2000 Château Côte de Baleau- France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (8/23/2011)
I was certainly rooting for this wine when I pulled it as it had the $19.99 tag on it. Wine started with some green pepper and cedar notes followed by plum and some cassis. A bit thin on the mid palate but has nice round mouthfeel. Not overly complex but hard to find a value like this nowadays. Would never have guessed it was a decade plus old. I will drink this case in the next year. (88 pts.)
00 Cote de Baleau [St Emilion] First bottle from a case purchased EP. Double decanted, as it had a bit of sediment. Label states 13% abv. Dark garnet in the core, a little lightening at the edges. Tea, mint, tobacco on the nose. Medium bodied. Very refined, balanced palate. Fruit is restrained (not like the young wines we had yesterday!). But drinks deliciously without food while we relax and play music as dinner bubbles away on the stove. Black fruit on the palate, just a slight hint of slate here. This is just super stuff. If objective people tasted this they would be unlikely to think “aha a Michel Rolland wine!” but it is a creation of his, although in a different style from the fruit bombs he is typically associated with. The estate was upgraded in the AOC classification system, so modern vintages cost more now. Not a widely available wine, but HDH has a few non peak vintages in stock. I’m very happy with this. I thought I had a bunch of the 1998, but I do not recall seeing those last time I went to my facility. Anyways A- on my scorecard. It’s minerally notes remind me of Moulin St. Georges, even though different terroir and winemakers.
I had a bottle of this recently and my experience was pretty close to your notes. I was very impressed. I bought it on futures and have self-cellared it since.