Good news! Every single bordeaux in 2016 is perfect!

WINE TALK
61

I have had only one 2016 but am not surprised by high scores for 2016s. The one wine I tasted a year ago was the Pichon Lalande. It was part of a large vertical of PL and to me it was one of the two best wines at the dinner - with the 1982.

To me, there are two separate questions being confused in this thread - are modern styled Bordeauxs being vastly overrated by wine writers and bloggers and is 2016 a great vintage for more classic Bordeauxs. I cannot answer the second question having only one 2016, but the answer to both could be yes. I would love to see more tasting notes on 2016s from people with classic palates. Tasting notes from people like Leve or Shin are pretty useless to me.

62

I guess I think Jeff should like the wines he likes but should have the courage of his convictions and yell out I LOVE MODERN WINES, the way Robert does about classic wines. Instead, we always get mealy mouthed junk from Jeff about how he likes wines of all styles and isn’t he just fair and great. Like what you like but If you cannot see the difference between classic and modern Bordeaux, you don’t have much of a palate or you are being dishonest. Jeff, have the courage to come clean to the world. I am sick of threads on this board where posters (not Jeff) say things like that a wine is modern but classic at the same time.

63

My goodness Howard. Strong words. I think we all know where Jeff is coming from, and I doubt whether he needs to make any disclosures.

Going back to something young Mollen wrote earlier about Gilmore/Gilman (his spellchecker obviously likes chick TV series) John tells you exactly what he thinks of a wine. What I cannot understand is the critic who clearly does not like a wine, but can extrapolate that someone with a different kind of palate would.

64

So in bottle scores.

Galloni ---- 7 x 100 7 x 99
NM ---- 5x 100 4 x 99

I guess one could commend NM for his restraint.

65

LOL, I am not sure I can blame spellcheck; it may have been a brain fart.

I am not sure how Howard has concluded that Jeff can’t discern or describe the difference between a “modern wine” (however defined) and a “classic” one (again, whatever definition you might embrace). Surely all evidence suggests that the contrary:

Lascombes (2017: a “drag queen with its fruity character and outgoing nature, the wine is round and flashy. . . . ripe and sweet”)

Ch Margaux (2017: “not a powerful wine, instead a velvet and satin texture with complexity and length”).

And he liked the less powerful, more complex wine much more! Shocker of all shockers!

And if he likes them both and says so, so what? Reading his notes one should be able to tell where the wine falls on the continuum.

66

I read and enjoyed Neal Martin’s report but left without understanding the best historical analogue in terms of vintage style. Martin obviously thinks highly of the vintage but quite clearly contrasts it with 2010 (bigger, darker, higher octane) as well as the more fruit forward duo of 2009 and 2015—but the long hang time, metrics, and prose suggest it is also a fairly tannic vintage.

Anyone have any thoughts? 2000? 1996? 1989?

67

Jake, my answer is: none of the above. A unique vintage among ones I’ve tasted, and a very interesting one to taste; my read of he vintage is different from most I have heard. Will elaborate more when I have a chance to review my notes and do a writeup.

68

Comte Stephan gave me a theoretical blend of 2010 and 2014 which I found quite interesting/curious.

I’m almost afraid to ask whether my palate grades out as a classic one for you, Howard :slight_smile:

I will re-post my general thoughts on the vintage from the UGC tasting on Tuesday here. I chose the Comtesse as my favourite. It was the only one that coaxed a score out of me. That score was 92+ But I’ve had one wine out of some 16,500 or so that has coaxed out a score of 100 in my lifetime, so that context needs to be mentioned:

Just back from the Toronto tasting, got through 41 wines I think (have to re-check my notes). I will try and post all the detailed notes tomorrow. I have enough energy for some generalizations today

DRY WHITES—I don’t think I’ve ever encountered more variability in style between houses than I did this year. And some atypicity too, Pape Clement being an intriguing example.

REDS — there were some reps who were all “vintage of the century, 1982, 1947” etc. I don’t like that when it’s not warranted. That said, I do think this is a good vintage for Bordeaux. Almost everything I tasted—not Langoa Barton, of course!----was more open and giving than I expected and I’d hesitantly say that if you had a Bordeaux newbie who was curious about the region, this is a vintage I might start them on.

OTOH, the wines were open to a degree that it was actually quite difficult for me to assess the ultimate bar for quality that they may achieve.
I’m quite sorry to read about your experience with it, David, because the Pichon Comtesse I tried was my WOTN and I think it was by more than a length. I admit to some PC bias—it is probably my favourite house in Bordeaux—but even with that factored in, it was terrific. I just couldn’t bring myself to part with $300 for a bottle. Even in Canadian pesos, that is a lot of money. I do think this is a vintage where the winemaker could factor into the discussion. (FWIW, I will have other differing views from yours, but that’s fine and that’s fun!)

SAUTERNES
– Pierre Montegut of Suduiraut was there and I admire and respect an honest merchant. When I asked him to compare vintages, he talked about 06, 04, 02—none of which are in the high celestial realms for Sauternes. You can skip this vintage, I think. Guiraud was best for me, only in that they understood the vintage and didn’t try to be any more than they could be. With the possible exception of 2014, the even-numbered curse (relatively, compared to their odd-numbered year cousins) continues for Sauternes.

69

My recollection is that he said he thought his readership was more interested in him devoting the time he spent on Bordeaux on other regions.

70

I clearly recall him polling subscribers for our opinion on the importance of him covering young Bordeaux wines. Seems like it was a pretty one sided response.