Bordeaux 2014 vintage release tasting, Noo Yawk

WINE TALK
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OK. With some trepidation, I decided to start a separate TN thread only because people may search for “UGC” and might not stumble onto this thread right away. I will still cross-post my thoughts here, see below.

2014 Chateau Latour-Martillac Blanc
Salty and gingerbread bouquet. Crisp and soft at the same time when it reaches the tongue. Lemon, but also a whisper of guava. More interesting than usual from this estate, though still on the light side

2014 Chateau Larrivet Haut Brion Blanc
More stones and minerals here. Very round and ripe with bursting citrus. Maybe the ripest I’ve had from here. Would be curious to track its evolution over the next 5 years

2014 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc
Vanilla notes are lurking behind light lemon and plenty of mineral on the schnozz. Palate shows a lot of mouthfeel and carry, has a bit of oily to it, fresh grassy and plenty of fruit as well. Good wine for sure, but missing just that extra to really elevate it to a next level.

2014 Chateau Fieuzal Blanc
Shyer nose, a little less. Less to taste too, maybe the sharp end of crisp. Just not much there this time, kinda watery.

2014 Chateau Beau-Sejour Becot
Reserved, but sniffs of berry, kirsch and very baking spice. In the mouth, lots of grip, but this first red has plenty of expressiveness and firepower. I like the fruit is showing this early, though it may not be the longest-lived. The rep agreed, commenting that he thinks this vintage will appeal to those who don’t want to wait 20 years for their Bordeaux to mature (I was sorry Caroline Becot, who I met at the Chateau 3 years ago, did not make the trip, but she’s expecting a baby, so that’s a good excuse!).

2014 Chateau Canon La Gaffeliere
Also sorry not to see Comte Stephane, but he had another event he needed to be present at. This is still in line with the many fine wines from here I’ve had in the past. Chocolate and a touch of mint note in the bouquet. Dans la bouche, lithe and smooth, just what I’d want to see. Slightly tarter and crisper fruits, maybe a touch less rich than normal, but still enjoyable.

2014 Chateau Couspaud
75% merlot, 5% CS, 20% CF. Another where I was sorry Vanessa Aubert couldn’t come as we had a delightful visit with her at the Chateau those 3 years ago. More cocoa here and lifted liqueured cherry aromatics. The CF is really in evidence on the palate, green/bell pepper notes are clearly there. Underneath, some charcoal and blackcurrant. Stuff going on, no surprise that this wine will need time to show its best

2014 Chateau La Dominique
88% merlot, 12% CF here. Good earth, red plum and lightest tabac scents. Again, this has immediate grip that strongly frames the wine. Red fruit now, but a bit of a “dispute” with darker flavours poking their head up. We’ll see

2014 Chateau Lascombes
Needs swirling to open the black cherry and blackberry notes. Yup. Gah-RIP. Just grabs and doesn’t let go. I have concerns about the light level of fruit underneath. At the least, a vin de garde for this vintage.

2014 Chateau Desmirails
57% CS, 38% merlot, 5% PV. I’ve had very little from this chateau previously and that may change. Attractive perfumey nose, with flowers and plenty of red berry, currant and spices. Now this I like. Shape and presentation with balance, there are aromatic replays and a small mocha add. And an absolutely super value at the price of about US$45. I bought 2 of these. #8 tonight

2014 Chateau Kirwan
Darker complexion than the Desmirails, plum and darker cherry with dashes of violet and mineral. This is great stuff, with bittersweet chocolate and some blueberry accents. I like the future I see here, 2 bottles bought. #3 tonight

2014 Chateau Giscours
This is always somewhat of an outlier for me and no different here, macerated plum and cherry, with some light prune added on aroma. In the mouth, wavers between light and rich, interesting presentation with more red fruit here. Should evolve, give time.

2014 Chateau Du Tertre
Tobacco and some campfire mix with herbs and currant fruit. Fills the mouth and has plenty to say with raspberry, cranberry, boysenberry and more herbs. Quite good

2014 Chateau La Tour Carnet
This has good things in the nose, plenty of cured tobacco and meat accent to dark plum and cassis. But geez—dans la bouche—California? It’s ripe and very plush and present, with the plum and cherry very much in ascendancy.

2014 Chateau Angludet
More “classic” with woodsy notes weaving in and out of currant and unripe cranberry aromatics. Delightful mouthfeel, smooth as silk and this keeps tasting you with nutmeg sprinkle, nut meats and wild strawberry. A rather compelling drink, #6

2014 Chateau Ormes de Pez
Aromas tucked away, I found this a bit reductive. It does have grip, carry and flavor—all red berries and some pepper backhit at the end.

