Wine List

The 2007 Ausone is a candidate for one of the wines of the vintage, rivaling Pavie and Lafite Rothschild. Its deep ruby/purple hue is accompanied by a beautiful nose of spring flowers, raspberries, black currants, and crushed rocks. The wine is dense, medium to full-bodied, and pure with sweet tannin as well as a surprisingly evolved, forward style. It is one of the few Ausones I have tasted that can be drunk with great pleasure at this stage, yet it promises to evolve for two decades.

I had this wine both in Seoul, Korea in February, and from my cellar in December, 2008, and it was remarkable how identical the wines smelled and tasted. It offers an extraordinary aromatic display of spring flowers, camphor, sweet red and black fruits, a hint of licorice, and no evidence of its 100% new oak cask aging. Round and generous with low acidity, but an opulent, full-bodied richness that is fresh with laser-like precision, this stunning wine is just beginning to reach its plateau of full maturity, where it should remain for another three decades. A sensational effort, it is one of the legendary wines made at Chateau Margaux.

For the fourth time, the Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee da Capo has been produced, and for the fourth time, it has received a perfect score although I might back off the 2000's perfect score based on the fact that it seems to be more of an upper-ninety point wine than pure perfection these days. The 2007 may come closest in style to the 1998, the debut vintage, although the tannins are sweeter and the wine is perhaps fatter and richer in the mouth. The alcohols in these cuvees can be very high, ranging from 16.1% in 2003, 15.8% in 2000, 16.3% in 1998, to 15.5% (the lowest ever) in 2007. An inky/purple color is followed by aromas of smoked meats, Peking duck, licorice, lavender, aged beef, grilled steak blood, black currants, plums, sauteed cepes and soy. Enormously concentrated, broad, expansive and massive but not over the top, this is a tour de force in winemaking that is impossible to imagine unless one has a bottle to work through over the course of 4 to 5 hours. Although they advertise using all 13 authorized varietals, this wine is over 90% Grenache, largely from the famed La Crau section of Chateauneuf du Pape. They do have other vineyards from which they pull some of the fruit that goes into the Cuvee da Capo, including St.-Jean, Esquilons and occasionally Monpertuis. The 2007 seems to be broader, fatter, more unctuously textured and more flattering to drink at this stage than the 1998 was. In that sense, the evolutionary development may resemble their 2003s. The 2007 was bottled in February, 2010, and my anticipated drinking dates are 2014-2030+.

Score: 100

Rating

88

Release Price

NA

Drink Date

2003 - 2010

Reviewed by

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Issue Date

1st Jan 2003

Source

Bordeaux Book, 4th Edition, The Wine Advocate

In a difficult vintage, Chateau Margaux produced a relatively mid-weight, soft, richly fruit wine with some hints of weedy tobacco in the aromas and flavors of this dark plum-colored wine. The wine is medium-bodied, reaching full maturity, and has surprising depth, ripeness, and sweetness for a wine from such a horrific year. Anticipated maturity: Now-2010. Last tasted, 10/02.

I have had this wine now four separate times since I wrote my official review after bottling of the 2009s. It goes from strength to strength, and it is not surprising that it is now one of the perfect wines of this great, great vintage - the finest vintage of Bordeaux that I have tasted in 37 years covering that epicenter for world-class quality in wine. Much of it is attributable to winemaker Véronique Sanders and her boss, Robert Wilmers. Their incredibly draconian selection process and their enormous investments in both the viticulture and the estate as well as the winemaking facility have paid off brilliantly over the last decade. The 2009, which has an opaque ruby/purple color, an extraordinary nose of high-quality unsmoked cigar tobacco, graphite, blackcurrants and spice, hits the palate with a medium to full-bodied, saturated and rich mouthfeel, but an elegant and ethereal quality that is difficult to articulate. It is rich, complex and tastes as if it were the vinous equivalent of a remarkable haute couture creation from the late Coco Chanel. It is full-bodied yet elegant, powerful yet delicate, and remarkably velvety-textured, sumptuous and loaded with upside potential. It can be approached now, as most 2009s tend to be, given their richness of fruit, low acidity and extraordinary concentration, but the great complexity that will emerge from this fabulous terroir is at least a decade away, and this wine is set for 50 or more years of longevity. Kudos to Haut-Bailly! Drink 2015-2065

Score: 100 Robert Parker, RobertParker.com, April 2015

The 2009 Haut-Bailly has an opaque ruby/purple color, a beautiful nose of lead pencil shavings, crème de cassis, blackberry and plum, followed by an intense, super-concentrated mouthfeel that is expansive and savory, with beautifully integrated tannins and low acidity, as most wines in this vintage possess. There is still plenty of freshness and liveliness from this great terroir. The finish goes on for close to a minute and the wine, while still a young pre-adolescent in terms of its evolution, is absolutely spectacularly complex and enjoyable already.

