Saint-Emillion

Phil,

No TN's on the Chateau L'Eglise Montagne '02, but it is a ~US$15/btl. from the satellite AC of the better known St Emilion. The usual base in this region is Merlot, with CS, CF and Malbec rounding out the blend. I cannot find any references to what one would expect from this wine, but would guess that it would express black berry fruit, maybe some mint/eucalyptus, cedar, and possibly chocolate (based on other Pomerol and St Emilion Merlot based Bdx blends). Even for a lesser St Emilion, I'd think that it could stand a bit more time in cellar, but that is ONLY a guess. Maybe someone else has some direct info for you.

Hunt

"phil" skrev i melding news:LQv7f.796$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe2-win.ntli.net...

Hi Someone here may know about this one - I can only be general: Montagne St.E.is a large neighboring area to the more famous St.Emilion, so with lesser reputation, which, however, is rising. This winery does not rank with the local top shots (Calon, St.-André-Corbin, Vieux Ch. St.-Andre among others) so it is likely an average Bordeaux.

2002 was an above average vintage and I guess your wine will keep a few more years if you have good storage, if not - drink soon. I've no idea about price in the U.S. - found 11.80Euro in Germany which is about 14 USD. The vendor claims it to be a fruity, tasty wine suitable with pork, fowl or mild cheeses. hth Anders

2002 was a variable year — the weather was not good until September when there was decent sun and three weeks without rain. August was wet and rot and fungal growth posed a threat demandinghigh vineyard standards and a lot of work to get fruit ripened as uniformly as possible. There was a dearth of good ripe fruit and it was really a winemaker‘s vintage which perhaps 20 years earlier would not have produced much. However tannin levels were about average and polyphenol (skin colour)levels high. Some decent, but probably not great, wine was made but it is not really a long keeping vintage, in my view. I can say little of Ch. l‘Eglise — it is 70% merlot and 30% cabernet franc and about 6 ha. in size. A second wine is made which may be a hopeful sign. I suggest trying a bottle and seeing but my guess is that this is one for fairly pleasurable young drinking but not long cellaring. Hope that helps a little but there is no substitute for tasting and seeing if you like it.

Timothy Hartley

Many thanks for the replys. Most helpful phil