2014 Chateau Lynch Bages
Wealth of iron, cocoa, some espresso, black plum and maybe even a tiny swathe of eucalyptus. On the tongue, it’s cecent—some stuffing, but right now a li’l dissonance between fruit and spice. Would be interested in checking back in 6 years.

2014 Chateau Pichon-Baron
77% CS, 23% merlot this year. Brooding tobacco-filled nose, with currant galore and roasted thyme. Very characterful, plenty of red and black fruit buttressed by judicious wood. Baron has always been a shade masculine for my own taste, but those who like it will find a wine to enjoy here, I think. #10

2014 Chateau Talbot
Elegant—very fragrant, just lovely florals and a bounty of red and blue fruit wafts up the glass. It follows through with all that on the palate, a kinder, gentler and very aristocratic Bordeaux that should have a huge drinking window to it. I bought one of these and may regret holding my purchase to only 1. #2 tonight.

2014 Chateau Smith-Haut Lafitte Blanc
Verbena lemon, bits of lime and hay encompass a fine, fine scent. Oh my! This is a horse of a different breed, with fabulous mouthfeel and verve and energy along a steel-tinged citrus and apple base. Extremely good, #4

2014 Chateau Branaire Ducru
Tobacco with red and black currant make up the bouquet here. A bit thin on taste, but not on structure and flow. It may grow into more fruit.

2014 Chateau Gruaud-Larose
Always fun to try. And I like! That sense of animale/sauvage with present herbs and underlying fruit aromas. Very very good here, earth and currants and tart berries and cedar box, and it stays with you. Yum! #7

As I usually do at about the halfway point of my tasting, I diverted to try all the Sauternes/Barsac at this point.

2014 Chateau Coutet
Delighted that Aline Baly was here once again and we were able to reconnect. Fond memories of my visit there. This is quite an atypical Coutet, though, bursting with pineapple, papaya and yellow fruit on the nuzzie. Full and very, very sweet and rich right now. The lime and ginger are there in the background, but it will take years to show.

2014 Chateau de Fargues
Lots of botrytis and sweet/sweaty notes, corn chowder a bit maybe? There is a lingering salinity in the nose. That is swee—eet. Sugar, sugarplum fairy, with vanilla, maple fudge and orange all interwoven. Finish lasts and lasts, but is there complexity here? That is a hard question to answer at this early stage

2014 Chateau Clos-Haut Peyraguey
95% Sem and 5% SB. Smells just lovely—a sultan’s tent of pit fruits and exotic spices, it also smells balanced. This continues sweet but really carries down with candied orange. Very good in this vintage. #11

2014 Chateau Guiraud
Demanding nose—vanilla, citrus, melon and just a li’l kerosene. 35% SB and 65% Sem here. It attacks, but it’s very precise right now. Very delineated with orange peel almost palpable. Lemoncurd too, but still with that overlay of the vintage’s sweetness. Vervy and interesting.

2014 Chateau Lafaurie-Peyraguey
Candied melon, lemon and star fruit make up the bouquet. Le gout is good, but it has a ceiling, plenty of flavour here but complexity and drive are missing for me.

2014 Chateau Suduiraut
Orange, pineapple and honey all swirl up your nostrils. This Sud is wound tight on the tongue, replays there and a ton of promise, may end up being the longest-lived of these. #9

2014 Chateau La Tour Blanche
More floral here with pineapple and other yellow fruit showing. To taste, very strong and forthright for LTB—not as sweet as others and quite pure. Harder to assess than the others at this stage, not sure how it will evolve.

2014 Chateau Canon
My friend Dave’s favourite (I think—at least the early favourite), I found this nose to be expressive with plum, crabapple and plenty of sage-like herbs. This does have an impenetrability about its currant and plum but also has the legs to go 20 years….almost like a young Barolo in its structure profile.

2014 Chateau Clinet
Back to our regularly scheduled programming! 88% merlot, 9% CS and 1% CF. There’s a bit of magic in the aroma—cherry but baking spices galore and it doesn’t sit still in your nose for a minute. And this is the definition of structure—a skyscraper of a wine, but still with requisite mid-dark plum, currant and berry fruit and some further dark cocoa notes. #5, I bought one of these entranced by the individuality of this wine.

