Community Tasting Note
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sfwinelover1 Likes this wine: 95 points
June 8, 2021 - Bordeaux night* (with a ringer) in Noe Valley. Part of last fall's private party purchase (about $160, the most expensive bottle). On the nose and palate on opening, extremely backward, almost undrinkable and unyielding, with Burgundian notes of forest floor, mushrooms, dried spice and more traditional funk with nary a trace of fruit. Deep purple, medium bodied, medium thick legs. Powerful but well integrated and underlying acidity and tannins, not a trace of heat in its 12.5% abv. Complex, with medium+ persistence and intensity. After an hour and half of air, more typical CS notes of violets, cigar box, smoke and lesser hints of bitter chocolate, coffee and leather came in, along with some sweet cherries. At 2-2.5 hours, the cherries became impressively vibrant, though never less than completely fresh, joined by blueberries and just a trace of cassis joining the aforementioned secondary notes, and the wine became superbly balanced, both between its fruit and structural elements and between slightly sweet and more savory notes. The low abv and powerful structure helped the fruit, though vibrant in my experience--limited--for a Bordeaux relatively restrained by my local standards, stay laser focused and gave the wine a long, powerful 20-30 second finish. I've written of my struggles with Bordeaux, but this wine was on point, meeting my expectations stylistically while exceeding them qualitatively. Of the wines I've had this year, this was most similar--in price, quality, style and vintage--to the 2002 Blankiet, although that wine had a 240 basis point higher abv. That wine drank far more evenly, coming out of the bottle singing and staying largely consistent during the 3 nights it was open, as opposed to the LB, which took about 90 minutes to become drinkable, then, after about 3.5 hours and on night 2 (which started with being super funky, before coming back to where it was at the end of night 1 after about 30 minutes) ranged from much lower until the 2 hour mark and somewhat lower after the 3.5 hours and on night 2, to being just a bit more focused, lean and longer when it was at its best in the 2-3.5 hour timeframe. Really lovely with the usual pre-dinner snacks and an absolute rock star with steak. This was my only bottle of this, although I'd buy again at a similar price, but if I had one at this point, I'd drink it subject to my notes on air above. While I think that this wine has the stuffing to hold for a number of years, prophesying that it will be this good or better in 2050 as one critic did seems like a fool's bet, as the upside from here isn't clear.
As part of our Bordeaux night we drank this as a compare/contrast with the '11 C&T Don Melchor (generally consistent with my 3/20 TN on that wine, although I'd boost my score up a half point to a 94). That wine, although far more old world than new in style and more alike than different, at least on a relative basis, than the LB, was richer and rounder than the LB, but also less taut and lithe. It likewise went in and out of integration--in particular, again on a relative basis, it seemed ever so slightly boozy compared to the LB--but seems to be drinking a bit more youthfully and perhaps to have more upside, even if it lagged the LB a bit at present. The LB was a solid 96 at its best, but because of the fairly narrow window, I'm going with the lower score of 95-96.10 people found this helpful 6,887 views
4 Comments
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North Willis commented:
6/9/21, 8:22 AM - Epic note. Thank you!
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sfwinelover1 commented:
6/9/21, 8:25 AM - You're welcome, and thank you for the nice compliment (and thanks for working your way through all of my dependent clauses!). Hope you have a bottle or two you can get your hands on and enjoy. Cheers!
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markydecker commented:
6/9/21, 8:39 AM - Outstanding note, which makes up for some of the drivel usually posted on CT. Bravo!
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sfwinelover1 commented:
6/9/21, 8:47 AM - Thank you so much and cheers!