Very little on the nose; on the palate, some dark fruit at first, but this quickly faded, leaving the wine dominated by earthiness and leather. Pretty much a dud. The second disappointment in a row from this case.
Dominated by earthiness and leather<
93 points
I’ll buy a couple from u
Down, good sir–these have not been dominatrix/Gea Tellus-styled wines with good leather and good earth; these just have not been right. You want a couple? Come to DC and I’ll give them to you.
I checked out this one before dinner today. Sadly, it utterly had fallen apart in the refrigerator overnight; I just poured it down the sink.
I had a really nice bottle last month. Plenty of life left in it.
Sorry your bottles haven’t been up to snuff.
Well, that’s good news. I’ll just soldier on–still have about nine left downstairs.
I’ve liked the 2001 a great deal, though it’s been a couple of years. I had a 2003 over the weekend that was very nice, if not outstanding, and not baked or overripe at all.
I opened one of these at noon with the expectation of supplying my wife’s evening glass of red from it. The aromatics were quite pleasant, but the tiny, exploratory pour I gave myself was not: very thin and leathery. I’ve had plenty of older wines recover from poor first impressions, however, and hope this will be one of them. Otherwise, SWMBO’s nightly pour today will be 2003 Philip Togni.
Is this problem endemic in SHL or idiosyncratic to 2001 and lucky Randall’s stash? I have some more recent vintages that I am letting age a bit. Should I look to drink up?
I’m very pleased to report that the 2001 SHL I opened today, despite a discouraging start, is now drinking very, very nicely. Agreeable aromatics, plus, on the palate, very appealing notes of dark fruit, smokiness and herbs, with a bit of earth and leather as a subtext. Medium finish. SWMBO, however, turned up her nose at it, insisting on a glass of the 2003 Philip Togni I’d opened for her yesterday.
I had this wine years back, still haunts me.
What is happening at the moment with Le Thil Comtes Clary being reunited with SHL. LTCC was one of the great bargains in PL and has some of the best merlot terroir in the region. Lots of clay. A little bit of Libourne in the Left Bank. Will some of the best grapes now go into SHL or will they up the profile (and price) of LTCC?
Opened another one for dinner tonight and took an experimental sip. Preliminary assessment: totally wretched! Dunno–all I can hope is that somehow victory will be snatched from defeat.
It just got nastier overnight, so I poured it down the sink.