Another Ho-Hum Guy's Cycling Night: Harlan, Haut Brion, Leovilles, Foillard, d'Armailhac, etc.

The dudes got back together again after a 4-week hiatus to watch a queen stage of the Tour de France, drink some serious wine, engage in revelry. Fellow Berserkers MarcF and Ian Howe joined. As usual, everything took back stage to the company, the smack talk, the camraderie. But, we did have some good shiz.

My very abbreviated notes:

2013 Ch. Graville-Lacoste, White Bordeaux
I could drink this beauty any day of the week. Imminently quaffable, varietally correct. Minerality, tropical and stone fruits, floral, crisp, quenching. Paired very well with cheeses and dried meats. (89 pts.)

2001 Harlan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
Pop and pour. Massive concentration, incredible intensity on the palate, impressive range of red and dark fruits. Crisp acidity. Some heat, heavy dosage of oak. A wine built for scale not nuance or distinction. (NR, not my style, not my 100 pts.)

2000 Chateau d’Armailhac
Decanted for 30 minutes. Musky, perfumed. Silky smooth. Pencil, graphite. Rich cassis. Perfect balance of red and black fruits. Tannins resolved. Slightly crimped finished. Classic in style, happy to have in my cellar, an incredible QPR. In prime drinking window. My WOTN. (93 pts.)

2000 Chateau Leoville Barton
Decanted 5 hours. Excellent, showing the structure one expects from Barton, perfumy nose of Bordeaux musk. Nice range of red and dark, high acidity. Not as evolved as the d’Armailhac, perhaps will exceed it in 5+ years. Today, quite lovely but not at full potential. Needs time. (92+ pts.)

2003 Chateau Leoville Poyferre
Decanted 3 hours. Total disappointment. A Bordeaux trying to be Napa and failing at that. Heady oak, ripe fruits, astringent finish. Placed last or second to last by most of the group. Second poor showing for me. (80 pts.)

2005 Ch. Haut Brion
Ah, what might of been. Ever so slightly corked, just barely, but noticeable. Major bummer as this wine has huge potential. Packed to the gills with amazing everything. Damn cork. (NR)

2012 Chateau du Tertre
Way too young, way too grapey. (NR)

2010 Foillard Cote du Py
Ridiculous to pop this now, should have been first in the line-up. Even still, it’s my second favorite wine of the night. Ridiculous how good this wine is. Magenta in coloration, almost glowing. Smokey in coloration and on the nose. Explosive nose of spicey red raspberry fruits, sweet strawberries, bubble gum. Game, iron, funk. Citrus, tart, good acid. An interesting, fascinating wine. Throwing a lot of stuff. (93 pts.)

Super fun night as usual.

Dudes watching queens and drinking shiz. Your hourly rate is how much?

Your bizarre lexicon notwithstanding, nice notes. The Armailhac and L-B sound fantastic.

We had a lot of discussion about leg-shaving, you would have fit right in.

Cool that the cheapest wines were 1 and 2 in my book. Not fair to the Haut Brion, but hey, they bought the stank cork. I want my 1.25 hours back for that wine (.675 hours for Counselor Mollen, damn rich DC super-lawyer).

Great notes, some interesting wines to compare.

White Bordeaux is very underappreciated I find, at least in the States, even the inexpensive stuff is usually quite tasty.

I drank a bunch of the 2000 d’Armailhac, and was pretty excited about several bottles opened in 2006 or so. Then I started to call “foul” on its development five years ago as the palate seemed to be drying out. Sounds like I may have given up on it too soon.

There was/is d’Armailac in CC for good price.

Floppy palate couch sleep and hangover aside, was thinking about that Harlan. I can see how some love this wine, it certainly has more of everything. Two guys had it as their WOTN. I think Ian did, too. Ian?

What was more interesting was watching the palate evolution of one of my long-time friends. Ten years ago this would have been his WOTN. Since I have always brough old school wines to this group, he has been the one that has slowly and slowly gravitated toward these wines. Hit me at the end of the night as we had the wines in the exact same order.

Oh, the Tour was pretty cool too! Epic wet mountain stage.

2001 Harlan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
I will echo what Robert said. There is no nuance here, this wine jumps out of the glass and smacks you in the face. It was fantastic and I am lucky to have been able to try it.

2000 Chateau d’Armailhac
The opposite of the previous wine. Very nuanced. Makes you search for what is going on. But what is going on is quite good.

