Reposted from Bordeaux wine enthusiasts, a few wines from the last two weeks –
2003 Sociando Mallet – a giant block of tannin with a hollow midpalate. Opened up with some sweet fruit+green pepper on the nose but after a while even that faded away to leave only a scorched charcoal-y element. Where does Bordeaux go during the shut down years? When my partner tasted this she refused to believe it would ever be good. But I have faith that one day it will. (Note that I am very insensitive to TCA so it is always possible that a wine I rate as shut down is slightly corked).
2002 Pousse d’Or Corton Bressandes – Deep black cherry fruit, a bit of stony minerality to back it up, and pronounced but rather pleasant oak spices. Tannins evident on the back end cut the finish short. Good depth in the midpalate, well balanced and fruity throughout. But lacks complexity, no real secondary or tertiary development. Purchased on release and stored perfectly, this bottle is still very young. Pousse d’Or has a little bit of a California-esque style, you can see it here in the depth of the fruit and the black fruit quality to the pinot, but it is still much cooler and more mineral than a California pinot would be.
2002 and 2003 Leoville Barton – I brought both of these wines to the giant BWE dinner on Saturday night, and then I drank a second bottle of the 2002 Leoville Barton the very next night.
The 2003 Barton really shined at the dinner. Waves and waves of fruit, rich enough to have some chocolate notes, but just beautifully layered, structured, and poised at the same time. A wow wine but in no way over the top or sloppy. The fruit showed as layers of depth more than surface intensity. In a very nice early maturity moment, with the emphasis still on fruit for now but lots of promise for the future.
The 2002 Barton is contrast got kind of overlooked at the dinner and I don’t think was more than half drunk (while the 03 got vaporized within 20 minutes of opening). I was sitting next to Jim Howaniec, a big advocate of 2002 left banks, and commented on this. He waved it off, saying ‘you have to drink the 2002s alone, they aren’t good in mass tastings’.
Honestly, I thought Jim was just making excuses for his beloved 2002 L. But I cracked another 2002 Barton the next night, and now I see his point. This is a terrific wine, but in a much softer and less assertive style than wines from ‘big’ years. It has a sneaky, understated depth to it, not overwhelming at all, but the fruit is there. Very black fruited. Both the nose and palate are balanced wonderfully across the full range of fruit expressions you get from Bordeaux – some cassis, some raw meat, some wet leaves/sous-bois, a touch of stalky cabernet character as well. A bit of smoke. All in a very soft but beautifully complex and expressive style. Not sure this will be a really long ager as it is showing such complexity and such a range of secondary and even tertiary qualities already, but it is in no way thin and the fruit is very much there. It just feels much more ‘relaxed’ and giving than I would expect from a Bordeaux of this age. This feels like it will be peaking from around now to 2025. (But note that I have also had 02s that were more forbidding – a Cos d’Estournel a year and a half ago was quite tannic and shut down). Fascinating year.
Overall, I guess I would say that the 2003 Barton was the better wine, especially if you are judging in the ‘more’ sense. But the 2002 is very fine indeed; the two are not as far apart as I would have thought.