UGC 2015 Bordeaux release tasting - Noo Yawk.

Please allow me to thank Balzac Communications for this lovely, lively, and generous event.
My uninformed, warped, and yak-palate observations are below.

For red wines, the immediate drinkability, balance, perfume, and elegance of this already lauded vintage were remarkable, almost like the 2014 vintage, but up palpable notches in terms of complexity and texture, boding well for aging. Quite notable were reductions of the alcohol, oak, tannin, and sweetness levels which had been very controversial hallmarks of the Parker era. The ripeness was delicious and long, almost across the board, without being sugary or heavy. In a phrase, a feminine vintage which I would love to own.

To my own tastes, these chateaux performed very well:
Giscours
Durfort-Vivens
Cantemerle
Leoville Poyferre
Clerc-Milon
D’Armhailhac
Valandraud
Clinet
Le Bon Pasteur
Pichon Baron
Lynch-Bages
Canon
Larcis Ducasse
Pavie Macquin
Haut Bailly
Les Carmes Haut-Brion
However, I found Branaire-Ducru and Leoville Barton to be too tannic, and Gruaud Larose to be oddly thin. Pichon Lalande was good, and not tight or herbaceous, but somewhat in the shadows of others at this tasting.

Normally, we associate years which produce excellent reds as likely also to be too dry to foster the botytris which define Sauternes/Barsac; and, conversely, years which favor Sauternes/Barsac as likely to produce under-ripe or tougher reds. Of course, 1989 and 1990 were exceptions. Based on this tasting, the 2015 vintage somehow balanced things just right. De Fargues, Doisy-Daene, and Coutet were very rich and complex, interwoven with prominent notes of pineapple, butterscotch, and truffle.

Thanks for the quick notes, Victor.

The best part of this event was seeing Paul Wagner and his family, on Saturday night, to share 1990 Ormes de Pez and 1991 Beringer Knights Valley at a local noodle shop.

Isn’t the UGC NYC event going on right at this very moment? Or is this another UGC event? In any case, thank you for the impressions. I’d love to hear more from others who have been fortunate to taste. Might be a good time to buy before the Euro’s gains are fully realized.

The event was quite well attended.

i liked Langoa-Barton, Brainaire-Ducru and Giscours the best… Suduiraut was special as well.

long rambling talk with Josh Raynolds, mentioned to him that everybody seemed
to have the cooperage issue pretty well in hand – his opinion was that since these were barrel samples,
the châteaux were keen on showing the most integrated lots, while the more oaky casks were presented at En Primeur

Not sure what the cooperage issue was, or is.

But the wines at the UGC are all bottled wines, not barrel samples.

I believe that he meant toning down the heavy-handed oakiness which marred prior vinification regimes…also known as lumber-thunder Parkerization.

This doesn’t make much sense to me. Why would they want to show the oakiest samples to the critics at en primeur?

thank you for the correction, Jeff – i shall pass it along to him whom i cited.

Thanks for posting Victor. I have a completely different take on this, as I was actually generally unimpressed with the vintage. I thought Clinet ran away with the show, and was one of the very, very few wines that showed it’s undeniable terroir. I loved the Canon as well, it showed supreme class and promise. After that, the list isn’t quite as inspired, but I thought Poyferre, Valandraud (really shocked me), Chevalier Rouge, and Smith Haut Lafitte were all quite good.

Where I was absolutely stunned was how disappointing certain wines were- Clos Fourtet (WAY too much alcohol), Gruaud Larose (all tannin), Pichon Lalande (as Victor said, nothing special), Rauzan Segla (all fruit), Malescot St. Exupery (tasted nothing like Bordeaux), Pape Clement (no control over the oak) and Giscours (awkwardly herbal and bitter). I had no idea what the ratings of these wines were, and took a peak when I got home, and was utterly shocked. I was quite stunned at the level of dry tannin in so many of the wines too, it really reminded me of 1995, and not in a good way.

