilled soil, minerals, cedarwood, tobacco, and restrained black fruits. Some oak is still showing, but this seems St. Estephe all the way!
  It is a full-bodied wine with a compact entry, lemon-edged acidity, and firm, puckering tannins that give the wine an excellent backbone and rigidity. The core is a medley of blackcurrant and blackberries with notes of dried stems, black olive, bitumen and graphite to add complexity and a savoury edge. A cool, fresh, balanced mid-palate with finely grained tannins that need time to resolve is showing well. Cracking, textbook Bordeaux
  Gravel soils. Blend of mostly CS with Merlot, CF and PV. Matured for 18 months in 60% new French barrels.

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• 2010 Errazuriz Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve 90 Points

  Chile, Aconcagua Valley

  (Tasted Blind) Deep garnet toward a thin orange rim. Plenty of ripe fruits on the nose, with dewberry, marinated black plums, and blackcurrant complexed by filo pastry, mineral, and sea kelp. Some oak is also present. The palate entry is intense and rich, with warm, baked fruit that reflects a mix of crème de mûre and crème de cassis, along with a balsamic and soy edge. The wine is rich and generous with powdery tannins and medium acidity. Whilst there is tremendous fruit penetration, giving a sweetness to the mid-palate, I felt the wine could have done with a touch more acid as the syrupy fruit and warming alcohol seem a little overwhelming. Closes with baked fruit, fruit pastilles and a mineral note. A bit obvious.
  Alc: 14%, this is lower than normal. Blend of 78% CS, 10% Carménère, 7% Petit Verdot, and 5% Syrah. Matured 22 months in 81% new French oak.

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• 2017 Seña 92 Points

  Chile, Aconcagua Valley

  (Tasted Blind) Deep purple-black in colour, this wine has an expressive nose of freshly crushed blackcurrants, Ribena, bilberry, iris, and blue flowers—all dusted with baking spices. The palate has savoury and earthy components, featuring black olive, soy, and pepper alongside the blueberry, Ribena-esque black fruits.
  Nicely concentrated, the wine has a vibrant mineral-edged acidity but feels a little one-dimensional. It is clearly New World and likely Chilean. It relies on a sweet, syrupy texture, as the tannins feel a little shapeless, and there is little flavour depth. It closes long, however, with some spice and salinity. It is a smart Chilean wine but...
  Blend of 52% CS; 15% Malbec, 15% Carménère, 10% CF; 8% PV. Matured in French oak for 22 months. 80% in barrels (70% new) and 20% in foudres. 2017 was a cooler growing season.

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• 2005 Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia 91 Points

  Italy, Tuscany, Bolgheri, Bolgheri Sassicaia

  (Tasted Blind) A mid- to deep garnet core transitions to an orange rim. The nose is delicate and lifted, with notes of red plums, saddle leather, mint, tomato leaf, tilled soil, and tinned red cherries.
  Marinated red berries and blackcurrants mark the palate, while a crisp rhubarb-edged acidity gives a sourness that makes the wine tight. An elegant wine with sinewy and savoury Marmite edges, the wine opens further in the mid-palate to show some noted evolution with notes of earth, caramel, soy, mint humbugs and balsamic. It feels like a warmer Mediterranean style (Italy?) with a medium to long finish but just past its peak. Closes with some mineral, stony characters.
  2005 was a cooler year.

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• 2015 Château Léoville Barton 96 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Julien

  (Tasted Blind) A deep purple-ruby colour with an intense nose of black fruits, violets, black pepper, cigar box, tobacco, coffee grinds, and tilled earth. An upright palate with excellent structural integrity featuring compact tannins and lemon-edged acidity. Bone-dry, the fruit is crunchy, with blackcurrant, blackberry, and some morello cherries complex with an infusion of cedarwood, spicy oak, tobacco, and vanilla. The wine has a remarkable depth of flavour, seamless tannins, and an extended, persistent finish. It has a classic Bordeaux character that is both elegant and limber. Fabulous, from a very good year.

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• 2015 Tenuta Guado al Tasso (Antinori) Bolgheri Superiore 94 Points

  Italy, Tuscany, Bolgheri, Bolgheri Superiore

  (Tasted Blind) A deep ruby colour with crimson edges. Inviting aromas of red berries, pencil lead, minerals, warm gravel, earth and tobacco. Savoury notes lurk. The palate has a poise and focus with lively acidity and grippy compact tannins, giving excellent structural integrity and depth of flavour. The mid-palate has oven-cooked plums, bitter chocolate, coffee grinds, blackcurrant preserve and a touch of clove/star anise, all accentuated by generous alcohol. It has plenty of extract but is nicely balanced with a long farewell, closing with more dark chocolate and some cappuccino foam.
  A blend of 60% CS; 20% Merlot, 18% CF and 2% PV.

