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Posts Tagged ‘Chateau Broustet’

Bordeaux 2014 Primeurs – Thursday

Written by JW. Posted in Bordeaux

016Thursday’s 2014 primeurs tastings started at Château Latour and the wines showed impressive blackcurrant purity and freshness. Since Latour have withdrawn from the primeurs system, the current releases were also on show including their wonderful 2003 [more on this later]. Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste has also produced very refined and balanced wines in 2014 [including Haut-Batailley]. Lynch Moussas held the UGC tastings for St Estèphe and Pauillac. Top for me amongst the Pauillacs were Batailley, Lynch-Bages and an excellent Pichon Baron. In St Estèphe, Lafon Rochet is full and harmonious and Ormes de Pez concentrated. There was inconsistency in a few others, with hard tannins in some. At Pontet-Canet the chais was packed with visitors and the wine was round and vivacious. Pichon Lalande too has succeeded with a powerful wine with attractive fragrance. Cabernet has certainly done well in the Left Bank this year.

Bordeaux Primeurs 2013: Sauternes and Barsac

Written by JW. Posted in Bordeaux

IMG_5657One man’s meat is another man’s poison. If botrytis was the enemy across most of Bordeaux in 2013, it was certainly most welcome in Sauternes and Barsac. The warm and humid conditions favourable for the development of ‘noble’ rot from mid-September onwards, allied to drying winds, proved the classic mix for a very good sweet wine harvest in 2013. The region has produced many beautiful wines with the vintage’s trademark acidity. It gives extra freshness and vibrancy. Some are comparing the quality to 2007 and 1997. Château d’Yquem has produced something tremendous, but there are also very impressive efforts from Château Coutet, Château Doisy-Daëne, Château de Fargues, Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey, Château de Rayne Vigneau, Château Rieussec, Château Sigalas Rabaud, Château Suduiraut and Château La Tour Blanche.

Bordeaux 2011 In Bottle: Sauternes & Barsac

Written by JW. Posted in Bordeaux

IMG_5408There is still no doubt that the most exciting wines coming out of Bordeaux in 2011 are the sweet wines of Sauternes and Barsac. If that sounds like faint praise given that the reds are not up to much, it is not meant to be. 2011 forms the third in a trio of successful, consecutive vintages here in this district and by any gauge it is a very good vintage. The wines have slightly less weight and perhaps more obvious acidity than those of 2009 and 2010, though the picture is not really that straightforward. Certainly they seem to have much more to them than 2007. Given that 2011 remains well priced and that many are already delicious, these are Bordeaux 2011s you could be enjoying this winter, although they also have the depth and acidity for further bottle development.

Bordeaux 2012 Primeurs: Sauternes & Barsac

Written by JW. Posted in Bordeaux

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If anything 2012 Sauternes and Barsac is a little better than expected in what was an extremely difficult harvest in the region, spoiled by vintage rain. The very best wines are light yet with enough depth to make appetizing sweet wine that will be comparatively early maturing. A few are in a strange sort of purgatory, a half-way house position, between sweet styles and the off-dry, emphasizing the kind of all-or-nothing risk taking that Bordeaux’s bravest winemakers undertake here each vintage. There’s always the danger that you might get left high and dry in Sauternes [no pun intended] and some brave souls clearly have.

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