I think not to be understated was the quality of the whites, minus Pape Clement (they went 0 for 2), was simply off the charts. Chevalier Blanc was a head turned, as Smith Haut Lafitte really was stunning again (I loved their 2013).

Two of my favorite values were Latour Martillac (both red and white), and Durfort Vivens.

Valandraud, Durfort Vivens, and de Fargues kept beckoning me back for many more sips.

Since 1990, Canon has often seemed to rest on its laurels (and occasionally some TCA or over-extraction). However, this tasted like a comeback vintage for the chateau.

Interesting take. I like Canon a lot, but was less excited by most of their 1990s wines. But I did really enjoy the 2006 and 2008 (more than I enjoyed the 2005, fwiw).

You can like Canon or not, but over extraction is not something that ever took place there, especially under John Kolasa. It is not his style.

These are wines meant for consumption from 2030 onwards. Judging young Bordeaux isn’t easy and a lot of experience is needed. If there is a lot of Cabernet in the blend its even more difficult because young and tannic Bordeaux Cabernet can be pretty harsh. I am optimistic that most of the 2015 wines from very good producers will be fine when 15 years old or older.

BTW: Expect the peak of wines such as top Paulliac, St. Estephe and St. Julien at age 30+ (when really good stored).

BTW2: I saw very few people who were able to differ Left from Right Bank with some consistence in blind tastings. So this “terroir”-thing is really complicated.

I too attended the NYC tasting at Cipriani yesterday and can attest to the fact that the event was jam packed.

For me in terms of preference it would have to go Clinet, Valandraud (a new addition to the UGC as they are looking for higher visibility), Pichon Baron, Canon, Brane Cantenac, Haut Bailly, Leoville Barton, Clos Fourtet, Larcis Ducasse and Chevalier Rouge all of which would fall in the 94-97 range.

One of the bigger let downs for me were many of the Margaux properties in show as they seemed a bit closed.

I guess not a surprise in these big tasting events, but it appears that the modern darlings “showed” best.

Clinet - Rolland
Smith Haut Lafite - Rolland and Derenoncourt
Leoville Poyferre - Rolland
Valandraud - Jean Luc Thunevin
Chevalier - leaning modern?
Canon - Starting to lean more modern? New wine consultant in 2014, scores jumping.

For my palate, I would not buy a single one of those wines except for perhaps Chevalier and Canon, but only after trying them in a different setting. Canon was quite nice in 2014, but it’s clear where that wine is heading, sort of like Carmes Haut Brion, in a more modern direction, and thus a larger-scale and riper vintage could be OTT.

I think you are looking at these incorrectly. Regardless of who is the consultant, what turned out the bottle was nothing akin to a “Parker wine”. The Poyferre really showed it’s Merlot soul, and really had nice nuance and terroir, albeit a bit closed in. The Valandraud was nothing like you would expect, and the CS and CF brought a lovely herbal profile that reminded me more of old Troplong Mondot (like the 89) than what my impression would have been (something like the hot mess 2015 Clos Fourtet I tasted). The SHL was probably the “sluttiest” of the group that worked for my palate, but simultaneously it tasted like great Pessac. The Canon was easily the most Burgundian of the day.

I don’t know, Ian. I tasted these wines in Boston, and I thought the Clinet, along with several of the other Pomerols being poured, was quite international in style. I went into tasting the Valandraud with an extremely open mind, and what I found was probably exactly what Robert would expect: confected, overripe, too much oak, and unbalanced because it was failing to hold its 15% ABV in check. I clearly remember that the heat of the alcohol was enough to make those extremely ripe tannins feel astringent. I agree that some of the other wines you mentioned tasted like Bordeaux in a good way, but to me, not those two.

A quick impression from the Chicago tasting. Remember I am not a Bordeaux enthusiast. I thought the wines were good with nice fruit and well balanced. The right bank was my least favorite. I really liked the Haut Bailly and Carmes Haut Brion. I’m normally a big fan of the Baron but this did not show well. To be honest I felt like if someone brought one of these to dinner now it would be very enjoyable. Much more than new release Cali cabs IMO.