I opened two wines yesterday that were unceremoniously dumped down the drain. One a hideous smelling 2005 Bordeaux Superior not worth mentioning and the other a 1998 Phelps cabernet I received from a former “friend” as a gift. I must be a masochist because today I reached for the 2002 Pontet Canet.
This was a wine that was severely downgraded by our good friend the “Palate” after bottling from it’s EP tasting note. I sadly bought 6 after the EP score in the low $30’s.
The wine is cloudy dark red, still somewhat tannic but there is some fruit there. Cassis, light plum and a very dusty palate that is not hideous but speaks volumes for waiting to buy wine until it is in the bottle. This was my first so admittedly a test tun. It needs time, but I question whether the fruit or the tannins will go first. I have heard that this wine is poured on Intercontinental Air France Flights. Hopefully not First Class.
JB
Well that just sucks all the way around.
Glad my experiences with '01, '03 and '05 have not been the same as that for the PC.
I have cases of the 05 PC’s and a few 03’s and hope that they are the deal. This is a well made wine Bill, but a tough vintage in the Left bank and only selected FG’s were able to pull off good wines. I also have 6 of the HB’s that were similarly downgraded by the tongue of Monkton.
He keeps bragging about how he was right in 82, in 89 and 96. He was just plain stupid EP in 02.
I appreciate the data point. I bought some of these a few years ago. I drank one a bit over a year ago and it was so tight and unforgiving that I had no idea when I would open one again. I have great concern about whether there will be any fruit by the time the annie ease up.
Bruce, on day two the tannins had resolved a bit and the fruit was still there. The wine is a bit dusty and although there are some secondary nuances, they are not all Bordeaux like.
Thanks for the notes Jack. 02 PC is the only one out of my mini vertical (save the 07 which I’m fencing on, waiting for a price dump/costco) as it seems to retail high and there is very little actual word on the wine. I hear the Britts are actually big fans of it…