Fresher than the last bottle, this was excellent. Blackberry and dark cherry aromas, preceding a very cool and fresh mouthful of the same, with blackcurrant and raspberry flavours giving it a well-rounded but rising middle section, and a long, sappy finish. I was surprised by the taste profile, much less rich and much more fresh than previous bottles - I could really taste the 20% Cabernet Franc.
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Not quite as good as it was three years ago, but still a very enjoyable wine. The soft brambly fruit has become a little more citrussy and there's a lack of bass in the mix, but the elegance is still there. Rich, but not overly so. This is definitely a "modern" St.Emilion but a very good example of one.
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Briefly decanted. Perfect barely-stained cork. Deep opaque black-red colour with no hint of lightening even at the edges. Nose is attractively deep red and black currant fruit with subtle and elegant blueberry giving additional dimension and lovely warm cedar and peaty loam. Palate is medium weight, really welcoming warm allspice and slightly tart but still somehow sweet cranberry/strawberry mid-palate fruit. Still lots of tannin on a dry, earthy, brambly and bitter black chocolate finish which is very Saint-Emilon but which softens and deepens with extended time in the glass. Wow, so pleased I have kept my hands off this since my 3 bottles in 2009-2012. Despite the vintage, this wine can only improve significantly over the next 5-10 years. Could be “wow” in the future. 90+
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Sadly the last bottle: a classic St.Emilion in all the right senses, a heady combination of soft, brambly fruit, with a middle section of strawberry and notes of raspberry on the finish. Great elegance and finesse, rather like a top Margaux but with a more beguiling, sweet taste. Definitely better than the 00 at a lot less. Plenty of time left.
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Like last year's bottle, this is in the perfect place right now, a supreme example of how elegant a modern St.Emilion can be, when it isn't coated in oak or other artefacts. Subtle but persistent fruit, enough body without excess, perfect balance and an overriding sense of distinction and class. It's quite possible to enjoy wines such as Monbousquet as well as this type - and there's nothing wrong of course in doing so, but sadly there are too many of them around and not enough wines of this ilk, so kudos to M.Vauthier.
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4th of 12. Deep ruby. Evolved very well. Mature rich chocolate, animal and prune but with nice balancing acidity. Very good balance. Medium length. Exceptional for price 4+/5
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Very impressive. Rich, dark aromas of blackcurrant, leather and spices, but also violet and cherry. Immediate sense of style and grandeur on the tongue, with rich flavours of blackberry and blackcurrant, followed by quite a deep-throated roar of red berry, but with enough lift and deftness to avoid any stodgy downsides. No oak and no chocolate - great! A modern St.Emilion without the clichés. I prefer this to the 00.
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Dark robe starting to brown at rim. Rich chocolate, plums and blackberry fruit on nose with some gamey flavours on palate. Slightly stoney finish with quite high acidity. Excellent for a £12 bottle. 4/5 (90-93)
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Blackberry, with a hint of chocolate and vanilla on the nose. Ripe red berries in the mouth, with a creamy understated backdrop, quite dry, but which gives the wine a freshness on the palate that is very appealing. Not full bodied, but very persistent. No excesses at all, this is a St.Emilion full of elegance and grace, just the way I like them.
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Popped, poured and drank over a couple of hours as I caught up on CT notes at the end of a lovely long Easter weekend at our house in Thailand. Still totally opaque black-red colour with minimal lightening at the rim. Nose is extremely welcoming high-toned and sophisticated multi-dimensional black/red fruits and nicely integrated new oak ....young, quite extracted but with a good heft that promises a long life ( in other words, still a baby at 11 years' old). Palate is rich, rounded, sumptuous red berries fruit with a strong resonance on the back end and a lot of promise of further complexity to evolve from the current ripeness. I'm impressed.....
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This bottle was sitting in such a perfect place where the sweetness of the fruit, the structure and maturity are in a state of perfect harmony. Smooth fruit with a touch of maturity, coffee, spices, delicate structure. Excellent stuff.
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Popped and poured from the cellar. Deep black blood colour almost totally opaque but translucent at the edges. Nose is mmmm….very appealing and concentrated almost Californian initial nose of Toblerone chocolate and nougat then fresh-grated nutmeg, loam and blackberries…lots of deep fruit at the back of the nose. Palate is blackcurrant-driven on the front end and almost St. Julien-like but then a wave of growing dry nicotine tannin and nutmeg and lots of damp earth dominates leading to a dry and rather austere tobacco leaf and nicoine finish but with more length and resonance than I would expect from a wine of this price point. This is rustic but in a very good way….although you need to like that slighly harsh St. Emilion tobacco leaf element to really enjoy this. This would probably do better with red meat or after-dinner cheese than drinking on its own…..it will certainly grab Epoisses cheese by the neck and wrestle it to the floor. So it needs a year or two for the tannins to smoothe out to be at its best. This was bought en-primeur and recommended by Farr Vintners as a QPR champion for the vintage….. it's a great traditional English-style robust claret and I think they chose well, although there are a ton of 2001 Bordeaux that ring my bell today and I think it's a much-underrated year for red Bordeaux. Overall, I'd sum it up as a St. Emilion version of Leoville Barton (which is quite a compliment)..
