Community Tasting Note
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Eudemis Likes this wine:
December 9, 2022 - The bottle is heavy, but not ostentatiously so. Pretty dull drawing by Ilya Kabakov on the label, let us hope that it is not a reflection on the wine! 13% alcohol. CS 77%, M 12%, CF 10%, PV 1%. Impeccable long cork of superb quality with no wine penetration whatever. Decanted 75mn ahead. Dark colour with no sign of ageing.
The nose is glorious with a harmonious mix of fresh dark fruit, tobacco, ink and a pleasant herbaceous component; I could smell this all day. The oak is perfectly integrated in that it adds richness without calling attention to itself. A textbook Pauillac in its glorious early adulthood. Luckily, the mouth is just as good with flavours that match the aromas, and a precision that is not so frequent in Bordeaux; menthol in the finish giving a lovely uplift. Classy and harmonious without a doubt, with freshness ahead of opulence.
Even though I went to some trouble with the food match (rack of lamb), the wine revealed itself fully only afterwards, on its own.
Now to the thorny question of value for money; well, I paid around 80€ for this bottle around 2004 as a result of a combination of factors, two of them being the bad reputation of the vintage (quite wrongly as far as Pauillac and St Julien are concerned) and the decision by the kingmaker critic of the time (what's his name again?) not to attend the primeur tastings. Even at that price, I am not sure that I would buy again; as for paying the IdW-quoted 434€, you have got to be joking! The point is that the wine is excellent, but it is not revelatory. I am not even sure if it is the best Bordeaux that I ever tasted. Probably in the top 10 though.
Delighted to have tasted this wine and I enjoyed every mouthful.2 people found this helpful 2,196 views