Been a crazy month at work, which will come to an end in a few days. Planning a night of relief with a couple of friends with three bottles
2005 Dominus
2011 Dominus
2005 Chateau Branon
Should be a fun night I hope and will provide any notes if the WB community would like.
Any recommendations on order, tips, and anything else are welcomed.
Personally I’d go in the reverse order you posted, but make sure you’re in good shape for enjoying Dominus 05.
I’d make sure you drink the 11 first. Remember, Branon is made in the supercuvee style.
Supercuvee?
Ultra ripe, ultra concentrated, low yields. Very small quantity garagiste style (garage wine). It’s Helene Garcin’s garage wine from Pessac, owner of Clos l’eglise, barde Haut, haut Bergey and an Argentinian property, I think she also has a new property in st Emilion she purchased and changed the name to mirror the Argentinian property (which name escapes me atm)…
Oh no… It already sounds like I may not like it… Let’s hope it’s better than I am imagining. Have you had it before? Any suggestions?
Yeah it still tastes like Bordeaux to me. But on the riper side. I am a big fan but it is not old school. Will be like a more structured dominus imo. I haven’t had it in about 3-4 years though and would love to hear what your experience is.
Open it 3 hours in the decanter with some violent slushing to get things started.
Thanks for the tip!
So each of us brought one bottle to share making for a total of three.
The Branon (which I brought) was the consensus WOTN. Big Big wine that took almost 4 hours in a decanter to fully open up. Nose was like a wet forest of cedar tree and fresh beef with hte palate showing smoked black ripe cherries with herbaceous dark chocolate finish that kept going.
Lynch was an odd bottle that kept changing too quickly for us to get a real handle on. It even showed like a california cab at one point with loads of plum and vanilla?
Caymus… thinking about no longer talking to the friend who decided it would be a good idea to bring the Caymus.
Hi Jerome-what vintage was the Lynch Bages?
Same year as the Branon. 2005. We are thinking it was a bad bottle. Kind of put a downer on the night.
2005 Branon is one of my faves - an extremely undervalued wine imo and has never disappointed me. Not surprised it smoked the Caymus, but thats a shame about Lunch Bag being an off bottle because that’s usually a solid experience as well…
Could not agree any more. I don’t drink the monster wines that most people here do, but this Branon is clearly my WOTY so far. I was looking forward a lot to trying a lynch-bages for the first time so the disappointment was that much greater.
As you found out, you really don’t need to spend a lot of $$$ to drink very solid Bordeaux - from the 05 vintage, I’d also point you to d’Issan as another super solid QPR. Not made in the same style, but it’s hard to beat for the price, and I am a huge fan. Lynch Bages, when you drink your first correct expression, should be a solid experience as well. The 1990/1989 are the best I’ve ever had, but also the most expensive at market prices…