2015 Bordeaux - SF UGC Tasting

I recently attended the UGC event for 2015 Bordeaux in San Francisco. It was a really fun event, tasting a very wide range of wines.

The lessons I came away with were fairly surprising. First and foremost, I now have a very clear picture of my utter lack of understanding of young (especially red) Bordeaux.

Red: My primary impression was of wines that I couldn’t really make much of, and that didn’t seem to have much in common with (aged) Bordeaux that I love. The wines were very dry, tannic (though not extremely so) and lacking in a lot of the flavors I typically associate with Bordeaux. In general the noses revealed more than the palate, though not always. While some of the wines stood out to me as being tasty, well balanced, with great texture and complexity, not many did. And I really have no strong sense of how what I tasted correlates with how these wines will taste in 10 or 20 years and beyond. I have a new found sense of respect for wine reviewers who have tasted enough of these wines over time to understand what the potential is in wines that are so closed. So: my wine education is still beginning.

White & Sweet: These wines showed a lot more that I could understand. Many were very attractive and drinkable in the near term, though there is certainly depth and complexity to stand up to aging. And some were either weak or closed, I’m not really sure. This was the ‘easiest’ part of the tasting for me.

Conclusion: I have a lot to learn. However, I am putting my money where my mouth is, and so far have bought zero of these wines, even the ones I like the most (Clinet, Lynch Bages, Malescot Saint Exupery). My plan is to attend some tastings in maybe 10 years to get a picture of where these wines are going. The market is teaching me that aged Bordeaux is highly available in large quantity, and often at lower than release prices. The last vintage I bought was ’12, and I picked wines based on producers I loved from earlier vintages. Obviously my strategy has changed.

I’m including my brief notes below. Some are very brief, yes I did run into note & palate fatigue. And I just don’t have confidence to assign numerical scores. Maybe think of italicized wines as (91-94), non-italicized favorites as (90-93) and “others tasted” as (<90). I will warn you all though — these notes may be utterly worthless. This was a very challenging tasting!

Sweet
Favorites
Coutet - Sweet pear and honey nose, rich silky more honey and med weight on the palate. Excellent.
Doisy Daene - Honey sweet nose but a step down from the Coutet. Nice medium weight palate.
Fargues - very intense and expressive nose, crystal clear honeyed palate. Gorgeous, worth seeking out.

Others Tasted
Guiraud - Medium nose, with hints of honey and sweet lemon. Denser palate more of sugar than anything else.
Haut Peyraguey - Slightly grassy sweet nose, palate less rich than others with hints of spice in finish.
Suduiraut - Closed nose, rich palate. Not well balanced now.

Blanc
Favorites
Chateau Malarctic Lagraviere Blanc - More balanced nose of sweet orchard notes and hint of grass. Palate more tight, but very dry with more savory notes. Enjoyable.
Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte Blanc - light mineral nose with hints of grass, mirrored by a palate of mineral, light fruit and good acid balance. Very good.

Others Tasted
Chateau Carbonnieux Blanc - grassy nose, oak, more savory tones on the dry palate. Attractive, ok QPR.
Chateau Les Carmes Haut Brion Blanc - rustic, crunchy palate. hard to evaluate
Domaine De Chevalier Blanc - Slight grassiness on the nose, very tight palate. Weak or closed?
Chateau Pape Clement Blanc - Oaky nose, tight palate. Not much here.

Rouge
Favorites
Chateau Haut Bailly (4% Petit Verdot, 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot) - Floral nose of red fruit and sweet notes, slightly hot but very enjoyable. Rich red fruit palate, medium tannin balanced by acid. Tasty and sharp edged. Very good.
Chateau La Louviere - Wide open nose of red fruit, with fairly closed but balanced palate. Good QPR.
Chateau Malarctic Lagraviere - Pleasant nose of red fruit, light palate of more red fruit, tannin and acid. Attractive.
Smith Haut Lafitte - Cassis floral very powerful nose, mid weight palate with some tannins but long and very elegant. Very good.
Chateau Clinet - (90% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Cabernet Franc) Red fruit, hint of pepper on a very rich and vivid nose, rich palate with excellent balance. Very good.
Chateau Gazin - Sweet red nose, balanced palate with some smoothness but also fairly closed. Still, seems to have potential.
Chateau Malescot Saint Exupery - Cassis and red fruit on the nose, very silky rich palate, medium tannin. Density of fruit without sweetness.
Chateau Rauzan Segla - Medium+ red fruit nose, tart palate with some richness. Attractive.
Chateau Beychevelle - Medium nose, medium length of red fruit, closer to being approachable.
Chateau Gloria - Red fruit nose, refreshing and clear palate of red fruit. Good balance, most approachable wine of the day.
Chateau Lagrange (St. Julien) - Cassis and red fruit nose, very fresh. Palate with more cassis, good tannin/acid balance, somewhat rich. Good length.
Chateau Lynch Bages - Spice red fruit and cassis on the nose, very dense crunchy well balanced palate. Very good.

