The vintage might be closing down slightly, but it’s still nearer to what I experienced at the January UGC than where I think these might be in a few more years. Drink up!
2010 Château Bernadotte- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Haut-Médoc
Aroma of coffee and dirt. (You’ll notice I said dirt, not earth…) Some round fruit, but then you’re assaulted by a wave of bitter, obtrusive tannin that won’t back off. I know it’s a young 2010, but this is out-of-sync with the tannic profile of its peers, so I have my doubts about this one. (81 pts.)
2010 Château Les Ormes de Pez- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
Overripe bing cherry is the dominant aroma here. Then you’ll taste some purple, plum-happy fruit that seems to be an initial cause for optimism. However, the wine falters a bit near the finish and turns somewhat weak and flat. (86 pts.)
2010 Château La Tour-Martillac- France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan
Interesting nose of wasabi, mustard, and cherry. (Anyone ever gotten wasabi from a wine before? Not me.) Slightly gamey in a good way, with princely fruit. Some BBQ spice, and firm tannin. A touch foursquare perhaps. (90 pts.)
2010 Château Lynch-Moussas- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Quintessentially Pauillac nose of stone dust, chalk, bright cherry, and tobacco. Then notes of Ethiopian coffee (OK, “expensive” coffee for all you critics of pretentious tasting notes), with a silky mouthfeel. Nice minerality, and a somewhat austere but robust finish. (91 pts.)
2010 Château La Couspaude- France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Smells like squashed plums, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Palate of mixed berry compote, with tingling acidity, dark chocolate, and a long finish. This is a fine St. Emilion, but would be far more attractive if they hadn’t almost doubled the price over the 2009. (92 pts.)
2010 Château Gloria- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
This Bordeaux opens with a quite attractive bouquet of dusty chocolate and lavender-tinted coffee. Rich and rolling cheesy fruit, sharp tannin, and a solid finish complete the package. But for some reason I’m not more than 90 points “on that”… (90 pts.)
2010 Château Gruaud Larose- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
My favorite counter-programmed Bordeaux, the one that leans more towards Burgundy and strangely enough succeeds at it; if they grew Cabernet in Pommard I think it might turn out like this. Nose of blackberry dark chocolate, palate of cedar and dust, medium in weight at most, but nevertheless complex and deep in its austerity. (93 pts.)
2010 Château Lynch-Bages- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Do you know what impending doom smells like? No? Well, then you’ve never opened a Lynch-Bages from a big vintage. Take a bucket of tar, mix in some pomegranate, then stick your head inside and inhale. And that’s just the nose. The tannin sets up camp on your tongue like those 100,000 Persians did to Greece in that crazy Sparta movie, and they really don’t want to go. Another analogy might be to drinking liquid asteroid. There is nothing wrong or unripe here; on the contrary, I do feel this is likely to turn out great. But I won’t pretend to score it.
2010 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Pichon Baron, you bro-tastic Bordeaux superhero. Have you ever failed to deliver in a tasting? Or anywhere? Heck, no! This stunner opens with an aroma of bright blueberry soda-fritz, fringed by roasted cocoa beans. Sip and suddenly you’re dodging roiling waves of liquefied volcanic earth and molten cherry essence. Don’t forget the perfectly ripe but omnipresent tannic overpressure, that stops just sort of suffocating. You might be thinking at this point that a nice, fat Cali Cab is a better gamble for current drinking, but there’s more than enough fruit here to stand up to the craziness. Even better than the 2009, I believe. (98 pts.)
Really? No comments? Has WB really become that Bordeaux-phobic? In addition to the above I just finished a 2010 Canon La-Gaff, which is a solidly awesome 97-pointer. If you care at all about Bordeaux, time to man (or woman) up and lay out the coin for 2010 or the 2009 still left… they are “all that” and more, and the next three vintages are looking to be average at best. Of course, if you’re playing with $$$ you can buy cases at auction from past great vintages with assured provenance… but then you’d be spending your time suing WB posters instead of reading them, wouldn’t you?
