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Posts Tagged ‘St Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classé’

Bordeaux 2014: Berliquet, Larcis Ducasse, Pavie Macquin and Beauséjour

Written by JW. Posted in Bordeaux

IMG_6900Cyrille Thienpont showed the range of wines that the Thienponts manage on the Right Bank at a comprehensive tasting at Château Pavie Macquin earlier this month. The jewels here are in St Emilion and include Château Berliquet, Château Larcis Ducasse, Château Pavie Macquin itself and Château Beauséjour [hDL]. These wines look very good indeed in 2014. Larcis Ducasse has beautiful ripeness and seduction, Pavie-Macquin power and strength and Beauséjour fantastic purity. The Nicolas Thienpont properties in the Côtes de Francs [Château Puyregaud and Château La Prade] and the Côtes de Castillon [Château Alcée] are also very much worth considering in 2014. On the question of whether the vintage is a year for the Cabernets [Franc especially so here on the Right Bank] Cyrille Thienpont sees that is it just as much a question of soils as varieties. Cabernet Franc from the best terroirs is very good indeed and benefitted the most from the September and October sun, but in the right spots the Merlot has succeeded well too.

Bordeaux 2014: Château Canon-la-Gaffelière, Clos de L’Oratoire and La Mondotte

Written by JW. Posted in Bordeaux

156Very impressive wines have been made at the various estates that Stephan von Neipperg runs in St Emilion in 2014. Premier Grand Cru Classé Château Canon-la-Gaffelière is bold and concentrated with wonderful texture, Grand Cru Classé Clos de l’Oratoire is glossy and full flavoured, saturated with ripe fruit. The tiny Premier Grand Cru Classé La Mondotte vineyard has produced something typically voluptuous and caressing but also with deceptive power and concentration. For sheer value and immediacy, the over-achieving Château d’Aiguilhe in Castillion also delivers the goods in 2014 – a great introduction to the seductive charms common to the Neipperg wines.

St Emilion 2004: Berliquet, Larcis Ducasse, Pavie Macquin & Beausejour

Written by JW. Posted in Bordeaux

IMG_5709I’ve been following Château Berliquet, Château Larcis Ducasse and Château Pavie-Macquin closely for the past half dozen vintages, properties all managed by Nicolas Thienpont. It was interesting to look at the wines in more detail back in April at a tasting held at Pavie-Macquin with Cyrille Thienpont and David Suire. Along with the 2013s shown, we had another look at 2011 in bottle and, fascinatingly, a decade on, the 2004s. There was also the opportunity to taste Chateau Beauséjour [héritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse] 2013, 2011 and 2004, a property which the Thienponts have been managing since 2009.

Bordeaux Primeurs 2013: St Emilion

Written by JW. Posted in Bordeaux

IMG_5665Overall St Emilion is something of a mixed bag in 2013. Quality is better than you might expect given the dreadful vintage, conditions that were especially tricky for Merlot, the district’s principal grape. It was badly affected by poor weather at flowering, which reduced yields and led to poor fruit set; later the humid conditions at vintage and the threat and rapid onset of rot [botrytis] also adversely affected the variety. Still St Emilion has made a number of attractive and well-made wines. But there are plenty of disappointments too. Some are thin and over-worked; others hollow. Quality follows terroir and those with cash. The best wines have forward and attractive fruit flavours and some are competitively priced. While it’s a complex picture, overall the wines of St Emilion are probably a more immediately appealing and joyous bunch than their left-bank counterparts in 2013.

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