WTN: Premium Bordeaux from a Novice Taster

[jmcnally]

Introduction: I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where our provincial government operates a monopoly (called the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, hereafter the LCBO) over the sale and importation of alcoholic beverages. I work for a wine "agent" (ie. we import but must warehouse our products with the LCBO who add their government taxes and markups) as their webmaster/consumer marketing guy (and consumer marketing is pretty constrained as there are no other places to purchase bottles other than the local LCBO stores. Consumers must buy cases. But I digress.). One of the good things the LCBO does (and there are some!) is to conduct educational courses and tastings.

As a birthday/Valentine's Day present this year, my wife Brooke bought me a ticket to the Premium Bordeaux tutored tasting at the Summerhill LCBO. Being pretty close to completely ignorant about Bordeaux, I feared it might be wasted on me, but I had a good time and tasted some great wines. The focus was on wines from the right bank (St. Emilion, Pomerol). Still not sure it's worth the $125, though. Here are the wines we tasted and some of my very rudimentary observations (prices are in Canadian dollars, and the CSPC number is a numbering system used in liquor stores across Canada). We scored each of the wines personally and then Paul Farrell, the product consultant conducting the tasting, told us what Parker had given them. I'll include my scores and Parker's:

2000 Chateau Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse ($139.95, CSPC 933812) — this was a very soft and smooth wine with a long finish. Not terrifically complex, but lots of fruit. (Me: 87, Parker: 92)

2000 Chateau Franc Mayne ($94.00, CSPC 995498) — I found this even smoother despite the more pronounced tannins. It felt more acidic and complex. I believe this is what critics mean when they say a wine has more structure. I could see this wine having much more aging potential. (Me: 89, Parker: 93)

2000 Chateau Rouget ($97.00, CSPC 987123) — this Pomerol wine was very distinct from the two previous wines, which were from St. Emilion. I found it sharper and more acidic while at the same time less tannic. There was more oak character but I found this wine very drinkable. If you can even use the word "value" when talking about wines of this calibre, this wine was the best value of the bunch. (Me: 90, Parker: 90)

1988 Chateau Le Bon Pasteur ($199.00, CSPC 913608) — this may be the oldest wine I've had the opportunity to taste. Though the fruit has muted with age, the other flavours (leather, wood, herbs) made this a very interesting taste experience. The tannins were still holding well, too. (Me: 90, Parker: 89)

1999 Chateau Cheval Blanc ($319.00, CSPC 742791) — this was the only wine I wrote down a note for the nose, which immediately reminded me of milk chocolate. Tasting it was a bit of a letdown, though. Despite being smooth and plush, with a long finish, it wasn't as lively as the nose led me to expect. (Me: 91, Parker: 93)

1999 Chateau Ausone ($274.95, CSPC 744151) — this was more like it. More tannic than the Cheval Blanc, but also (perhaps because of the tannin) livelier. I could taste just a bit of wood. Overall, very very nice. And this price is a significant reduction from the LCBO's regular price of $350. Still, I didn't buy any… (Me: 93, Parker: 95)

I thought a good idea for the LCBO would be for them to offer attendees a 10% discount on the tasted wines until, say, the end of the month. The incentive of tasting was, alas, not quite enough to get me (or anyone else, that I noticed) to purchase any of these beauties.

I'd be very interested in any of your experiences with any of these wines (or other Bordeaux).

[KatieLoeb]

There was an interesting article in today's New York Times HERE discussing value priced Bordeaux (second labels generally) and some of the characteristics of the 2000 vintage. Made me want to go out and find a few of their suggestions!