Ok I take back any blanket impression as jumping the gun: just tasted at Domaine de Chevalier and their whites have a marvelous 2008 quality. Great stuff, and the reds are suave. Intelligent winemaking here with lots of challenges capably met. Will be posting notes on my website later today.
So if a 95-point Bordeaux was 100 $ in 2010, 85 $ for a 81-point wine would be appropriate - right?
![[rofl.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7452fcd8e675af869f8da01174474a545b03944.gif "rofl"){kind=small}
I neatened that up for you. Personally, I’d be looking elsewhere. There will be other, better options.
Domaine de Chevalier is my new Pontet Canet. Not so much in the character of the wine, but it is a left bank wine that for ages did not fully exploit their terroir, overhauled its approach and started producing a wine that offers exceptional value. At current prices Pontet no longer offers the quality for money it once was – they’ve moved on to a more expensive tier and I’ve moved on as well – and I suspect that DdC is eventually headed in the same direction, but over the last few vintages (and perhaps for a few years more?) it really has offered a great QPR
I have stayed away since 2004…
I recommend to buy Chateauneuf-du-Pape !
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I’ve been loving DDC at least back to the 1966 vintage. Have they changed their style recently? I hope not.
Derenoncourt was brought in in, I think, 2002 or 2003, and I think the quality has improved enormously. I agree there were some very fine wines over the years, but it seems obvious to me that they did not maximize the potential of the vineyard for prior decades. The last 10 years or so have been consistently outstanding in my view.
Having tasted most of the left bank wines and the majority of the better Pomerol wines, I do not agree with Panos. In fact Panos and I enjoyed a nice chat tonight in Bordeaux about the wines. IMO there are some nice wines in 2012 from Pomerol and Pessac Leognan. There are some fine, but lighter styled wines in the Medoc as well. But other than Haut Brion, there are no great wines. On the other hand, there are some hard dry wines as well. Especially in the northern Medoc. To me, at its best in Pomerol, perhaps the wines could be close to 1985. They are not big, but they can be stylish. Are they worth buying? Who knows, without knowing what they cost?
Prices need to go down 15% for 2011, and 15% more for 2012, and probably 50% more after that…but they won’t. I love Bordeaux but can’t afford it, just like what few Burgundy producers I really enjoy - can’t afford those either! GRR
Tasted extensively on left bank today. Must say there is not a lot to love. For me Margaux AOC did best on the left with Palmer a truly great wine along with the Alter Ego. Ch. Margaux was good but not great. Haut Brion struggles but made good wine relative to the vintage. I know many say Pomerol did the best of all AOCs but for me St. Emilion was better. But I was not tasting Cheval, Petrus, VCC etc. the whites are mediocre at best with Haut Brion making some nice wines. So many wines seem like the winemakers struggled to handle tannins and in the process messed up leaving the wines flat and uninteresting. Lots of green oak as well. Definitely some nice wines but few and far between. My 2 centavos.
Tasting blind now at La Cabanne, some 30 wines blind tasting, 2/3 are Saint Emilion and 1/3 are Pomerol. Will post notes later but so far bridging the gap between light to medium bodied and, yes, some more drying and/or hard tannins. Tasted earlier this morning at the chateau, Vieux Chateau Certan was very refined and fresh but clearly not at, say, the 2005 level. But clearly a lovely wine, in the mold of 1985, Alexandre Thienpont said. And Cheval Blanc, also tasted non blind, I must say did a great job. The Petit Cheval, with 75 percent Cab Franc, was particularly fresh and tasty. Will post detailed notes on my website.
It was nice chatting with Jeff. While I agree that some wines so far have a certain 1985 charm about them - VCC, Trottevieille and Canon come to mind - others do come across as merely lightweight or over extracted for whatever material was there to begin with or with green or hard or drying tannin. Not a very pretty picture. But I have yet to try the Graves and Médoc! Of the other Pomerols I tried, I liked Gazin and La Conseillante and Clinet to a lesser extent. Just about to try the wine of Moueix…
Don’t know how much you can believe in the articles up on wine-searcher, but this was sort of amusing:
http://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2013/04/very-good-is-verdict-on-2012-bordeaux
The site does not allow copying and pasting (right-click is disabled), but some excerpts are:
“Emmanuel Cruse, grand master of the Commanderie du Bontemps du Medoc, said the signs were looking extremely positive… comments and smiles on leaving the tasting rooms seemed to suggest that the 2012 vintage could be among the top three of the decade”
Ok… which decade are we talking about here? This decade (2010s?). The last ten years from 2003-2012? Really? The top 3?
And another thing… there’s another article there about prices that are suggesting that producers are reluctant to reduce 2012 too much relative to 2011 because they are afraid consumers who bought into 2011 would be upset. I just cannot believe that. Consumers buy what they perceive to be a fair price. If someone bought 2011 and now find 2012 to be cheaper… I would think that person would be happy to get a chance to buy 2012s cheaper (if they want to). On the other hand, what really makes people upset is seeing prices go up 2x when another vintage of the century comes out.
And don’t forget the 2006-07-08 sequence. Remember the prices coming down for 2008? And 2008 was a better vintage overall than 2007 (excluding Sauternes). It’s been done before.
Back from Bordeaux, and it’s hard to make any blanket assessment of this vintage. Unlike vintages like 2010 and 2009, and particularly 2005, when if you didn’t make good wines, you should have been thinking about taking up another profession, 2012 was a really difficult vintage to make good wine. Decisions needed to be made throughout the process, and also there was a fair amount of luck in deciding when to pick. Unlike other vintages, those who chose to wait got rained on, and badly. Also plenty of hydric stress, as there was no rain for a long period of time, so vines shut down, and finally problems with grapes at different stages of ripeness. Moueix for example in late June took the Draconian decision to get rid of all straggling grapes and thus reduced already low yields by 30%. Most people weren’t able to afford this, and did a less stringent reduction.
Anyway enough of the problems. Some very nice wines were made, and I hear that there will be an early campaign and a fairly drastic reduction in price, although I was told that “nobody wants to see 2008 levels” (apart from the consumers.) But I don’t think we will be far away. No Chinese, no American demand and you are left with a few traditional European markets. There’s not much inventory left in Bordeaux, but the banks are a little wary lending large sums, so merchants may have to risk losing allocations and buy wines they believe in. Which may mean, they won’t wait for Parker scores. Anyway, it promises to be a very interesting couple of weeks.
I hate sites that do this. How to fix this: Run Chrome and install this extention:
It puts a button at the upper-right. By clicking that button you can disable Javascript temporarily for the current page. Then you can right-click.
Well he’s probably being honest and refering to this decade…which only has had three vintages…
was thinking the same thing.
All you Bordeaux lovers should return home to Cali cab for 2012, which will supposedly be a great vintage and a helluva lot cheaper.
I have not bought any California new releases in some years (apart from being on a couple of friend’s lists) but I am curious, where exactly have carefully chosen California wines been better QPRs than their equivalent Bordeaux? And somehow or other, I think the hype of 2012 can only raise prices, and push the equation even more in Bordeaux’ favor.