Others Tasted
Chateau Canon La Gaffeliere - More fruit on the nose than palate, some richness and balance. Ok but nothing stands out.
Chateau La Gaffeliere - (70% Merlot/30% Cab Franc) Light nose of red fruit, very crunchy palate of tannins and quite tart.
Chateau Le Bon Pasteur - Less fruit than alcohol on the nose, very tannic, somewhat bitter palate.
Chateau Chasse Spleen - Open nose of red fruit, cassis, palate with medium tannin. Still quite closed.
Chateau Cantemerle - More fruit on the nose than on the palate, otherwise fairly closed.
Chateau Kirwan - Closed nose, very dry palate with heavy tannins and not much else.
Chateau Prieure Lichine - very closed.
Chateau du Tertre - ok.
Chateau Gruaud Larose - Red fruit floral and alcohol tinged nose, medium density, no tannin palate. Very short finish. Odd.
Chateau Langoa Barton - very closed.
Chateau Leoville Barton - Tight, not revealing much other than density and alcohol. Sneaky length. Uncertain.
Chateau Leoville Poyferre - Medium weight wine but not revealing much. Polished palate.
Chateau Clerc Milon - Very ripe hot nose, closed palate.
Chateau Pichon Baron - Another powerful ripe hot nose of dark fruit, very acidic palate but otherwise closed. ?
Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande - Red fruit nose but otherwise closed. ?
Chateau Phelan Segur - Red fruit nose. Very dry mineral palate, with medium tannin, some bitterness.

Thanks, Rich. Nice notes, and you are unafraid to verbalize what your palate experiences. Tastings like those can be lots of work…

Thanks for the notes (and for taking the time and effort to share them).

Understanding very young bdx is extremely difficult, and doing so in this kind of environment is (for me) virtually impossible. I have gone a couple of times and enjoyed it, but between the youth of the wines the crowd, the size of the pours, and the noise interfering with my senses, I have never felt I had a good enough fix on the wines to make sizable purchases on that basis. Maybe useful as a datapoint, and a basis to buy a bottle when they arrive to see if I really like them

Thankfully, since you’re no longer buying wine, you don’t have to worry about it anymore.

I did the 2009 and 2010 UGC in SF and your experience reminds me of my 2010 tasting. They seemed tough to taste and tannic and not much there as far as flavors. As far as the 2009’s? That tasting blew me away, the wines were way more approachable and flavors were much more pronounced. Guess vintage characteristics can certainly make it more difficult to taste young. I agree with Neal above as well that the crowds and hurried feel of the event is what stopped me from going to them anymore.

Ha! I wasn’t worried about it before! But yeah, this particular incapacity of mine is no longer a real concern

Neal - yes I agree with the utility of this event. I plan on using the data similarly.

K&L (local wine store) did a 2000 Bordeaux tasting late in 2016 that was much more useful – smaller scale but that’s fine. Winner that night was VCC. Wowser it was good. Developed and clearly on the ascendant, but needing another 5-10 years to really shine.

