Wine Spectator's Grand Tour
Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
Tasted Wednesday, May 13, 2009 by rjonwine@gmail.com with 2,239 views
Introduction
I hadn't been to a Wine Spectator Grand Tour tasting event since they stopped holding them in Los Angeles several years ago. This year, however, my friend Traci proposed that we meet in Chicago for the event, and that we use the trip to finally get to Alinea, which we've been meaning to do for a couple of years. This turned out to be an excellent plan, and we managed to fit in some other great Chicago restaurants as well.
Compared to the Wine Spectator events I attended several years ago, this was noticeably different in the number of Bordeaux Chateaux owners and winemakers in attendance. Quite a few wine producers from other parts of the world were represented by the owner or winemaker, including maybe 25% of the Italian producers, but Bordeaux and many other major producers were represented by their local or regional distributors rather than representatives from the winery itself. This is also an odd tasting event in that producers are limited to pouring one wine, and lots of different vintages are represented, making it hard to do much of a comparison by vintage, even within regions.
As one can tell from the TNs below, I focused on the very few producers from Burgundy, the substantial number of Bordeaux represented, and a select number of the Italian wines on hand (about 2/3s of those present at the tasting). I tasted virtually none of the U.S. producers on hand (since I get a lot of other chances to do that, living as I do near California wine country). I was also interested in the dry Portuguese wines represented, and finished up with the few Ports on hand. There were also a lot of South American and Australian wines represented at the tasting, but they are a low priority for me, so the Argentine Cheval Blanc project and the Torbreck Run Rig (always a favorite) were the only ones from those areas that I made an effort to get to in the 3 hours allotted.
Even though the one-bottle limit per producer and array of vintages represented makes this a hard tasting from which to make real comparisons or divine much in the way of trends, I do enjoy the chance to sample so many great Italian producers in one spot. And there were certainly a number of excellent wines presented in this tasting. The best of the nearly 70 wines I tasted were the gorgeous '05 Ornellaia, the '99 Voerzio Barolo Riserva Vecchie dei Capalot Brunate from magnum, the '05 Torbreck Run Rig and the '03 Dow Port.
Flight 1 - Bordeaux (17 Notes)
Flight 2 - Burgundy (3 Notes)
Flight 3 - Champagne (2 Notes)
Flight 4 - Italy (26 Notes)
Flight 5 - South America (1 Note)
Flight 6 - Portugal (7 Notes)
Flight 7 - Spain (2 Notes)
Flight 8 - Australia (2 Notes)
Flight 9 - Other France (2 Notes)
Flight 10 - United States (3 Notes)
2004 Château Camensac 89 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Haut-Médoc
Appealing berry, menthol, black raspberry nose; tight, tart, black fruit, mineral and menthol palate; medium finish (55% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Sauvignon)
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2001 Château Canon 92 Points
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru
Roasted and tart plum nose with caramel; tight but good sweet espresso and black fruit palate; medium finish 92+ pts. (80% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon)
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2006 Château Chasse-Spleen 90 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Moulis en Médoc
Plush, berry and mineral nose; nice berry palate, sweet tannins; medium finish 90+ pts.
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2006 Château Cos d'Estournel 92 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Estèphe
Plum, berry and herbal nose; poised, tart plum and cassis palate; long finish
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2003 Château Giscours 93 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux
Minty, tart plum nose; ripe plum, berry and mineral palate with complexity; medium-plus finish 93+ pts.
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2004 Château Haut-Brion 94 Points
France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan
Plush black fruit and espresso nose; tasty, deep, tart black fruit and graphite palate; medium-plus finish
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2005 Château d'Issan 86 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux
Oaky black fruit, lavender nose; ripe black fruit and oak palate; medium finish (splinters)
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1999 Château Lafite Rothschild 93 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Gorgeous nose, mushroom, tobacco, with class; tasty, tart plum, cassis and mineral palate with savory edge; medium-plus finish
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2004 Château Lagrange (St. Julien) 93 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Julien
Nice roasted fruit, herbal, tobacco and black fruit nose; tasty, espresso, tart black fruit and mineral palate; medium-plus finish
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2003 Château Lynch-Bages 90 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Light nutmeg and roast coffee nose; sweet coffee, black fruit and espresso palate; medium-plus finish 90+ pts.
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2002 Château Margaux 92 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux
Lovely berry, cassis and cinnamon nose; tasty, tight, but good tart cassis, cherry and mineral palate; medium-plus finish 92+ pts.
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2004 Château La Mission Haut-Brion 93 Points
France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan
Caramel, mocha and ripe black fruit nose; tasty, cassis, tobacco and mineral palate; medium-plus finish
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2001 Château Mouton Rothschild 92 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Lovely, plush, berry and plum nose; tasty, plush and tart plum, berry, cassis palate with integrated oak; medium-plus finish 92+ pts.
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2005 Château Ormes de Pez 88 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Estèphe
Brett and espresso nose; tart, black fruit and berry palate; medium finish 88+ pts.
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1996 Château Palmer 92 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux
Dark raspbery color with floating sediment; maturing mushroom and tobacco nose; soft, tasty, focused plum, tobacco and mushroom palate; medium-plus finish 92+ pts.
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2004 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron 91 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Light coffee and espresso nose; tight, narrow, coffee, tart caramel palate with length; long finish 91+ pts.
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2003 Château Pontet-Canet 92 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Touch of brett, graphite and refined black fruit nose; tart black fruit, blackberry palate; medium-plus finish 92+ pts.
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