Starting this thread ahead of Southwold 10 year tasting of 2014 Bordeaux vintage.
I have really enjoyed 2014 Bordeaux, with VCC being my fav. Calon and Haut Brion are on my “to try” list.
Given Southwold is likely to be one of the most comprehensive horizontal featuring 2014 vintage, I am looking forward to seeing how wines fare.
It would be great to hear from this group on what’s been their top 2-3 2014 Bordeaux.
I loaded up on this vintage, and have many classified growths that I still have not tried, just waiting patiently.
Of the upper-end wines that I have tried, some a few times, my faves are:
VCC
L’Eglise Clinet
Lalande
Montrose
Figeac
And brilliant QPRs, are:
Sociando
Lanessan
I also will ne interested in the Southwold10-year read. I think the only serious 2014 I have tried was the GPL, a year or 2 ago, and it was fine but so young…and I kinda like bdx younger than many. Have a number others including montrose, P. Lalande, Ducru, DDC, Leovile and Langoa Barton, les carmes….
I haven’t sampled broadly but have pretty much liked everyone I have tried:
Lalande
Ducru
VCC
With VCC being the fav. In general I like the style of the vintage. I wasn’t buying Bordeaux when 2014 EP was released. So looking forward to stocking up on the vintage now. In some way I am glad that it’s a lower priced vintage.
Had VCC over the weekend and it was wonderful. Elegant and suave, with perfectly integrated can franc influence. Very enjoyable but should continue to age effortlessly
Excellent thread awaiting the tasting results. I have a reasonable stock of both Bartons, GPL, DdC but have exercised restraint in pulling the corks. I have drunk up most of my cru bourgeois though; CSG has opened up nicely, Charmail is good, my last Sénéjacs showed their age. Middling properties like Angludet, Tronquoy-Lalande and Poujeaux are scheduled for opening this year.
Having had the 2014 and 2015 VCC side by side, I had a strong preference for the ‘14. I think the classic style really suited the chateau; as well as the complexity, the fruit was red and crunchy. For me, without question, the wine of the vintage.
I took things to extremes; nestling in my cellar are five cases and a couple of magnums. At current consumption, I will be 93 when they are all gone.
I had bought a 6 pack of VCC. Tried a bottle last year and immediately pulled the trigger on another 6 pack.
More on the value end, the Tronquoy-Lalande is terrific.
By contrast, the Lynch-Bages is a very long way from being drinkable.
Cos, Calon, Ducru
Keith, always look for your notes. Thanks for replying. Somehow Cos has never appealed to me the way some others have (Montrose, LLC, VCC, Ducru etc). And that’s true across vintages.
Ducru is excellent but I always find Cos, irrespective of vintage, insipid.
Cos made some real stinkers in the Parker era but I found in 2014, dialing it back combined with the vintage dialing things back (while standing out in St Estephe) made for a perfect confluence and a very successful Cos.
For me, the underlying terroir at Cos is not that interesting, so when they ramp it up and extract like hell as they did in 2009, the wine is definitely in the stinker category. In general, I cannot remember tasting a great Cos, the best being a fine but not brilliant 1996. And compared to Montrose and even Calon, it always seemed somewhat bland.
The 2014 is not ramped up, and the unextracted wine did not excite at all. When compared to other super seconds, it was in last place and quite a distance from the others. I have not tasted it post 2015, so would love to think that things have got better, but can’t help feeling that with their vineyard holdings, they are never going to make wines that the classification and pricing would suggest. .
Agree. Completely.
I started an offline thread to see if there was enough interest in doing a vintage tasting in NYC.
Can you elaborate on this? How does it compare to, say, Montrose or Calon-Segur?
Had the 1982 Cos a number of times. When we did tastings of 1982s, for the first 15-20 years or so, the Cos was often the favorite of the group. Then, after that, while other 1982s kept getting better, the Cos did not and was surpassed.
2014 Meyney is stellar.
Montrose is powerful; a wine of great personality and distinctiveness. My top super second from the Medoc, it should have been a first growth.
Calon also has personality without the heft of Montrose, and also lacking a bit of the depth. Under the new ownership there was a serious makeover in the cellars, and the unclean, bretty character of some of the older wines no longer exists.
Cos to me has none of the personality and distinctiveness of the other two. Although a perfectly pleasant wine, it lacks complexity and any real gout de terroir.