I did rate and score young Bordeaux for some time. Everybody who does this has an own understanding what good wine is because taste is something individual. But there are a few rules which I think are common sense. Balance is the key. Tannin isn’t an issue as long as it is silky and not rough and bitter. Acid isn’t an issue as long as it isn’t shrill and a dominant part. Fruit has to be the major element in any young wine. Its not that important if it represents the red or black fruit spectrum. But if a wine is all structure and no fruit can be found that’s alarming. And it doesn’t matter if the wine lacks fruit intensity, is over extracted (a fault during the maceration process – too long contact with the skins etc.) or overpowering oak (too much new oak and/or oak of minor quality). A bit of talent helps. But way more important is experience. If you tasted enough wines and you followed their evolution you develop an idea how a good wine tastes young and how its development may be. But its always a good idea to trust your senses. So thanks for your post and your impressions. Most Bordeaux wines (Crus Classé and Bourgeoise) are not meant for early consumption. In a vintage like 2015 the wines will show best at age 10 to 15. And the best wines of the Medoc at age 20 to 30. That’s the difference to the wines of Napa or Maremma i.e.

I am with you Neal…been to few such events and found it extremely difficult to asses due to combination of factors you mentioned.

Barolo tastings are similar too, tannin just dominate and I found it difficult to clearly asses such young wines. Moreover in such tastings the modern wines tend to “show well”. But 12-15 yrs down the line they are not the ones that are shining!

Subu,

So, all traditional* wines turn good and all modern* wines turn bad? If only life were that simple! Oak can integrate (DRC???!!!) Terroir can shine through with time. Also, hard wines sometimes never soften. Take each bottle on its own merits.

*Whatever those terms mean.

James,

Perhaps I need to clarify, the wines that taste well (for me) a year from the vintage are typically modern styles (we are talking cabs here not burgundy) seen plenty of oak, masks the tannins and taste finishes sweet. I have walked away about bought wines from early tastings that I didn’t like years down the line.

Im just saying I avoid these tastings as they generally give me a red herring. If you can discern on where these wines will be in a decade…more power to you!

You said “they are not the ones that are shining!” That’s a pretty binary statement.

Yes, for my palate…opinions are subjective and relative

I think Jürgen is right on the money. I’ve tasted a lot of young wine and after a while having tasted the wines young and then with some age, you start to get an idea. That 2015 tasting showed a lot of pretty good wines IMO. But I did hear some people say it wasn’t a great vintage, blah blah blah.

Maybe they’re right, I really don’t know. But very few of the wines were unbalanced or poor samples. Yes they were pretty tannic and tight, but that’s exactly what you would expect.

To Rich - I think you did the right thing. Keep tasting and in five or ten years when you taste these wines again, go back and look at your notes (if you keep them). The point of taking notes, to me at least, isn’t to post them but rather it’s to review them later and see if my initial impressions held up and if not, what changed. All in all I liked the tasting. But I went in the afternoon, don’t know what the evening tasting was like.

Rich goaded me into posting my notes. I’ve attended a number of these UGC tastings, since the 2003 vintage, and always find difficulties judging wines in an environment like this. Tasting too quickly, palate fatigue over several hours tasting young, tannic wines, etc. Most of the wines are being poured from just opened bottles, when they deserve abundant air time to show properly. I do my best to leave time between tastes, get a pour, swirl for a few minutes, letting my palate settle and wine breathe. I don’t try to taste even half the wines in the hall. Even so, it’s still just a fuzzy snapshot impression of what the wines are, but I think one can definitely get a sense of the vintage. Which in this case is obviously warmer (though not 2003 warm), leading to generally more forward and lush,often somewhat lighter more elegant, but less interesting wines (IMO), less tension and complexity. I much preferred the 2014 wines at this point last year to these 2015s.

2015 Les Carmes Haut-Brion Pessac-Leognan
35% Cab France, medium dark color, good dark red fruit, excellent structure, good acidity, quite tasty with more interest and complexity than most in the room. 93

2015 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, Pessac-Leognan
Typical dried grass nose, nice palate, medium rich, solar but not at all overripe. 92

2015 Domaine de Chevalier, Pessac-Leognan
Medium dark garnet, hint of oak on the nose, nice dark cherry fruit, slightly dusty note, moderate tannins, medium body. 92

2015 Haut Bailly, Pessac-Leognan
Medium dark, decent fruit, touch of bitterness on the finish, lacks excitement, bit structured on the finish. 91

2015 Pape Clement, Pessac-Leognan
Decent medium dark red fruit, medium structure, showing a bit of heat, unexciting. 91

2015 Smith Haut Lafitte, Pessac-Leognan
Good dark red fruit, bit more obvious ripeness than many, also showing a bit of heat. 89

