May 19, 2024 - Still a young wine, in good balance with great intensity and classic cassis taste. Big Smooth tannins and great fruit. Serious wine just starting to take on tertiary notes. Lacks a little complexity for a higher acore
May 16, 2024 - Decanted for an hour or so and then back into bottle for an hour and a half, then decanted again and drunk over the next 3 hours. On opening and throughout, the nose is wonderful if a bit compact for right now. The wine is tight as nails with oak overlying on opening. During second decant was unapproachable and even a bit bitter and acidic for the first hour. By the end of hour 3 it was starting to open up more and good, with a dense core of primary flavors just shedding their fat and secondaries starting to come through. At thay point it was awesome but there wasnt enough left. I would either decant for 8+ hours or wait 10 years or more on this, but it will be classic.
First of four bottles. Bricktop's.
March 3, 2024 - 93.5
C'est vraiment grand et ce n'est pas fini ! Il a un boulevard d'évolution devant lui.
December 30, 2023 - Tasted over two days, alongside the same vintage d'Armailhac and Pontet-Canet. Opened, sampled blind, called it, then left to slow-o for a few hours.
First impression? Excessive oak. Impression throughout the first day? Defiled by oak. So much lumber, particularly compared to the other offerings, that all attempts to evaluate the fruit and terroir imparted substance proved frustrating. Also noteworthy: Did not know the assemblage...and still do not...but this showed the most red fruits of the three.
The wine took an interesting turn by the second day. The oak had integrated somewhat, which imparted a certain creamy, textural weight. In this way, it proved an intriguing teaser for the Pontet-Canet.
At the time of this note, this wine had a CT score of 93.3. The d'Armailhac, at the same time, had a CT score of 91.7. Indeed, I scored this a grudging 94 points, based on its second-day presentation. Qualitatively, given the wine's modernity (timber), the delta makes some since. Quantitatively, i.e., traditional, terroir-driven, rustic substance, the delta is, frankly, laughable.
Why corrupt high-quality Left Bank fruit to such an extent that creamy, textural weight becomes a wine's calling card? Presumably, money. C'est la vie!
This bottle had about a decade of evolution ahead. Wines in this style, however, above average extraction and heavily oaked, tend to throw a lot sediment and turn boring after a certain point. Equal chances that this wine will do so, before or by 2032-2035.
November 24, 2023 - Excellent, still youth, still primary notes with dark red and black berries. Tertiary notes more subtle.
November 18, 2023 - Excellent, but still has many years ahead. Will get even better
October 21, 2023 - Tasting lunch. Double decant and it needed it. Lots of dark fruit, cake, spices, earthy element. Best after 2028, will be challenging much more expensive left bankers then.
October 5, 2023 - With seemingly endless layers of black and red fruit, salty rocks, flowers, tobacco leaf, and spearmint on the nose, and palate, this keeps on developing in the right direction. Concentrated, vibrant, and full-bodied, stylistically, the wine is perched on the corner of classic and creamy, with more layers of those black and red fruits on the palate and in the finish. Drink from 2023-2060.
September 26, 2023 - First of six bought as futures. I let this breathe in the glass for about an hour. Savory aromas. Silky entry. This offered notes of black cherry, sous bois, pencil lead and cedar cigar box. Classic profile, but the sous bois seemed most predominant. Clean finish. Served with grilled filet mignon and balsamic strawberry spinach salad. The wine is in it's drinking plateau, but I suspect it's still on the way up since it tightened up after about two hours. This was a better than average Monday due to this outstanding wine. 94
September 8, 2023 - Opened 2009 and 2010 GPL side by side. Both wines double decanted for about 45 min in the morning and then stood upright in the wine fridge until dinner. Unlike the 2010 which is a bit muted upon pulling the cork, the 2009 shows a lot of oak upon opening. Over dinner, the oak is integrated but overall my impression from last bottle 2 years ago is confirmed. The 2009 is another nice, very open knit medium bodied left bank Bordeaux, not particularly Pauillac and in my eyes clearly behind the 1996, 2000 and 2005 GPL. Good wine but I can get a similar experience when opening say 2009 La Lagune.
The 2010 which I have not had since the UGC tasting 10 years ago, is showing significantly better than the 2009. Layered deep dark fruit, iron, more concentration and weight here, this is now a top Pauillac in my book. 2009: 92. 2010 94-95.