There is no doubt that the Bordeaux vintage 2015 truely deserve its high praise and high scores. I was impressed by the balance, structure and elegance by most of these wines on friday.
Note: we didn´t decant the wines, just pop&pour. And only 1 wine was really closed and needed more air presumably.
Ch. du Tertre blanc
Too opulent and perfumed in my view. Fair to say it´s quite difficult to impress me with a white wine besides Riesling and Burgundy.
Ch. Le Pape
BestBuy. Fresh and elegant with sublime tannins and a clear fruit. Around 22 Euro. 90/100
Ch. Malartic-Lagraviere
Fantastic perfume. It´s all about elegance on the palate and with a great length. 94/100
Ch. Domaine de Chevalier
Dark and mystic personality. Plum, spice and with a hint of 1001 night. Clearly more complex and sophisticated than the previous wine. Fascinating juice. Truely deserve the high praise from the wine critic. 96-97/100
Ch. Pape-Clement
totally closed
Ch. Labegorce
What a disappointment performance in comparison to the great 2014 vintage. One-dimensional and the fruit is clearly too heavy and too ostensible. In addition the tannins are too dry. 88/100
Ch. Giscours
Overall a quite indifferent presentation. I am puzzled.
Ch. Talbot
CLASSIC Bordeaux. The fruit is quite shy. Such precise&elegant on the palate. Fantastic structure and balance. Honestly I am quite surprised and puzzled about the low ratings of this wine by all the famous journalists. 94+/100
Ch. Beychevelle
Too pleasing and overall to sweet and round on the palate. Quite disappointing.
Ch. Gruaud-Larose
off-bottle
Ch. Leoville Barton
What a thrilling wine. Your palate will be wrapped in silk. Stunning depth and length. And fascinating how pleasantly relaxed this wine is. WOTN 98/100
Ch. Batailley
stinky. Too rural this wine. Cleary not my cup of Bordeaux.
Ch. D`Armailhac
The overall performance of this wine is too lumpen. Also too dry tannins in the finish. And where is the fruit?“ Such boring and one-dimensional.
Ch. Clerc-Milon
NO……not my cup of tea.
Ch. Phelan Segur
off-bottle
Ch. Montrose
A monolith. . A masterpiece of its own. Neverending reverberation. 97+/100
Ch. Cap de Faugeres
Taste more like cherry juice. This is wine??!
Ch. Tour Saint Christophe
Too mulberry. 88/100
Ch. La Fleur Morange Cuvee Mathilde
A crowd-pleaser.
Ch. La Voute
A discovery. Very fine juice. 90-91/100
Ch. Clos Saint Julien
Sublime perfume, but unfortunately decline on the palate.
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Ch. Trotte Vieille
WOW………truely impressive. Gets greater and greater from sip to sip. Based on 49% Cabernet franc. Magic wine and with great potential. 95/100
Ch. Beausejour Duffau
Nice but not worth the 100 Euro.
Ch. Nenin
Too big on the palate.
Ch. Gazin
Starts quite reluctant, but accelerate quite fast on the palate. Very noble! Strong buy recommendation. 96/100
Ch. Le Gay
Defined and muscular on the palate. Convincing performance. 94/100
Leoville Barton is indeed a masterpiece. My other favorites in this vintage were on arrivage Montrose, VCC, Tertre Roteboeuf and Leovilles Las Cases. Haven’t had the Gazen so far.
Cheers
I hope he’s on the money because he loved all of the 2015s he tasted that I bought! Domaine de Chevalier, Gazin, Leo Barton (today!), and Malartic Lagraviere.
Was just having an email side-bar with John Morris about pricing. I think people have forgotten how relatively affordable Bordeaux was for 2014 futures, so many Classified Growths sub-$55. It was my largest futures purchase since the 2005 vintage. I picked up some beauties. I only kick myself for not grabbing Pichon Lalande and Montrose.
The only 2015 futures I bought was Les Carmes Haut Brion, mostly out of idle curiosity to see how the estate is transitioning. Later I grabbed some Lanessan.
No doubt that there is a score inflation everywhere. Somtimes I think the system starts with 90pts.
On the other hand most of these 2015s are really spectacular. And wheter you give 98/100 like me or 94-96/100 by several highly regarded wine-journalists and even 97/100 by Jeb Dunnuck doesn´t change the fact 2015 Léoville Barton is worth to buy.
Well, unless you’re comparing to people who are waiting for their $32 2014 PLL from Premier Cru, you can still buy it for not much more than the futures price.