It's 10:00am on Monday, our first day of tastings. We arrive at Chateau Haut Brion. There's a big lineup here starting with three whites.
Here's the line-up of six wines:
Haut Brion Blanc - 54% Sauvignon Blanc makes this taste like a Didier Dagueneau Pouilly Fume on steroids. The rest is Semillion and it accounts for its richness. Terrific! Wow it's tasting good today. You could serve all these 2010 whites now! 96-98 points DS.
La Mission Haut Brion Blanc - It's the most balanced, complex and delicious young white Bordeaux I've ever tasted. On the palate it comes off medium bodied even though there is so much richness underneath. So much harmony here that everything is in perfect balance. This is going to be really expensive but pass on a case of Le Montrachet this year and get this. 99-100 or just 100 points DS.
La Carte de Haut Brion Blanc - (formerly Les Plantiers du Haut Brion. I'm not sure why they changed the name. It's a bad call in my book. Confusing and a brand killer.) It smells and tastes like a tropical fruit lifesaver (the cream colored one) in the best possible sense. It's terrific. Lemon, pineapple zest, even pear notes. Unctuous and oily and a very smart blend of 83% Semillon and the rest Sauvignon Blanc. That says a lot about the style for this kind of white. In other words, it's creamier than grassy. Finish goes on forever.
La Mission Haut Brion - Intense nose of perfume and clove, this is a monster wine with mega tannins that should pan out, but if they don't, watch out. I love it but it's really intense and alcoholic right now. The more I taste it the more I acclimate and appreciate this kind of wine, so I keep going back to it. 95-97+ DS.
Haut Brion - It has the essence of a Cabernet nose, gamey, tannic but not as tannic as La Mission and more importantly the quality of the tannin is sweet. This is more serious of a wine in this vintage. Brighter acidity than La Mission. Really special. 96-98 DS.
La Clarence (formerly Bahans. Again, I don't know why they changed it.) - Restrained aromatics that suggest fresh acidity but don't scream it. Serious tannins here, but it fades away eventually. 91-93 DS
Overall, a fantastic way to start the day! Next we headed off to lunch at Chateau Haut Bailly.
Haut Bailly - Super bright nose flies out of the glass. Black fruits, scorched earth, mega pure acidity which leads to super purity in the mouth. Mineral, focus and clean comes to mind. Black fruits all over the place. Rocking! 94-96 DS.
We tasted some back vintages at lunch too. The 2001 & 2008 Haut Bailly are unreal. Seriously, this is a terrific property that should be on the radar of all Pessac/Graves fans. So if you're priced out of Haut Brion, look no further.
After lunch, we hit Chateau Ausone. This tasting has the entire family of Vauthier's wines including Chateau Moulin St Georges and Chateau Simard. Despite a cosmic leap in quality of Simard (it's pretty much a different wine than in the past, better, finer) I was underwhelmed by this perennial superstar producer overall.
Ausone -Black purple color, nose of violets, bright red fruit, smoke. Very mineral and rich, not over-concentrated, just very, very full with a super long finish. 94-97 DS.
Chapelle d'Ausone - Sweet perfume nose, mineral and black fruits, super fine tannins, maybe a tad bit astringent and in a weird way, vegetal and sulfuric. Nonetheless, it's great despite that. Rated one point less than Ausone by James Suckling - ouch! I'm lower 92-94 DS.
After Ausone we bounced around to several properties starting with Chateau Angelus. It turned out that Angelus threw a mini tasting from wines that they are involved with worldwide.
Angelus -Too much alcohol and too much tannin. This is not what this wine used to be, which is elegant. There is dry tannin on the end. Are they trying to be like Pavie and falling short? I think this is over the top.
La Fleur Bouard - Sweet, dark blue fruits. Round and structured and cheap! Very good.
Le Plus de la Fleur Bouard - Should be better than the La Fleur Bouard but it isn't. It's more extracted and in turn, there are more issues with tannins that arise and give it a drier finish. I prefer the lower level that is sweeter and more chill.
Vieux Chateau Certan - Here's what VCC 2010 is NOT: Heavy, alcoholic, overly tannic, impure, out of balance, sweet, sticky. Here's what it is. Seamless, amazing, get this wine! 96-98+ DS.
Chateau Cheval Blanc - This wine is always tricky to taste young and Robert Parker usually underscores it as a result. Cabernet Franc, which is half the blend, always tastes herbal at first, and sort of weak, but this vintage is a serious exception. Powerful, dark fruits, mineral and major focus for this grape. The tannins are so precise and it enters your palate with a mellow authority that is hard to describe. Wow! 97-99 DS.
L'Eglise Clinet - This wine is WINNING! And yes it has tiger blood and Adonis DNA. Like Charlie Sheen this wine is wild, eccentric, passionate and sort of crazy. But this wine is polished too. It's nectar, pure nectar and could be wine of the vintage. It was definitely a contender in 2005 and 2009. Very concentrated and very rich fruit, bright violet and blue fruit notes are piercing. It's heavy and light at the same time and that equals profound. 98-100 DS!!!
D'Issan Dinner - We ended the day with a dinner at Chateau D'Issan, a great Margaux which begins to confirm that I like the balance of tannins in the Medoc this year.
First Day Wrap-Up
My thoughts from the right bank and Pessac/Graves: This vintage has the potential to be great, but not across the board. It was not the hottest year but it was the driest. As a result there are some dry tannins found in many of the wines. I have a feeling that this is a vintage of terroir over winemaking. Meaning the best properties are the best because they can retain water during droughts. It goes back to 1855. So no matter how hard some producers try, it seems like there is too much tannin. In some cases, the more they extract, the more tannin they extract as demonstrated in the lower end La Fleur Bouard being more charming than Le Plus which is considered the best wine from the property. This seemed to be the case in St Emilion and Pomerol, where the Merlot grows. I'll see more about Pomerol tomorrow. This was less of an issue in Pessac/Graves. I'm keeping my eye on it and am thinking that the Medoc is best suited for this kind of year. Keep you posted.