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Very deep robe with bright red/brown rim. Powerful classic cedar and warm plumy fruit nose with some developed leather and animal flavours as it opens up. Initially elegant on palate with lots of fruit but finish is more austere than expected. Good balance, still with lingering tannins. For a wine in the £10 en primeur price bracket this is excellent (90-94) and should develop further.
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Medium dark red, just starting to turn garnet. Right out of the gate this comes at you with full-on stink of plummy earth, but the palate shows considerably more elegance coupled with spreading flavors and copious fine grained tannins that speak of some real pedigree. Air brings a purer fruit expression that combines raspberries with the more typical merlot plums. Quite satisyfing.
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Drank over a dinner of Beef Bourginon and truffled mashed potatoes at home with Todd and Mina on a Sunday night. Decanted for a couple of hours beforehand. Deep purple/blood red translucent colour. Quite primary nose of deep dark black cherry, bitter chocolate and new-sawn wood. Super mouthfilling, grippy palate of figs, black fruits and tart plums with a dry, tannic but very enjoyable back end. Some length. Is still definitely a work in progress and has 5+ years of development ahead of it. Superb QPR and punches well above its weight. Classic old-fashioned Bordeaux of the best sort. A good wine to learn how "austerity" can be a positive description for a wine. Paired, and held up well, with a 1989 Leoville Barton.
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5/28/2022 - kfinsrud wrote: flawed
Dead on Arrival. Source: Munich Wine Company (MWC).
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5/25/2021 - Julian Marshall Likes this wine: 92 Points
Fresher than the last bottle, this was excellent. Blackberry and dark cherry aromas, preceding a very cool and fresh mouthful of the same, with blackcurrant and raspberry flavours giving it a well-rounded but rising middle section, and a long, sappy finish.
I was surprised by the taste profile, much less rich and much more fresh than previous bottles - I could really taste the 20% Cabernet Franc.
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12/29/2020 - Julian Marshall Likes this wine: 91 Points
Not quite as good as it was three years ago, but still a very enjoyable wine. The soft brambly fruit has become a little more citrussy and there's a lack of bass in the mix, but the elegance is still there. Rich, but not overly so. This is definitely a "modern" St.Emilion but a very good example of one.
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5/3/2020 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 90 Points
Briefly decanted. Perfect barely-stained cork. Deep opaque black-red colour with no hint of lightening even at the edges. Nose is attractively deep red and black currant fruit with subtle and elegant blueberry giving additional dimension and lovely warm cedar and peaty loam. Palate is medium weight, really welcoming warm allspice and slightly tart but still somehow sweet cranberry/strawberry mid-palate fruit. Still lots of tannin on a dry, earthy, brambly and bitter black chocolate finish which is very Saint-Emilon but which softens and deepens with extended time in the glass. Wow, so pleased I have kept my hands off this since my 3 bottles in 2009-2012. Despite the vintage, this wine can only improve significantly over the next 5-10 years. Could be “wow” in the future. 90+
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5/21/2017 - Julian Marshall Likes this wine: 92 Points
Sadly the last bottle: a classic St.Emilion in all the right senses, a heady combination of soft, brambly fruit, with a middle section of strawberry and notes of raspberry on the finish. Great elegance and finesse, rather like a top Margaux but with a more beguiling, sweet taste. Definitely better than the 00 at a lot less. Plenty of time left.
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12/11/2016 - Julian Marshall Likes this wine: 91 Points
Like last year's bottle, this is in the perfect place right now, a supreme example of how elegant a modern St.Emilion can be, when it isn't coated in oak or other artefacts. Subtle but persistent fruit, enough body without excess, perfect balance and an overriding sense of distinction and class.
It's quite possible to enjoy wines such as Monbousquet as well as this type - and there's nothing wrong of course in doing so, but sadly there are too many of them around and not enough wines of this ilk, so kudos to M.Vauthier.
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5/14/2016 - nstow Likes this wine: 93 Points
4th of 12. Deep ruby. Evolved very well. Mature rich chocolate, animal and prune but with nice balancing acidity. Very good balance. Medium length. Exceptional for price 4+/5
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10/19/2015 - Xavier Auerbach wrote: 93 Points
A private tasting (Jan-Dirk Taams' residence, Groot-Ammers, Netherlands): Deep and spicy, oaky, hint of the barnyard, warm and glowing, generous and ripe, with firm tannins that need more time to soften, balanced by glossy black fruit, a thoroughbred. Outstanding.
