March 9, 2024 - Black cherries, orange rind, plums, flowers, blackberries, tobacco and smoke filled aromas get your focus with little effort. There is a richness to the wine due to all of its chocolate, licorice, cherries, and currants. The finish combines salty oceanic influences, dark chocolate, citrus, licorice, chalk, and savory fruits, with chocolate in the lingering, dusty finish. I sense this could be even better with a few years of bottle age. A large part of the success with the 2021 vintage here is the concentration that comes from yields of only 22 hectoliters per hectare. Blending 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot. Drink from 2027-2050.
March 4, 2024 - Amsterdam UGCB Tasting (Zuiderkerk): Deep ripe fruit on the nose, good flavours but the finish is extremely dry.
March 4, 2024 - UGCB tasting-Amsterdam 2021 Bordeaux 03-04-2024: Like the white here too firm vanilla and wood. The wine is tasty and has a friendly aftertaste, but misses for me the refinement of Domaine de Chevalier and Pape Clement.
March 1, 2024 - (60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot). Purpurrot. Die Nase ist super präzis, Cassis, Brombeere, ein Hauch Tabak, Süssholz, Veilchen, super komplex, schon jetzt. Im Gaumen frisch, rassig, gradlinig und knackig, sensationelle Struktur, feinmaschiges Tannin, dieses ist von höchster Güte, keine Adstringenz, keine Trockenheit, einfach nur sehr hohe Qualität. Im Abgang mit schöner Länge und viel Frische. Ein Top Wein, mit guten Reserven. 2025-2045 (Verkostet im November 2023 in Zürich bei UGCB)
February 12, 2024 - tight, lacking in fruit/depth.
January 26, 2024 - Ripe red cherry, lipstick, rose, a bit of bitter dark chocolate. Quite tannic! Yet finishes a little short.
January 25, 2024 - UGC Bordeaux 2021, SF: Black fruit, tar, earth. heavy toast, a bit of floral lift. Savory. Dark and a bit juicy.
January 23, 2024 - UGC Bordeaux (Drake Hotel - Chicago IL): Walkaround tasting. Firm and cellarworthy with very good depth for the vintage. Long finish shows minerally, complex finish worth looking forward to, from 2031.
January 22, 2024 - Union Des Grands Crus Bordeaux (New York City, NY, USA): Good tension and energy, balanced. Charcoal, blackberry, herbs. Fresh. Layered. Fairly long finish.
November 19, 2023 - 11x Bordeaux 2021: UCG Arrivage Tasting of just a handful of 2021 Bordeauxs. Some thoughts: 1) It's a very mediocre vintage. There is not enough substance, many wines seem simple. Especially on the Left Bank, the balance was a bit off (too much acidity, too many herbal notes, not enough fruit... and some showed greenness and drying tannins). 2) 2021 is being promoted as a vintage for "classic" Bordeaux lovers, a vintage for those who liked 2014 and 2017. In my opinion, 2021 does not come close to those vintages. 2014 is more structured, with better balance and often more depth. 2017 is much rounder, more balanced and a bit more polished. 3) We all know the high prices for 2021, so there's no need to chase them (they'll probably only get cheaper in the next few years). Here are some impressions on a few selected wines.
TN: Brief comment, no detailed notes taken. The two Pessac-Leognan wines present, the SHL (90pts) and the DDC (88pts), were quite similar: both had nice dark red berries in the center, were a bit simple and had slightly drying tannins. While certainly ok, these are definitely not wines to chase.