2000 Château Bel-Air (Domaines Martin) - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Haut-Médoc (7/22/2020)
In very good shape for a relatively inexpensive 2000. Cedar, leather and a bit of earthy funk on the nose. Nice meaty, leathery palate with fully resolved tannins and nice dark fruit. Not going to improve, but still has some life left.
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I’ve probably had half a dozen vintages of this wine, not IIRC the 2000. A consistently solid producer, glad to see people that buy Cru Bourgeois level wines and hold them to maturity.
Dan Kravitz
Interesting you feel its not going to age much longer. The few Bel-Air I’ve had seemed to be of good aging capabilities, but I never had one 20 years old…
IMO 15 - 20 years is a very sweet spot for bread-and-butter Crus Bourgeois. Lanessan is a different story, it can go to 50. I put Bel-Air with properties like Tour du Haut Moulin, Patache d’Aux, and Haut-Canteloup. I haven’t studied the new classification, don’t really see the need to slice and dice these any further, but all the well-managed vineyards are an incredible resource for people with little money but good storage space and time to let the wines mature.
Dan Kravitz
Todd - I think it will last for another 5-10 years, just not sure you are going to see improvement from here - it is in a good spot. Dan, I can’t take credit for the aging. Bought a cellar from a gentleman who was moving. Good temperature and humidity control and a wide variety of wines in ones and twos. Been interesting tasting through - some misses, but lots of hits.
Sounds like a fun adventure in your retirement!
It gets confusing keeping track of all the Belairs, Bellgraves, Beau____ named estates.