2014 Chateau Cabanne
Meats and some sandalwood notes for me to sniff. In the mouth, straightforward with mostly red berry fruit, but some value to be had.

2014 Chateau Gazin
Shy, maybe with touches of earth and some blackberry. Follows through with those impressions on a structured palate that promises years of development along a slow curve

2014 Chateau Langoa-Barton
Sadly, the Leoville was gone by the time we got to the table. This smells good—cocoa, earth, unripe plum and cassis are all in play with light tobacco. Expected big grip with redcurrant outside and prune-plum fruits inside. Should grow up to be a very complete wine. #12

2014 Chateau Leoville Poyferre
Fragrant, with herbs and spices and some red fruit underneath. Shows with a stern mouthfeel and good cedar and some pepper licks showing up, but needs lots of time

2014 Chateau Pape Clement Blanc
Sooo expressive. Kaleidoscope of star fruit, very light honey accent, sliver of fresh grass, and lemon and festival of citrus in the bouquet. And this is a real beauty to taste—replays on all that and combined with unearthly freshness and energy. This is a riveting wine that I hope to own some of one day. As good as the SHL was, this is another order of magnitude above that. #1 and WOTN, 94 if pushed to score.

2014 Chateau Pape Clement Rouge
More reticent and striated in the sniffer—you get the spices and then the fruit comes bounding in afterwards—blackberry and red berry and currant. Palate is also somewhat unknit at this point, good dollops of structure, length, tannins and darker fruit, but not in a place to assess well right now.

2014 Chateau Cantemerle
Fruit and meats in the bouquet, cedar and decent balance to it. “juicy” is how I’d describe the taste, which is unusual for this vintage for me. Also has a minty crispness on 2nd taste. Unripe red plum and red berries here. Decent wine.

2014 Chateau Coufran
85% merlot, 15% CS. Plums in the main and red fruit circling outside, some boysenberry too. Round, as one might expect from the merlot, and quite nice.

2014 Chateau Haut-Bages Liberal
A bit furry but also meats, berries and plum making up the aromatics. Round and big-ish, but still within Bordeaux parameters with tight berry, cassis, herbs and faint tobacco overtones.

All the reps seemed in good spirits and happy to engage all of us.

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Cantemerle was a polarizing wine for me, as I don’t feel it was indicative of the vintage. It is a wine I enjoy almost every vintage I’ve had the pleasure to try, and it was one of the first wines I tried at the NYC tasting. Very fruit forward and plush, poured deep and dark, red fruits and some blue/black fruits. Tasted like nothing else at the event…I tried it 3 times total and at least 2 different bottles…didn’t taste like Bordeaux to me…

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Disappointing to hear this. Has Cantemerle gone rogue with one of those modern consultants? An annual fave of mine, and I bought lots in 2014.

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Thank you Mike for the notes.

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I am quite surprised that the Cordier funk is back. Last Gruaud vintage I had was 2006 and I don’t seem to recall the 90’s to 2006 vintage having that Cordier funk, at least not in the same forceful way as in the 80’s and before. I liked that it’s back, though. Distinctive. Thanks for the notes, Victor.

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96 Talbot has tiny sliver of the funk. I thought that was the best among 88-99 personally.

00 Never showed any to my taste.

Interesting to hear Gruaud is getting its form back. Like Ramon, have not had recent years.

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I was at the NYC tasting on Monday as well and I tasted the Gruaud Larose several times and I did not pick up any funk whatsoever granted I drink a sh*t ton of CdP but still. My limited notes stated that it had a really nice nose and was lighter styled and dare I say elegant on the palate yet still very Saint Julien.

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You are talking redundantly. [stirthepothal.gif]

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I attended the UGC in Santa Monica last night. It was the first occasion I have had to taste Bordeaux at such a young age so I was at a loss how to judge. I found most of the merlot heavy blends to be nearly undrinkable and giving up very little, while Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon showed better at this stage.
The wines from Pomerol, St Emillon, and to a lesser extent Pessac-Leognan were showing all very tightly wound, with thinner mid-palates, and little nose. Did everything have bottle shock?! The exceptions were Le Carmes Haut-Brion, and Carbonnieux Blanc, which was very nice.

My favorite regions for 2014 were definitely St Julien (GL), Sauternais (Guiraud), and Margaux (Desmirail), in that order. Haut-Medoc had some reliable wines that should age well too. I had a much more positive experience with Cantemerle than others; the structure was balanced, and aromatics classic, though it was a bit riper than others. Gruaud Larose was fabulous, with great freshness and black fruits. Talbot was not very accessible but you could sense a great wine hidden in there and I was impressed. Maybe it was the end of the night, but the Guiraud Sauternes was one of my favorites, absolute stunning freshness and verve, not a syrup.

