BORDEAUX 2013 – 2014 – 2015 2/2

At a rather disappointing tasting in Brussels where the millésime 2013 was presented, an event organized every year by the Union des Grands Crus Classés de Bordeaux, I found my taste not agreeing with the title of Grand Cru Classé. Numerous properties didn’t have the quality to deserve that title and should have considered disqualifying their wines, to put them in bulk wine. But there is of course the subject of money, and having lost already some of it in the previous year(s) makes this hard.

The part here above is a repeat from the first alinea, from the first part of our Bordeaux visit. Entire part 1 can be found here.

 Our third day and third region, Graves, Pessac-Leognan.

 Our first appointment of the day, at Domaine de Chevalier was with assistant director Remi Edange, a straight man we have known for many years as well.

 The first time I visited Domaine de Chevalier it was still owned by the family Ricard, and managed by Claude Ricard for 35 years, and who made Domaine de Chevalier a name to remember.

 In 1983 the estate came in the hands of the Bernard family, and Olivier Bernard learned the skills and the secrets of the vines, and the land of Claude Ricard. Since then this has been a stop-over for many years.

 He could tell us that for this year, 2016, at least one part of the vineyard was affected and lost due to the frost half April.

Here you can see a new barrel design and Remi taking a wine-sample (white) from barrel.

Time to taste:

• Domaine de Chevalier 2015, red: taken from the barrel. Great colour and great wine, dark red fruit, soft tannins, spicy, velvety with a long aftertaste, a great wine to be.

• Domaine de Chevalier 2014, red: taken from the steel tank, ready to be bottled in June. Dark ruby red colour, lots of fruit in the nose, very nice attack with great tannins and body, typical style of the millésime, a great wine.

• Domaine de Chevalier 2013, red: a beautifully made wine, one of the exceptions to call as a great wine, wine with character.

• Domaine de Chevalier 2015, white: Semillon from barrel, good presentation, very pale in colour, a bit exotic in the mouth, did not yet show its potential.

• Domaine de Chevalier 2015, white: Sauvignon from barrel, nice pale yellow colour, typical balanced Sauvignon nose, good taste with a lot of freshness.

• Domaine de Chevalier 2015, white: first assembly taken from barrel, we already see the complexity of a great wine, a very nice straw yellow colour and great taste, a super white wine to be.

• Domaine de Chevalier 2011, red: even in this not straight forward millésime, for me a great wine with still enough potential, beautiful.

• Domaine de Chevalier 2010 red: still very young wine with great taste and content, a marvelous wine with years left to enjoy.

 After this great tasting we went to lunch together in the Château Leognan, restaurant Le manège, with a bottle of the great new wine Clos de Lune Argent 2014.

 This was the first time I had the chance to taste this wine coming from the Sauternes region but made in dry, beautiful wine.

 The red wine for lunch was a Domaine de Chevalier 2005, what a great wine, still young but with a beautiful evolution, years enough left to enjoy.

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After lunch we had an appointment at Château Malartic Lagravière, Pessac-Leognan.

 Located on the oldest part of wine producing terroir, the Château came in the hands of the Belgian family Bonnie in 1996. This Château is one of the only six Châteaux in this region that are producing both red and white wine.

 The Belgian couple started to make changes in the cellars and château in 1997. Their objective was to install quality and care in making wine. The cellars were reformed with the latest techniques and a superb team, to make wine using the system of gravity and in a controlled environment.

This resulted in the ability of making great wines, both red and white.

Two types of fermentation tanks:

 In 2005 they acquired Château Gazin Roquencourt and worked with the same passion on these wines as they did in Malartic. The wines have grown since their arrival.

 Also in 2005 they arrived in Argentina, within the Clos de Los Seitos, where they created the Bodega DiamAndes. An interesting wine choice for this type of wine-lovers.

Too bad nobody of the families was available, but we did have a nice tasting.

We tasted:

• Malartic Lagravière 2015, red: great dark red colour, very ripe fruit, nice soft attack with smooth tannins, nice content and easy on the pallet, enough content?

• Gazin Roquencourt 2015, red: evenly matches the Malartic wine, a little more balanced and more content, a beautiful wine.

• Malartic Lagravière 2014, red: very nice colour, great nose of ripe fruit and spices, very powerful body content without being aggressive, great tannins and aftertaste, wine to my heart, a great wine, for me a winner over the 2015.

• Gazin Roquencourt 2014, red: very nice wine, almost matches the Malartic wine, a little less body and finesse but also a great wine. Sadly the first bottle we opened, barely bottled and corked, was infected with cork.

• Malartic Lagravière 2015, white: very nice, a little bit exotic, a nice wine.

• Gazin Roquencourt 2015, white: 100 % Sauvignon, great wine for Sauvignon lovers.

• Malartic Lagravière 2014, white: ripe fruit and good citrus acidity with great length, a little bit of wood. A superb wine.

• Gazin Roquencourt 2014, white: intense and ripe fruit, good acidity and very elegant refreshing wine with enough content. A great wine.

We also tasted the 2013 version, the wines were good enough, but as I already said, not great.

 A beautiful end to a beautiful day.

Time for dinner at La Table de Catusseau at Catusseau – Pomerol.

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Day 4.

 Early rise for another trip to the Medoc region and time to conquer the Rocade in Bordeaux, and we were going today from husband to wife!

 Normally we had an appointment at Château Giscours with Mr Alexander Van Beek, General Director, but this time we met with wine-maker Dominique Genot, a very capable man. He takes care of the wines of Caiarossa,  Tuscany - Italy, which is in the same hands as Château Giscours.