2000 Chateau Leoville Barton
Fantastic wine. This split the difference between the previous two. Not as in your face as the Harlan, not as subdued as the d’Armailhac. If I were to sit down with a nice meal and was going to drink an entire bottle of one wine, this would probably be my pick. As good as the Harlan was, drinking a whole bottle would probably be too much.

2003 Chateau Leoville Poyferre
Shrugs shoulders. It was OK. Nothing special.

2005 Ch. Haut Brion
I mentioned to Robert that something was off about this wine. But my palete is not sophisticated enough to pick up what it was. He clued me into what it was. But even so, it was still good. Maybe not what it should have been, but it still beat some others.

2012 Chateau du Tertre
I will defer to Robert’s judgment of too young. The nose was off. The taste was not good.

2010 Foillard Cote du Py
I actually enjoyed going in this order and finishing with the lightest wine of the night. Robert is correct, this wine throws so much at your nose and palete, it is hard to grasp. But it does it in an understated way, not like the Harlan.

If I were to rank all of these by the glass; Harlan, Barton, d’Armailhac and Cote du Py (tied for 3rd), Haut Brion, Poyferre (distant 6th) and Tertre (distant 7th).

QPR of the night goes to the Cote du Py.

I’m so sorry to hear about the HB… No doubt it’s a monumental wine if it’s on. Drinking well as always, Alfert!

Interesting that you both were perplexed by this. A group of Yanks (and a few Brits) were in Bordeaux recently and they raved about this wine, tasted at the Chateau FWIW.

I have a hard time evaluating young Bordeaux, but I don’t get much practice as I tend to wait at least 15 years before opening them in all but the softest years as I like them pretty mature.

To each his or her own, of course. I think the boys on BWE were a bit mixed on how great they thought this wine was. Well, in any event, it was brought to the evening because MarcF is a fellow BWE’er and wanted to try it. By comparison, I also tried the 2012 Rauzan Segla, another Margaux, a few weeks ago. I also have a 2012 Dauzac, but have not popped it.

To my country palate, the wines were quite similar. Yes, too young. Yes, quite primary and grapey. Both wines were a bit soft and hollow in the mid-palate. Neither really communicated much about Bordeaux to me. Young wines are tough to read, but the ones that I like usually show me a glimmer of something interesting. These didn’t. Hopefully I’m wrong, but I doubt I grab any for the future. Not that impressed so far with what I have seen from 2012 Bdx.

I re-read some of those BWE threads and you’re right, it was mostly one guy who went ga-ga over the 2012 du Tertre (and his wife, he said). The others were supportive of his view to varying degrees but I don’t think anyone was beating his breast like Danny did.

My comments were more about how a young wine can show – good or bad, closed or fruity – and I admit to a fair amount of surprise that with all the great wines they tasted over that week, a 2012 was getting so much press.

On the theme of young Bordeaux, I’ve found it quite interesting reading Parker’s notes on the 2011s. Despite a generally lukewarm vintage rep, he scored a number of my favorite chateau almost as high as their 09 and 10s.

any plans for the alpe d’huez stage?

Saturday night! Caps off a brutal week for the racers. Certaintly something stinky, something French, will be in order.

I bought a few 2012 du Tertre based on Danny’s enthusiastic recommendation on BWE. I’ll agree that its not showing any quintessential Margaux-ness, at least not at this stage. Like Patrick, my ability to predict evolution of young Bordeaux is poor.

Nevertheless, my preferences are fairly broad, and I liked the wine despite its lack of typicity. Here’s my note:

Dark purple/black to rim. Cassis, iodine, fresh-cut brush and a creamy/lactic note on the nose. Plus a distinct hit of buttered popcorn (diacetyl?) that I usually associate with buttery chards, it recedes but never quite disappears over time. Medium body, lush creamy/velvety mouthfeel, ripe fruit with nice fresh balancing acid, not much tannin, medium finish. Not sure if this is really built for the long haul but I’m notoriously bad at predicting that. Excellent now, I’ll happily drink it until (if?) it shuts down, and save a few for the 10-15 year mark and beyond.

Would have been cool to finish the lineup with a Sauternes.

Where’s Robert Goulet? Did he tastes these wines?

Just reloaded on 10 Follaird CdP, sadly at $45/btl. First 6-pack was $8-9/btl cheaper but I wanted a case of this wine resting here.

No doubt. Only half of this group likes stickies, so I don’t waste them. Would have been ideal, or a shot of single malt.

Still worth it. I did the same on '09 Roilettes and paid a $10 bottle extra premium.

He’s been on a 72-hour blitz, damn youngster! Three nights in a row.