Overall, a classically styled vintage, lots of reliable favorites. Hard to assess some of the more southerly zones but if you have a chateau you already love, this is a great year to stock up on some good values.

A more thorough accounting:

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The Right Bank wines seemed much more open and enjoyable in Noo Yawk than LA, but that maybe reflect how they inherently show better on the Right Coast than Left Coast.

Accordingly, especially when young, Left Bank wines are suited for drinking where you are, the Left Coast.

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Great notes Mike…thank u

Did someone say Cordier funk?

Oh, I’m all in

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Went to the tasting in SF last night. I’ve never tried such young Bordeaux before, and found most of them to be very difficult to assess. I tried a couple of right banks without getting much (Gazin was pretty mute for me.) When we turned to the cabs, I dug the Cantemerle and the Giscours especially. Couldn’t really make Pichon Baron or Lynch Bages speak to me. My girlfriend and I both really enjoyed Les Carmes Haut Brion and du Tertre (probably because of the Cab Franc). She isn’t on the boards, and isn’t obsessed with the stuff like us, and doesn’t care about the differences between modern/traditional and whatnot, but still said that Gruaud Larose was like licking a wet rabbit. This should make some people happy.

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This…just all of this❤

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Anímale!

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[wow.gif] [stirthepothal.gif] Will not say more. The…er, uh…cat has my tongue.

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Went to the Chicago tasting. I’ll give my general impressions. Overall a very nice vintage. Good wines with solid fruit and well balanced overall. Left bank was definitely the winner. Clinet was nice and also Canon La Gaffeliere. My favorites were the Baron and Haut Bailly. Carmes Haut Brion and Lynch were up there. Although the Lynch needs time for sure. It was pretty disjointed but all the elements were there.

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Wonderful notes, Rory, and welcome to the board. I felt like I was back at the tasting reading some of yours. The only place we differ, clearly, is on our perception of the Sauternes. That may have something to do with you tasting them (I think) at the end of the evening and me blasting through them in the middle. My own tentative comparisons were to 2006 for Sauternes. But again, fine notes, thanks for sharing via link.

Mike

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We went to the UGC tasting in San Francisco on Friday night. The event was held at the Westin in Union Square. Great venue! It was a very spacious room, with ample space to walk around. I was able to say hello to fellow WB’er Alan Rath and a few others that we typically see at these events. Good to see you again, Alan!

On to the wines, I agree with the sentiments that there are a lot of good wines. I did not find one Region that shined much more than others, with the possible exception of St. Julien. From Pessac, both Pape Clement’s were excellent. The Haut Bailly was very good, albeit tight, and Carbonnieux continues to be a good value for the whites. To me, the Malartic red was a step down from the fine 2012.

From Pauillac, Grand Puy Lacoste was my favorite of the entire tasting, and the Pichon was also very good, albeit in a lighter style than normal. From Margaux, I thought Brane Cantenac, Giscours and Du Tertre were very elegant and tasty. From St. Julien, Talbot was outstanding, as were both the Barton’s and the Poyferre’. From St. Estephe, I thought both the Lafon Rochet and the Phelan Segur were very good.

From the Right Bank, my two favorites were the Beau-Sejour Becot and Canon La Gaffeliere. I think I liked the Gazin more than others did, and the Canon less than others. Canon seemed to be a very polarizing wine. Clinet was not being poured, which was disappointing. From the Haut Medoc, Courfan for less than $20 is an easy buy.

The Sweet wines were very difficult to assess. I did not feel the acidity in previous years like 2009, or even 2013. These were very, very sweet wines. I am guessing the 1990 vintage may have tasted the same way in their youth. My two favorites were Coutet and Suduiraut.

All in all, 2014 appears to be a very solid vintage that should offer some excellent wines for anyone who likes Bordeaux.

Thanks,
Ed

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Hey Rory, we met at the SM UGC (Barry and his tall bald buddy Matt). Agree on the Guiraud. It was precise and balanced.

Victor, thanks for starting this thread. Great notes on UGC. I like your tastes, My UGC standouts were Lynch Bages, Gruaud Larose, Leoville Poyferre, Leoville Barton, Beychevelle, and Pape Clement rouge.

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I am inquiring…Did u also find that G.Larose has the lovely funk and animale?