More From The Left Bank….

Since we’re staying at Pape Clement and our first appointment is at Haut Brion (just down the street…literally), I let Kyle and Steve Jarvis (WineryChannel.tv) sleep in. While breakfast at 8AM instead of 7AM is hardly sleeping in, being that we didn’t get to bed till 12:30AM, it is the most sleep we’ve so far had on the trip.

So we arrive at Haut Brion at 9AM sharp only to find our tasting is at La Mission Haut Brion. In the past, the estate was packed with tasters, but this time, it was a little quiet. As we sat down at this formal tasting and began to taste wines from both estates, I was wondering if the toothpaste was having an effect on my palate. The wines had little fruit and felt a touch under ripe. Of course the first wines were the ‘second wines’ but hmm.. So I turned to Kyle to get his
opinion… he felt the same way I did. When we got to the grand vin, the wines got much better but, out of the five First Growths, HB was our least favorite. In fact, tasting wine from Pessac Leognan, we felt it was the most inconsistent region (in our opinion). But judgment reserved seen as tasting young Pessacs is notoriously difficult. We will say
that the whites from the portfolio were the bomb! During our tasting, we met with Prince Robert of Luxembourg and General Manager Jean-Philippe Delmas and talked about the vintage. Like many other estates, harvest was one of the latest on record, and only about 40% of the crop made it into the grand vin. Question again…what will be the price? It’s got to be under $200…or more! See what we have available from Haut Brion.

Next, it was back to the Medoc. St. Julien to be exact and a tasting at Leoville Las Cases sampling the portfolio of Jean Hubert Delon  (Nenin, Potensac, Clos du Marquis and Las Cases) Along the way, we were running a tad late. The estate is militant on punctuality so we were flying through the Medoc until we were held up by a Range Rover. Looking for a clearing to pass, we realized it was Jean-Hubert himself… Oops! Arriving at the estate spot on time, we make our
way into the tasting room. The winemaker is there but he speaks no English. As we taste, we’re impressed with the whole lineup, including a wicked Las Cases that certainly bumps heads with the firsts! They’re working at this estate and it shows in the wines… See what we have from Leoville Las Cases.

As we said our goodbyes, it was on to the first UGC tasting at Branaire to sample wine from St. Estephe, Pauillac and St. Julien. We see lots of folks we know and are engaged in many conversations making it difficult to taste all the wines. Without a lot of Americans present, it seems like everyone wants to engage in conversation re: state of our economy, and we’re only to happy to oblige. Perhaps this will keep prices at bay…. We’ll see… Of the wines tasted (we did get to them all), Branaire, Lagrange, Leoville Barton and Poyferre (really good), Beychevelle (surprised how yummy this was), Pontet Canet (of course), Pichon Baron, Clerc Milon, d’Armailhac and Pichon Lalande (which tasted better here than at the chateau) were the hits. Lafon Rochet, Lynch Bages and Haut Bages Liberal were also delicious. As we noticed the time, we had to bolt (without lunch) as we were running behind on time.

Our next appointment was with Ducru Beaucaillou’s Bruno Borie. He’s always in great form and today was no exception. We talked about a myriad of topics including the fact that he just became a new father. Bruno’s tasting room is really cool. It has some serious state of the art spittoons. The only problem is they are white and we’re drinking red wine here and if you have the bulls-eye mentality like we have, it can create quite a mess. So you have to compensate. It’s like Shaq shooting free throws. Bruno has three estates in his portfolio. The first is his Medoc property, Ducluzeau. This was a real surprise as it was a tasty wine for the money (under $20). Another great wine is his Lalande Borie from St. Julien’s west side… really good stuff. Over the past few years, not only has Ducru exploded in quality but so has La Croix de Beaucaillou. Made from its own parcel, this wine is like drinking the big-dog for a
fraction of the price. And Ducru was…Ducru. There is a reason why I love this wine. It just is my personal style and has everything I look for in Bordeaux. Fantastic again and maybe now, I can afford it…we’ll see.

After Ducru it was on to a big negociant tasting where we could taste the Margaux and Pessac wines as well as a number of other potential buys from many different vintages. One wine we really liked was the 1998 Montrose… really good stuff! Going back to Margaux… Brane Cantenac, Rauzan Segla, Malescot St. Exupery, Lascombes, Kirwan,
Giscours were all solid. One estate that has been on fire is d’Issan and the 08 continues the string…. really good stuff. For Pessac-Leognon, we aren’t as positive. The usual suspects were the hits; Smith-Haut Lafitte, Haut Bailly, Malartic La-Graviere, Domaine de Chevalier, Carbonnieux and Fieuzal, now that Hubert de Bouard is making the wine. The whites are in the same vein as the reds. While they are good to very good, they don’t have the polish of the 06 or
07’s. Still, Fieuzal, Domaine de Chevalier and Carbonnieux were the hits. One wine we liked that should be inexpensive was Chantegrive which is yet another Hubert wine. Look for it late this year or early next.

After tasting over one hundred wines at this tasting, it was time to call it a day. Tonight was the Academy dinner featuring the year ending in a ‘9’ as the theme. We were excited as we’re talking about 59, 89, 99 and 09, that’s 1909 and 29 as an added bonus. There were many fun wines to try and the big surprise was 79 Haut Brion. Killer bottle that is in prime form at this time. With lots of the who’s who in Bordeaux attending, it was a great evening. Tomorrow…. back to the “Right Bank”.

Tags: Bordeaux, Clerc Milon, d'Armailhac, European Grand Tour 2009, Haut Brion, Lafon Rochet, Lagrange, Left Bank, Leoville Barton, Leoville Las Cases, Leoville Poyferre, Lynch Bages, Medoc, Pichon Lalande, Pontet Canet, UGC, Union des Grands Crus

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