Decanterberry Tales - A Willamette Valley Wine Blog - bordeaux tag

La Fleur Bibian, Listrac-Medoc (Bordeaux), 2004

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:11:00 GMT

We picked up this bottle from a local wine distributor that was closing down. You might blame it on the economy, yet this one had, shall we say, internal issues. Anyway, here's all this wine in a warehouse, and it's got to be sold: everything must go! So I have the opportunity to pick up some eclectic bottles for wholesale. This is one of those bottles.

The nose started a bit chemically; that dissipated after about 10 or 15 minutes. Under and through that, was a vegetable matter smell. Rhubarb perhaps? Dust. Manure (earthy). Cinnamon. And kiwi.

The body was medium, and it tasted a bit like spinach: dry and veggie. About mid-taste that turned more toward asparagus. There were no discernable fruit flavors here.

The finish was dry, and slightly tannic.

Elizabeth said it tasted like the Roquefort cheese we got for the dinner. And this was a really gooey and smelly cheese. And it was especially salty. Elizabeth liked that about this cheese. So this wine reminder her of the cheese from earlier. For Denise, this tasted like an unsalted beef broth. So, there you have two different takes: one salty and one not. I'm not sure what that means either. Nothing spectacular, yet everyone liked it well enough.

Cost:

Rating: 7.5

(Merlot 60%, Cabernet Sauvignon 40%)

Chateau de Cruzeau, Bordeaux, 2003

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:47:51 GMT

We had some friends over -- fellow oenophiles. So we brought out a Lelemson Pinot Noir 2004 that I'd been saving. While the love Pinots they also love French, usually a Rhone of some kind, but Bordeaux's aren't bad in their book (or mine) either. They brought this bottle.

Right after an Oregon Pinot, this tasted especially earthy and dark. And in fact the nose was quite dank: musty and earthy with some rubber and onion. Hey, that's what we smelled! The taste, for some, also had that rubber in it too. Under that, there was plum and subtle blackberry. I say "under", because this wine didn't really taste like fruit (again, especially after a fruity Pinot). It's made from grapes, so there is fruit; but this wine was definitely on the side of earth and things other than fruit. The finish ended with more plum, and maybe some prune as it lost any thing resembling fruit and things that might be sweet. This was a very dry wine. However, it was fairly smooth and the tannins weren't bitter or gritty. Overall, this was an enjoyable bottle to drink.

Cost:

Rating: 8.0

(Cabernet Sauvignon 55%, Merlot 43%, Cabernet Franc 2%)

Chateau Hallet, Sauternes, 2005

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 03:11:00 GMT

If you've never tried a Sauternes before, you really should. There's just nothing quite like it. Yes, this is a desert wine. No, it's nothing like that syrup that you may have tried in the past. Sauternes are elegant, mysterious, and just yummy.

The first thing I noticed about this one was the light color. Typically Sauternes have almost an orange tint to them -- or at least a darker yellow. This one is much lighter -- looking like a Chardonnay perhaps.

The nose is honey, followed by apricot and maybe some lemon peel. But mostly it's honey! The taste is pretty much the same theme: liquid honey. No, it's not viscous like honey -- I mean it tastes like a honey, but with a lighter consistency. The finish is like I just sucked on a fresh, raw honeycomb -- like right on the farm. I mean, it's not just like licking honey out of a jar off your finger. This has more earth or something to it. Something a little bit more raw. And yet, it's unmistakeably honey.

For me, Sauternes are so wonderful because of their rich depth. Sure, there are lots of "late harvest" desert wines. But there's something more layered and nuanced about a Sauternes.Maybe it's a bit earthier. Whatever it is, it's hard to describe.

The only downside is the price. Many vintners will simply not make Sauternes in a given year if it's not good enough. Plus, making Sauternes is very laborious; all the grapes have to be left to essentially rot on the vines ("noble rot" and all that). And this means there's just no getting around the higher cost.

Cost: ($45 for a half bottle)

Rating: 8.0

Chateau Gruaud Larose, Grand Cru, St Julien, 1983

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:59:27 GMT

This was red bottle number two on inauguration night. And once again, another bottle of French. This was also the last bottle we won at the Dougy Center Auction -- which included a bottle of Petrus 1975! This was not that exactly, but, it was very good.

The nose exploded with all kinds of things: rose, sea salt, carmel, herbs, eucalyptus, and beefcake tomato -- which reminded Elizabeth of a caprese salad. Denise in usual form was shouting about how this was a lolita wine! Because it seemed young, sexy and flirty. Later, Elizabeth could smell salomon in there too. Kenny corrected her, it was smoked trout and I agreed.

The taste was also a broad mix -- really interesting. Chocolate. Cinnamon Black Cherry. Raisin. The body was medium and it was, according to Denise, "smooth like water". That is, it was very smooth. It had that deep, cold lake thing we often find in quality Bordeaux's. Here and there, you'd get a flash of peppermint and anise. The finish had various elements from above. Later on, we found firewood (maybe akin to the smoked trout smell?) and tobacco.

I attacked this bottle a bit too quickly, and nearly lost the cork into the bottle!

Oops. But I finagled it out in the end (luckily).

We also neglected to decant this, and paid for it when we got down to the last glass's worth of wine in the bottle. There was just a TON of sediment in there.

Bottomline: I really liked this wine and thought it was the best one of the night. However, Denise disagreed slightly. She liked the Chateauneuf du Pape (see the other reviews) better with the food we were eating (gorgonzola and crab leg tortellini), but thought this was a better wine overall. Either way, this was super yummy.

Cost:

Rating: 9.5