Score: 100 Robert Parker, Hedonists Gazette, November 2014

Robert Parker Multi-millionaire collectors will have fun comparing the 1989 and 1990 Petrus. The 1989 has a slightly more saturated color, and seems more tightly knit both aromatically and on the palate. However, this is splitting hairs, as this is another stunningly opulent, rich, full-bodied, amazingly concentrated, exotic, flamboyant Petrus that remains remarkably youthful, and in need of 7-8 more years of bottle age. Additionally, the tannins are slightly more elevated, at least from a tactile impression. However, the 1989 looks to be another 30-year wine, with extraordinary equilibrium between all of its component parts. An amazing effort!

Rating

96

Release Price

NA

Drink Date

1997 - 2020

Reviewed by

 Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Issue Date

1st Jan 1998

Source

Bordeaux Book, 3rd Edition, The Wine Advocate

This unbelievably decadent, unctuous Cuvee Madame has the type of extract (but without the overlay of heavy, toasty oak) that one normally finds only in a great vintage of d’Yquem. The wine is much less evolved than the regular cuvee of Coutet. At the moment, it is crammed with honeyed tropical fruit that comes across in a powerful format. This is an enormously rich, almost overwhelmingly intense Barsac that needs another decade to begin to reveal its subtleties and complexities. It is mind-blowing! Anticipated maturity: Now-2020. Last tasted, 3/97

Rating:

89

Price ($)

$180

Drink Date

2000 - 2014

Reviewed by

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Issue Date

21st Apr 2000

Source

128, The Wine Advocate

A brilliant offering and a candidate for wine of the vintage, this is classic Lafite that reminded me somewhat of the 1976, although the vintage conditions were completely different. This is a medium-weight, quintessentially elegant style of Lafite with notes of lead pencil shavings/graphite along with black currants, plums, and crushed rocks/mineral. Wonderfully pure, dense, with a deep ruby/purple color and loads of fruit, definition, and a long finish, this is a brilliant, elegant Lafite Rothschild that builds incrementally in the mouth and has more power and density than it initially seems. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2025.

Score: 94 Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (158), April 2005

Domaine Denis Bachelet
2004
Charmes-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes
Grand Cru Red 750 ml
Score: 92
Tasted: Jan 01, 2007
Drink: 2014+
Issue: 25
Note: from a .44 ha parcel of 80+ year old vines situated directly across from Chambertin
Producer note: In Denis Bachelet's view, 2005 is a "grand millésime. It's at least as good as 1999 and 2002 and perhaps better. We had a perfect growing season with a consistency and cleanliness of fruit that was even better than both of those two prior vintages. It was quite dry and thus we had very good but not excessive sugars, coming in between 12.5 and 13% with normal yields. I did a cool maceration of between 5 to 8 days depending on the wine and then didn't push the extraction as the skins were thick and gave up their colors and dry extract without much coaxing. The malos were extended, which I believe had as much to do with the cool 2006 growing season as with the amount of malic acid the 2005's possessed to begin with. In fact, between the extra concentration the wines are carrying and the late malos, I may very well delay the mise for another month or two to compensate as the wines seem to be improving month by month in barrel. Overall, I am extremely happy with my '05s and I am convinced that I have never made a better Charmes though obviously time will be the final judge of that." I would agree with Bachelet, not only on his Charmes but in general that his '05s are indeed spectacular. Moreover, the Côte de Nuits-Villages is among the very best of the entire vintage for its class. (A Becky Wasserman/Le Serbet Selection - sbw@leserbet.fr; Berry Bros., Howard Ripley and The Wine Society, UK).
Tasting note: The recent bottling has caused the nose to become relatively reticent compared to the prior wines though glimpses of the beautifully complex, elegant, refined and pure red pinot and black cherry fruit aromas are visible. The sweet, supple and forward flavors possess notably good length and near perfect balance and the underlying structure on the linear and impressively well delineated finish suggests that this will improve for up to a decade, perhaps slightly longer.
 

A truly wonderful wine from the start. As usual, they succeed particularly well in warm, acid-weak vintages, when the neighbors' wines often appears flat and publicly simplistic. Despite the fact that the acid is not particularly accentuated here either, the vineyards aromatic citrus fresh touch, manage to leave a fresh uplifting side to the creamy fat smoothness. The finish is certainly chalky and elegant, but it raises to heavenly heights with a 76-like butterscotch soft, warm, sweet flavored embracing pillow. Magnum is still undeveloped and crispy.

Score: 94 - 97

Richard Juhlin, Champagne Club 01 February 2015

JEB DUNNUCK: 97

ROBERT PARKER: 97

A wine I’ve had more than a case of, sometimes with irregular results, the 2003 Chateauneuf du Pape Vieilles Vignes was drinking about as good as it gets on this occasion. As usual, it’s made in a deeper, richer style than the Chaupin and offers thrilling texture, a smoking mid-palate and nothing but gorgeous Grenache fruit on the finish. Loaded with notions of blackberry liqueur, kirsch, fruit cake and spice, enjoy this knockout effort over the coming 2-4 years or so. Aug 2014, www.robertparker.com