Château Giscours and Dominique Genot.

I also know this property since the early years of 1980, at that time in the hands of Mr. Tari.

 In 1995 Eric Albada Jelgersma took over the exploitation and began a complete renovation of the original vineyards, the buildings and the castle, to reconstitute the noblesse of this 3ième Grand Cru Classé of 1855.

Now you can even enjoy bed and breakfast in the castle.

 Also in the hands of Mr Jelgersma since 1997 is the Château Du Tertre, Grand Cru Classé Margaux. Here as well he invested in the renovation of the land and the buildings. With a new, young and dynamic team he is making this property important in the world for good quality wines.

Here as well you can enjoy bed and breakfast.

We tasted the wines of Château Giscours and Château du Tertre.

• Château du Tertre 2014: very nice clear colour, expressive both in the nose as in the mouth, soft attack, round but with enough tannins. A good wine

• Château Giscours 2014: intense dark cherry red colour, clear, very nice ripe fruit, intense, tasty wood with nice toasting, full body content and length, a great wine.

• Château du Tertre 2015: dark cherry red, intense ripe black fruit, soft and velvety with good content, a charming wine.

• Château Le Sirene de Giscours 2015: 2^nd wine of Château Giscours, nice light cherry red colour, very quick and fine legs, soft fruity attack, comes in different fazes in the mouth. Nutty butters and a little bit drying, good aftertaste, a nice wine.

• Château Giscours 2015: Very dark and intense, a basket full of ripe fruit, complex and already balance, great wine to be.

Then it was time to go to another dimension to the slopes of the quiet and green Cecina hills in Tuscany, Italy.

The story began in 1998, with the principal as a guide to cultivate the vineyards using the discipline of “Feng Shui” and making wines the bio-dynamic way.

The property was acquired by Mr Jelgersma in 2004 who tries to make quality wines with the years of experience at Château Giscours and Château du Tertre in Margaux, France

We Tasted:

• Pergolaia 2011: Sangiovese 87 %, Cabernet Franc 10 %, Merlot 3 %. Light ruby red colour with nice glycerine legs, good ripe red fruit such as cherries and blackberries, a little evolution, nice balance between mature tannins, acidity and length, a nice wine.

• Aria di Caiarossa 2011: a blend from Caiarossa with 40 % Cabernet Franc, 25 % Syrah, 25 % Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon 10 %. Nice ruby red, complex nose and spicy, elegant and good content, a little bit drying, good length.

• Caiarossa 2010: the top wine of this property with a special blend of 7 types of grapes, Merlot 25 %, Cabernet Franc 25 %, Cabernet Sauvignon 15 %, Syrah 12 %, Sangiovese 10 %, Petit Verdot and Grenache. Dark ruby red, complex nose with ripe black fruit and spices, little bit vegetal and balsamic, full complex attack with great balance, great tannins and long aftertaste. A great wine.

One remark, one has to be a great wine lover for these sorts of wines. They certainly are incomparable to other Tuscan wines where Sangiovese is the king of grapes in the region.

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After this diversity in tasting it was time for lunch in the commune of Bages, a small community just behind Château Lynch Bages. At Café Lavinal, a good small table sort of Brasserie, with a good table and lots of wines at big prices today.

Luckily for us, we had invited Claire Thomas Chenard from Château de Camensac, who brought besides her charm also the wine.

We had a very nice lunch with a big surprise wine, Château de Camensac 2006. What a nice wine, still young and with enough potential left, a great wine with the lunch. I want more.

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Of course this made us late for our next appointment in Leognan, with Veronique Sanders at Château Haut Bailly, the wife of Alexander Van Beek, which I mentioned earlier.

This property as well we have known for a very long time, because we knew Jean Sanders, the grandfather of Veronique. A Belgian, born in Flanders, who flew regularly to Ostend with his plane, and visited us. And he never wanted to drink a glass of Château Haut Bailly, because he tasted it every day.

After the usual welcome we went to the tasting room and tasted:

• La Parde de Haut Bailly 2015: 2^nd wine of Château Haut Bally: Very nice colour, good fruit, round and savoury, a good wine.

• La Parde de Haut Bailly 2014: good nice colour, good fruity attack, great content and aftertaste, a wine to my likings.

• Château Haut Bailly 2015: dark red, basket full of very ripe fruit, good content and length, a very great wine.

• Château Haut Bailly 2014: great colour, very nice fruity nose, good tannins, savoury in the mouth with long aftertaste, every wine should be made like this one, great.

• Château Le Pape 2014: an attached Château with guest rooms and their own wine, a good round wine, restaurant quality.

• Château Haut Bailly 2013: only a small selection of the grapes were used for this wine, very nicely made, much better than most of 2013, a very good wine. No production of the 2^nd wine.

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So, here you have an overlook of 4 days intense tasting, of a selection of some of our favourite properties. I believe the 2014 is mostly misunderstood, as for me at this time, I prefer the 2014 over the 2015. The 2015 is so soft and ready drinkable, that I think it misses a lot of body content. 
I’m sure I’ll go back next year to re-taste them again, and maybe I’ll be mistaken, but I will let you know.

On Friday we had a day off, before we came back on Saturday. And what’s in the blood comes out and we went to St Emilion, where we tasted in the shop across the restaurant “L’Envers Du Decor”. A Brasserie owned by the Comte François de Ligneris, and tasted a number of very nice and great wines from 2014.

Bordeaux, we’ll meet you again in 2017.