2015 Valandraud, Saint-Emilion
Deep dark garnet, very rich, more density than most, quite flavorful, some oak but not overwhelming, tastes like a really good Napa Cab. Not really my style, but many will love this. 91

2015 Beau-Sejour Becot, Saint-Emilion
Nice dark red fruit, Merlot not coming through too prominently for me, touch of heat but quite nice overall. 91

2015 Canon, Saint-Emilion
Good dark red fruit, touch of warmth, medium structure, nicely flavorful and rich. 92

2015 Larcis Ducasse, Saint-Emilion
Fairly dark red, quite flavorful deep red fruit, nice structure, touch of heat at 14.5% ABV. 91

2015 Pavie Macquin
Quite forward, slightly ripe but not syrupy or roasted, dark plum fruit, moderate tannin. 90

2015 Clinet, Pomerol
Good bright red fruit, has a nice foundation, though a bit of an airy higher toned sensation, good structure. 91

2015 Kirwan, Margaux
Very nice, elegant, flavorful, earlier drinker 5-10 year wine. 91. 2014 version has this same elegance, though a bit more interest and complexity.

2015 Lascombes, Margaux
Fairly dark, ripe but not syrupy, dominated by a definite noticeable sweetness, mild structure. 88

2015 Malescot Saint-Exupery, Margaux
Nice medium dark cherry, not showing as much of the 100% oak signature of earlier vintages (e.g., 2005), though still noticeably present. 90

2015 Rauzan-Segla, Margaux
Nice medium dark red fruit, hint of sweetness, moderate structure, quite attractive now and probably an earlier drinker. 91

2015 Branaire-Ducru, Saint-Julien
60% new oak; lovely medium dark cherry fruit, medium/moderate structure, nice finish. 92

2015 Gruaud Larose, Saint-Julien
Medium red fruits, riper, some heat, moderate structure. 87

2015 Leoville Barton, Saint-Julien
Quite nice medium dark red fruit, medium/moderate structure, quite drinkable even now. 92

2015 Lynch Bages, Pauillac
Nice medium dark plum fruit, some pencil, nice structure. 93

2015 Pichon Baron, Pauillac
Nice darker plum fruit, good medium structure, misses some tension and complexity, but quite nice. 92

2015 Pichon Lalande, Pauillac
Medium body, more elegant, decent medium cherry fruit, medium/moderate structure, bit unexciting. 90

2015 De Pez, Saint-Estephe
Touch of sulfur on the nose, nice, slightly lighter, decent medium red fruit, moderate tannin, pleasant wine. 88

2015 Coutet, Barsac
Quite sweet, but has just enough complexity. 90

2015 Chateau de Fargues, Sauternes
Ripe apricot nose, nice complexity, higher toned than in the best vintages, decent acidity. 91

2015 Haut-Peyraguey, Sauternes
Very sweet, just a touch of botrytis complexity. 88

2015 Lafaurie-Peyraguey, Sauternes
Light color, quite sweet, lacks depth and complexity. 87

2015 Suduiraut, Sauternes
Mild nose, very juicy, ripe, flavorful, some complexity, very ripe and sweet. 90

As usual, the most entertaining part of the evening was the ride home on Bart. At least this time it wasn’t the crazy dude talking to himself and dropping his syringe on the floor while running out the door at the last second. This time it was a very buff, early middle age black guy, rolling a joint in a $5 bill. Built like he could still be playing running back for the Raiders. He was happy as a clam (or is it high as a kite?) sitting there rolling his buds into some kind of brown paper that looked like half a cigar wrapper, gleefully narrating the process as he progressed. When he finished, the $5 dropped out of his hand on the floor, another guy standing next to him picked it up to hand it back, and raider guy just waved at him and said keep it. Then he stood up and started belting out a chorus of “I wanna know what love is”. We pulled into his station, and he proudly exclaimed “this is one for the ages” as he staggered out the door.

Thanks for these notes and your assessment of the event. I went to the 2014 shindig and though it was sort of fun, I had the same experience. My girlfriend could interpret what she was tasting a little better than I could (she was into Les Carmes Haut Brion with a vengeance) but neither of us could really taste anything after the tenth sample. I will leave it to the experts and I will read their notes.