Community Tasting Note
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Cailles wrote: 93 points
March 8, 2022 - Bordeaux 2012 - 10 Years On - 33 Reds: All wines tasted blind. Not decanted. A few observations: 1) 2012 is a good quality vintage without the depth/length of great vintages. Still, one of the better “off-vintages”. 2) Many but not all wines are drinking well today. They are generally open, round and fleshed out. 3) Further cellaring is advised as there are hardly any tertiary aromas yet and that extra complexity will render the wines more interesting. The wines generally have the structure and fruit to age gracefully. 4) The level of ripeness/alcohol are not a concern (09, 10, 15, 18 have more problems in that area). 5) Left bank (avg. 92.2 pts) beats right bank (91.0) (group has right bank a notch ahead). The overall group avg. score is at a good 92.1, but unsurprisingly below past retrospectives of better vintages (00, 09, 10). 6) There are highlights on both sides: my best wines today were Ausone (96 pts), Mouton (96), Cheval (95) and Margaux (95).
TN: Medium expressive nose with ripe dark fruit and blueberries, herbs, minerality. Strangely, also some heat. Quite complete nose although not that expressive. On the palate this drinks quite well with an impeccable structure, fine, ripe, good sweetness, good concentration, fine tannins, high but well-integrated acidity. Good length. Overall solid but it pales in comparison to the Mouton in the same flight. Mouton is a charmer, open, singing and sexy, while Latour, unsurprisingly, is a more structured not yet 100% open and ready claret. It is quite obvious that this has the structure and fruit to age gracefully, become more open and add a few more points with 10, 20, 30 years in the cellar. Today this is drinking on a 92/93 pts level.
Decanting: My guess is that with a solid two hours in the decanter, this would have been more open.
Group rank: 12th out of 33 reds
Group average score: 92.6
More information, vintage comparisons, top and worst 10 list, appellation rankings from the group in the story link.3 people found this helpful 5,759 views
2 Comments
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Magnum PI commented:
2/9/23, 4:53 AM - Thanks very much for the excellent review. Is there a link we can access?
Drink lots of wine.
Magnum PI -
Cailles commented:
2/10/23, 12:49 AM - Thanks for your comment. The link is right at the beginning of the tasting note (just click on "Bordeaux 2012 - 10 Years On - 33 Reds").