I missed this post first-time around, but was sleeping when it hit the wires!
I have a couple of these but have not tried them. Still waiting for most of my '10s to come in. Was interested in your thoughts on Pichon Baron, a favorite estate of mine, but tough to pull the trigger at $250. La Gaff, way too modern for me. I think Bonner went ga-ga over the La Gaff as well, or was that for the '09?
I’ve got a fair amount of 2010 coming when the weather cools (and more when hell freezes over from you know who) but have not tasted the first one. I am not sure what to thing about wines tasted at this stage. Especially in a vintage like 2010, I suspect this are going to shut down (or are shutting down) for a very very long time. By the time I get mine, I suspect it will be too late to open any. I’ll check back from the old age home
Nonetheless, thanks for the notes, Nick. Very interesting
I don’t think that WB is Bordeauxphobic, but it is certain that there is less interest than Bordeaux usually commands on the world wine scene here. So be it. The great wines have become very expensive and they need to age so long that they are kind of anti-21st century wines in some respects. But traditionalists (like me) adore them.
My comments:
Bernadotte is inexpensive, but rarely exciting, which is a pity considering the pedigree of the owners.
Les Ormes de Pez: I think this might surprise us later on.
La Tour Martillac: This is often OK, but nothing to write home about. I’m glad the 2010 showed well at your tasting.
Lynch Moussas: This growth too is coming up in the world. It used to be sturdy and not much more but, yes, it has indeed improved in recent vintages
Gloria: Never fails in the quality/price category
Lynch Bages: I fell in love with the 2009, but was not quite so head-over-heels about the 2010. It will be interesting to taste them side by side in a few years
Thanks for the notes, Nick. Of those, I bought the Gruaud on futures. I bought about 2.5 cases. I haven’t received a bottle yet, but I’m lining some up for shipment that are in the U. S. I went longer on 2009.
For 2010 I bought 4-6 of: Gruaud-Larose, Grand Puy Lacoste, Leoville Barton, Cantemerle, Fleur Cardinale, Calon Segur and Latour A Pomerol. I don’t plan on opening any of them any time soon. I’m with Neil and Pat.
thanks for the notes on the gruaud and gloria, about half of my 10s have been delivered, still waiting on the rest. Haven’t pulled the trigger on the lynch or pichon baron, since there weren’t any value in futures and prices have pretty much remained stagnant, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to wait.
I like Bordeaux, but I mostly just sidestepped 09 and 10 because of the pricing. I may regret it someday, but I’m just not really a buyer for 3rd-5th growth wines at $100-200 so I can try to squeeze them into my overtaxed storage for 15-25 years.
I’m more inclined to go back and buy vintages like 1998, 2001 or 2004, though the prices of backfill vintages keep rising as well.
Nick, did you taste the Lynch Bages back in March at K&L? I liked it quite a lot then, wonder if it’s changed, or if this bottle hadn’t been open long enough?
Since this is a 2010 thread its probably good to note that none of these can be had currently for the prices you listed. If you got em for that price, then more power to ya.
On a side note, the GPL currently available in the $90 range is still a ridiculous value for the 2010.
I’ve been a fan of the Latour-Martillac, Gruaud, and Barton this vintage, though the L-M is the only one I’ve bought.
This thread and my own instincts have me thinking the Bordeaux bubble is finally bursting. To put that in perspective, I think the days that you can blindly buy on release and hope to sell later for healthy profits are over.
Bonner did go ga-ga over the '09 Canon La-Gaff. It is modern but not polarizing like, say, Troplong. Despite the big fruit and oak it’s very lithe on the palate; I’ve not been shy slamming unbalanced modern Bordeaux that land with a gigantic “thud” in your mouth, but this wasn’t one. As I said after UGC I think the differences between '09 and '10 in Bordeaux have been over-emphasized. I will still end up with more '09 than '10, but you can’t go wrong with either (in general).
