Château Cantemerle Les Allées de Cantemerle 2010
Another wine tasted in Transylvania at the ROVINHUD wine show in Timișoara. Les Allées de Cantemerle is the second wine of Château Cantemerle, as such it’s a good value. The 2010 is endowed with a classic profile of cassis, black cherries, blueberries, cedar, and an alluring top note of freshly turned soil. It’s still youthful, […]
Château Lafite Rothschild 1999
The 1999 Lafite Rothschild, is a ruby-hued beauty with a translucent rim—this bottle was incredibly fresh and vibrant on opening. Initially, seemingly more red fruit-driven, the nose evolved into a darker expression with time in the glass. Nuanced aromas of loamy earth, rose petal, black currant, and pencil shavings led into a wine that, while […]
Château Le Crock Saint-Estèphe 2011
A nicely-styled Saint-Estephe—from the Cuvelier family, owners of Leoville Poyferre—in a modest vintage year. The 2011 Château Le Crock opens with lush, inviting aromas of black currant, smoky black cherries, pen ink, leather, and earth. There are no hard edges on the palate, black fruit luxuriates against a framework of well-structured tannins, moderate acidity, and […]
Clos du Jaugueyron Haut-Médoc 2012
The first impression is of minerality with black currents, blackberries, forest floor and sweet spice firmly seated beneath a fine layer of chalkboard dust. The 2012 Clos du Jaugueyron Haut-Medoc is slightly reserved, trussed in polished, slightly chalky tannins that give way to sweet black fruit at the core. There is perhaps a touch of […]
Château de Camensac Haut-Médoc Grand Cru Classé 2011
The acidity in this wine is searing, a pity given that Carmensac is a Grand Cru Classé. I can only guess that it’s one of the 2011 vintage that didn’t fare well. Aromas of blackberries, black currants and black cherries are bolstered by vanilla and cedar. It’s quite thin and tight on the palate, lacking […]
Château Léoville Las Cases 1989
The 1989 Léoville Las Cases possesses a deep inner perfume of red currant, rose petals, balsam, graphite and sandalwood. Elegant and weightless, with fine tannins that spread evenly across the palate, like damask silk. There is a wonderful, regal and almost undefinable quality to this second growth. It exhibits both fantastic purity and balance, and […]
Château Calon-Ségur Saint-Estèphe Grand Cru Classé 2000
A Classic Saint-Estèphe, the Calon-Ségur 2000 offers up sumptuous aromas of steeped blackberries, forest floor, wet wood, game, char, asphalt, saddle leather, violets, and brown sugar. The influence of the estate vineyard’s deep gravelly soils is evident in the nose and in a delicate vein of minerality, that sits like filagree atop velvety, caressing tannins. […]
The Winemakers’ Collection Michel Rolland Cuvée No. 1 Château d’Arsac
Conjured by Michel Rolland himself—the man behind the curtain—the label touts “He currently offers advice to a hundred wine growing estates in 13 countries, on three continents. Considered the ultimate modern winemaker.” Cuvée No. 1 is big-boned with saturating aromas of raspberry jam, caramel popcorn, and buttered rum ball. Sweet on the palate, like plum […]
Château Phélan Ségur Saint-Estèphe 2007
If my research is correct, the 2007 vintage of Phélan Ségur is pre-consultation with Michel Rolland. Parker routinely scored these wines in the mid-to-lower 80s, clearly he didn’t care for them. The 2007 is old-school Saint-Estèphe, with brooding aromas of coffee grounds, black currents, barnyard funk and freshly overturned soil. Fine tannins on the attack, […]
Château Grand-Puy Ducasse 2006
I didn’t have time to take notes on this wine. We drank it in the home of Daniel della Cruz, one of Manila’s most prominent artists. Within the sanctuary of his walls, where tropical plants served as an organic backdrop to every sculpture and painting—the wine blended effortlessly into that rare and sacred space and […]