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• 2014 Château Haut-Brion 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  (Tasted Blind) A mid ruby to purple edge. Fresh and vibrant notes of boysenberry, black raspberry and some blackcurrant/blackcurrant leaf (CF?) with warm gravel, smoke and light toast. With a broad and flowing palate with layers of ripe fruit threaded together by a lively acidity, this is a focused, linear wine. Full-bodied, verging on opulent, the wine has a seamless texture and a fair amount of woodsmoke. While the tannins are compact and powder-dry, they have an ellagic component from the substantial oak that challenges as less fruit-driven and exits with a toasty char. Long finish though.

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• 2016 Dominus Estate 93 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  (Tasted Blind) A deep black-purple colour with an intense nose of ripe blackcurrant, blackberry, graphite and a fresh mineral quality.
  An open, rich, inviting entry (New World), the texture is a little syrupy with raspberry jelly powder, dried orange peel, and coffee grinds. The mid-palate has a lively acidity and a core of praline, cassis and blackberry, giving a sweet fruit pastille profile. There is a wonderful persuasive quality with approachable fruit, and though it lacks the tightness and acidic structure of Bordeaux, there is a firmness to the tannins that gives grip and density and an impressively long finish with notes of bitter chocolate, earth, tobacco, smoke and espresso foam. Generous alcohol, the wine in the glass becomes a little more angular after 15 minutes.
  Dry-farmed. $2 m per hectare.

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• 2017 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select 94 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley, Stags Leap District

  (Tasted Blind) A deep purple-red colour, fragrant aromas of crushed blue flowers, graphite, and hot crushed stones join ripe blackcurrant and a hint of bitumen. Accessible entry with bright cassis flavours, black raspberry, sweet vanilla, cocoa powder, and coconut notes, reminiscent of red velvet cake, this bigger, luxuriant style reflects Napa Cab. It has terrific concentration, is well-structured with ripe sandy tannins and extract, with just enough acidity to balance the richness, departing with liquorice, cherry cough syrup and blackberry preserve as it flexes its biceps. Perhaps a little oak props the wine up, but I thought this was an excellent Napa example, all shiny and highly drinkable!
  Interestingly, the speaker mentioned it was early picked yet still retains a 15.5% Alcohol! Production: 75,000 bottles.

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• 2012 De Toren Book XVII 89 Points

  South Africa, Coastal Region, Stellenbosch

  (Tasted Blind) A deep ruby-black colour with ripe black fruit, dried fig, liquorice syrup, smoke, tree bark, prune juice and spicy oak aromas.
  Intense on entry, the wine leans towards an overripe, back-fruited style with soy, balsamic, raisin and ellagic notes. The mid-palate is syrupy with sweet black toffee, vanilla, blackstrap molasses, and Christmas spices, giving it a port-like quality. A big, strapping wine with a muscular body, it has gravelly tannins, a mild acidity and a sense of RS. It is quite Napa-like, but here, the wine lacks balance and focus, feeling over-extracted and out of synch, lacking high definition. Less HD and more Super 8 film. A wine for interest only? Or for hand-to-hand combat?
  15.5% ABV

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• 2012 Château Margaux 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  (Tasted Blind) A mid-ruby colour; the nose is somewhat high-toned with herbal notes and a touch of Brett, lacking the floral notes or fruit that one would typically expect - slightly scalped?
  Fortunately, a second bottle was opened that showed a little more blackcurrant and redcurrant, some fragrant crushed purple flowers, yet retained those herbal notes with a touch of tapenade. The palate entry was sleek and upright with an energetic lemon-edge acidity and tight, powdery tannins that, whilst graceful, felt disengaged and reserved. Also, the oak presence was significant and still fairly dominant at this stage. Despite this, the wine has plenty of lingering length, and the mid-palate has the structural concentration of a top house.

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• 2009 Kanonkop Paul Sauer 90 Points

  South Africa, Coastal Region, Stellenbosch, Simonsberg-Stellenbosch

  (Tasted Blind) A deep purple colour to the rim. Intense, ripe fruited aromas of blackcurrant, loganberry, liquorice and cigar mingle with barnyard pong, smoke and bacon fat. A little muddied with some volatility, the palate has a slight herbaceousness towards grilled herbs and a touch of green (fynbos, lantana leaf, tomato box) that leads to a bitter-edged tannin. Compensating for this is quite a wealth of toasty oak, coffee grind, bonfire toffee and some dark chocolate, but these don't quite overcome the challenge. The wine lacks a little mid-palate depth, and it feels slightly dry. Closes remarkably long with more oak spices and some brawny tannins.
  91/100 (initially) but declines to 89-90/100
  A blend of CS, CF and Merlot.

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