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3/16/2015 - Julian Marshall Likes this wine: 91 Points
Very impressive. Rich, dark aromas of blackcurrant, leather and spices, but also violet and cherry. Immediate sense of style and grandeur on the tongue, with rich flavours of blackberry and blackcurrant, followed by quite a deep-throated roar of red berry, but with enough lift and deftness to avoid any stodgy downsides. No oak and no chocolate - great! A modern St.Emilion without the clichés.
I prefer this to the 00.
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11/3/2013 - nstow Likes this wine: 86 Points
Not overly complex, well balanced with mellow developed fruits. 3+/5 (86-89)
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7/21/2012 - nstow Likes this wine: 90 Points
Dark robe starting to brown at rim. Rich chocolate, plums and blackberry fruit on nose with some gamey flavours on palate. Slightly stoney finish with quite high acidity. Excellent for a £12 bottle. 4/5 (90-93)
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4/10/2012 - Julian Marshall wrote:
Blackberry, with a hint of chocolate and vanilla on the nose. Ripe red berries in the mouth, with a creamy understated backdrop, quite dry, but which gives the wine a freshness on the palate that is very appealing. Not full bodied, but very persistent. No excesses at all, this is a St.Emilion full of elegance and grace, just the way I like them.
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4/8/2012 - Goldstone wrote: 89 Points
Popped, poured and drank over a couple of hours as I caught up on CT notes at the end of a lovely long Easter weekend at our house in Thailand. Still totally opaque black-red colour with minimal lightening at the rim. Nose is extremely welcoming high-toned and sophisticated multi-dimensional black/red fruits and nicely integrated new oak ....young, quite extracted but with a good heft that promises a long life ( in other words, still a baby at 11 years' old). Palate is rich, rounded, sumptuous red berries fruit with a strong resonance on the back end and a lot of promise of further complexity to evolve from the current ripeness. I'm impressed.....
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2/18/2012 - pjaines wrote:
This bottle was sitting in such a perfect place where the sweetness of the fruit, the structure and maturity are in a state of perfect harmony. Smooth fruit with a touch of maturity, coffee, spices, delicate structure. Excellent stuff.
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9/19/2011 - Goldstone wrote: 89 Points
Popped and poured from the cellar. Deep black blood colour almost totally opaque but translucent at the edges. Nose is mmmm….very appealing and concentrated almost Californian initial nose of Toblerone chocolate and nougat then fresh-grated nutmeg, loam and blackberries…lots of deep fruit at the back of the nose. Palate is blackcurrant-driven on the front end and almost St. Julien-like but then a wave of growing dry nicotine tannin and nutmeg and lots of damp earth dominates leading to a dry and rather austere tobacco leaf and nicoine finish but with more length and resonance than I would expect from a wine of this price point. This is rustic but in a very good way….although you need to like that slighly harsh St. Emilion tobacco leaf element to really enjoy this. This would probably do better with red meat or after-dinner cheese than drinking on its own…..it will certainly grab Epoisses cheese by the neck and wrestle it to the floor. So it needs a year or two for the tannins to smoothe out to be at its best. This was bought en-primeur and recommended by Farr Vintners as a QPR champion for the vintage….. it's a great traditional English-style robust claret and I think they chose well, although there are a ton of 2001 Bordeaux that ring my bell today and I think it's a much-underrated year for red Bordeaux. Overall, I'd sum it up as a St. Emilion version of Leoville Barton (which is quite a compliment)..
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5/28/2011 - nstow Likes this wine: 90 Points
Very deep robe with bright red/brown rim. Powerful classic cedar and warm plumy fruit nose with some developed leather and animal flavours as it opens up. Initially elegant on palate with lots of fruit but finish is more austere than expected. Good balance, still with lingering tannins. For a wine in the £10 en primeur price bracket this is excellent (90-94) and should develop further.
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2/3/2009 - tcfishler wrote:
Medium dark red, just starting to turn garnet. Right out of the gate this comes at you with full-on stink of plummy earth, but the palate shows considerably more elegance coupled with spreading flavors and copious fine grained tannins that speak of some real pedigree. Air brings a purer fruit expression that combines raspberries with the more typical merlot plums. Quite satisyfing.
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1/15/2009 - Goldstone wrote: 89 Points
Drank over a dinner of Beef Bourginon and truffled mashed potatoes at home with Todd and Mina on a Sunday night. Decanted for a couple of hours beforehand. Deep purple/blood red translucent colour. Quite primary nose of deep dark black cherry, bitter chocolate and new-sawn wood. Super mouthfilling, grippy palate of figs, black fruits and tart plums with a dry, tannic but very enjoyable back end. Some length. Is still definitely a work in progress and has 5+ years of development ahead of it. Superb QPR and punches well above its weight. Classic old-fashioned Bordeaux of the best sort. A good wine to learn how "austerity" can be a positive description for a wine. Paired, and held up well, with a 1989 Leoville Barton.
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5/27/2006 - TuckerTini wrote: 89 Points
drank too early. Next bottle, decant and let sit for 2 hours +
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