Another French wine thread

I went yesterday with the intent of picking up an older Montelena reserve to have with dinner well i ended up with a 1995 Calon Segur.

Not a secret im Napa biased but thought id try something different, the Calon was surprising in several ways. The youth of a wine thats old enough to go into a wine shop and buy itself was very surprising to me, i normally associate older Bdx with being dusty pencil shavings but this bottle was incredibly fresh tasting, yes it had depth and complexitybut i was genuinely shocked by the acid and life. It was a little depressing actually in that the thought of my Napa cabs taking 20 years to be this drinkable, obviously the fruit was not as present as Napa and hopefully the fruit makes Napa more approachable.

The Calon struck me as a very intellectual wine that prompted more reflection than a Napa would, overall it was a good education, in the long run i need the fruit to be satisfied and will not be buying old Bdx very often. If there was a wine that had the Calons thoghtfulness and maturity with more Napa fruit you would be close to a perfect wine.

Do what I did: forget about French reds and buy Italians.

Alan - Knowing your preferences, if you want to give aged Bordeaux another try, you might check out riper vintages such as 2000, 1990, 1989, 1985 or 1982. They had more fruit than '95, which was on the leaner side. I can imagine it would taste pretty fruitless if you’re drinking youngish California cab much of the time.

That Calon will be lovely in another 10 years.

Silly question, can the acid liveliness of the Calon exist with fruit or does the sweetness of the fruit cancel out the acid ?

try some of the right bank wines produced in the “modern” style, you will find all the ripe fruit and oak you could possibly want.

There are ripe Bordeaux vintages with higher acid (1989, 1996, 2005, 2010, for example) and ripe Bordeaux vintages with lower acid (1990 and 2009 for example). Although the vintages are too young to really see anything approaching maturity like you saw with the 1995, comparing a 2009 and a 2010 shows this really clearly in most cases, although there are exceptions.

Alan – The way I’d put it is that, after a certain level of ripeness, acid levels in the grapes fall off. But there’s a happy medium where you have ripe fruit with good acidity. The exact balance is a matter of personal preference. Some people love 1990, for instance, while others prefer vintages with a bit less fruit and ripeness, and more flavors of other sorts, and more natural acidity. (I don’t think anyone would say it’s a poor vintage.)

FYI, a lot of California wines are picked very ripe and then tartaric acid is added to give them a little freshness that wasn’t there in the grapes. Adding acid is generally prohibited in France.

there’s a happy medium where you have ripe fruit with good acidity.

Which is what I’m finding with a lot of the 2015 Beaujolais. Pretty much exactly what you want.

French, albeit not Cab.

I cannot imagine Alan liking Beaujolais, but 2015 certainly fits that bill, similar to 2009. While the classicists poo-poo it, preferring 2014 and 2016 for recent vintages, I have really loved some 2015s. Thivin and Chanrion are excellent.

Robert you are correct, while i do appreciate Beaujolais for what it is it will never be a wine that falls into my tastes

You don´t mean the 1995 Calon-Segur is OLD ???
[scratch.gif]

The apparent level of proficiency on this board is mind blowing. Proficiency in Bdx right and left bank, red and white. Horizontally, vertically and diagonally. From different appellations to include Beaujo and the most obscure appellations on all continents. All the while not admitting to drinking more than 3 units of alcohol on average per week.

Sadly, the Bdx ‘95’s I bought EP, that I have tried to date, sucked. That said, don’t take my word. I routinely drink plonk on a daily basis and have yet to drink a Bojo…

I thought Allen made a valid point in the “other” Frenchie thread [wink.gif] but this thread sheds a new light on that.

(95’s are not old by any stretch but they’re part of a crappy stretch of BDX vintages 91-95 likely to be found in the “rare” wine sections of poor restaurant lists in France [wink.gif] [wink.gif] )

*so much for generalizations.