Solihull Fine Wine Society. January Tasting. The wines of St Estephe
Blind as usual
Welcoming wine. Cour-Cheverny AC, Cazin, 2002. The Romorantin grape. North Italian nose with hints of riesling, most pleasing, but then searing acidity. No one had a clue. Good with chinese?
First flight Ch Le Bosqu. 1997. Brown edge, a dumb dusty claret nose. Good entry fruit holding up raw tannins. medium length. Died within an hour.
Ch Le Crock 1999, youthful edge, bright, soft fruitnose with farmyard , bit stalky. Nice soft entry with spice and fruit. Long. Bit young.
Les Ormes de Pez. 1996. A different ball game to the others. Depth and extract, bright. Wonderful organic almost faecal nose with pencils, improved and became more organic like an old Brane Cantenac.Soft fruit entry but big tannins , very long, lingering spice. Most agreeable wine. Drinking well but will keep.
Second flight. Ch Meyney 1995. A bright well made wine with good extract, Restrained dumb fruit and spice...merlot, a mouthful of fruit and tannins. Not quite knitted. Wait and see?
Ch Meyney 1982. Depth with a hint of brown. Magnificent nose of compost and leather. Explodes in the mouth with fruit and soft tannin, mincepie flavours, Long. Just starting to decline. A superb wine that had everyone enthusing. So unctous and so long.
Third flight Les Dames de Montrose 1996, pass the port please, massive extract, no hint of age. A blockbuster of restrained complexity. cassis and leather. Soft entry and then the big hit of huge tannins, mouth puckering, yet loads of fruit. Will be a star wine.
La Pagodes de Cos 2000, even deeper than the Dames, yet sweet violets and blackcurrants restrained, again massive tannins BUT big spicy fruit. Drinkable but wait avec patience.
Fouth flight, two bottles I found when I moved house and had to clear the cellar. Cos 1978, brown edge but still good colour, wonderful old claret nose of dusty cupboards and earth. Very soft with enough fruit to be most palatable, Drying out. This wine improved over the hour in glass which amazed us all. Theory has it that it should have died at this age from not a star vintage
Montrose 1978, no label, but price sticker of £10.50...$17, it was a lot of money in those days for a young lad. More depth than the cos with an ageing edge. Nose as per Montrose, blossomed, elegant complex, all tannin gone but fruit holding, on slippy slope but a great old lady.
Wine of the night, The Meyney 82, still going strong. This tasting restored my faith in claret, but it is getting expensive.