Grand
Cru wines tasting
Languedoc-Roussillon
vs. France’s finest
Weds 29th September 2004
A superb tasting, brilliantly executed. Most people are
rightly sceptical about blind tastings that are deliberately
engineered to demonstrate that wine X from previously unheralded
region Y is better than first growth Claret, but this tasting
wasn’t as superficial as that. It pitched leading Languedoc wines
against established classics, but in this case it didn’t involve
weaker vintages of the classics set up for a fall. And besides, the
thing I don’t like about the ‘set-up’ tastings is that they
rely on pooling results from tasters – while some of these tasters
will be supremely able, there’ll be enough duffers in there who
are going to be duped by superficial, forward, sweet, ripe wines
(remember: even established trade figures can perform like duffers
in blind tastings – and even those with letters after their name).
In this case I was tasting on my own, and I used the tasting not as
a chance to try to shatter icons, but to see whether the differences
I assume exist between the different styles are apparent when I’m
tasting blind.
This was a single-blind tasting (where we know which wines
are in each flight but not the order) in four flights of three. We
were given the identities of the wines in each flight, arranged
around grape variety, and as close as possible, vintage. The task
was to rate each wine, and try to guess the identity. Once you get
over the fear of making a mistake, this sort of tasting is
tremendous fun. Even where I hadn’t tried the wines, I’d have
thought I could have spotted the difference between a Languedoc
Merlot and Château Pétrus. Could you?
Notes are exactly as written at the time, blind. Retail
prices are given in brackets (in some cases these are approximate)
Flight
1 Merlot based
Château Pétrus 1999 Pomerol, Bordeaux
Showing some roasted, tarry oak on the nose. Lots of class here,
but a bit tight and oaky now. Concentrated, dense and firm on the
palate. Savoury with some spicy but classy oak. A firm, savoury,
very spicy wine. Quite oaky. Very good/excellent 90/100
My guess: the Ravanés.
Market price £400
Alain Chabanon Merle Aux Alouettes 1999 Languedoc
Dense, firm, tarry and spicy. Lots of structure and some warmth.
Ripe fruit on the nose. The palate is midweight and quite elegant
with some chalky minerality and good acidity. Nice stuff, perhaps
lacking a bit of stuffing. Very good/excellent 91/100
Guessed correctly.
£20.95
Domaine de Ravanés Les Gravières du Taurou 1999
Languedoc
Ripe, dark blackcurrant fruit nose. Quite ripe and full with
lovely concentration. Serious stuff. The palate is concentrated and
rich with lovely forward fruit backed up with considerable spicy
structure. Hints of chocolate and herbs. Taut with lots of
structure. Very good/excellent 94/100
My guess: Pétrus!
£16.95
Comments: there’s no doubting it – if I were to
choose a bottle from this flight to drink tonight I’d take home
the Ravanés. To prefer the Pétrus now would confirm your status as
a label drinker. I’m not just being fooled by concentration over
elegance: the Pétrus isn’t that good a drink at the moment with
its awkward woodiness.
Flight
2 Cabernet Based
Château Léoville Barton 2000 St Julien, Bordeaux
Classic claret nose: ripe, elegant blackcurrant fruit with hints
of spice and minerals. It’s so obvious which one this is, it
isn’t really blind tasting. Concentrated, elegant palate of firm,
ripe fruit with classical proportions. Tight and a bit closed, with
nice earthy, chalky structure. Very promising. Very good/excellent
92/100
Guessed correctly.
Market price £70
Domaine Les Creisses ‘Les Brunes’ 2000 Vin de Pays
d’Oc
Slightly closed nose of dark chocolatey fruit – a bold style.
Dense and full, with firm tannic structure, this is one for the long
hall. Very good/excellent 92/100
Guessed correctly
£18.50
Domaine de la Grange des Pères 2000 Vin de Pays de
l’Herault
Lovely expressive nose: slightly animally with delicate ripe
fruit character. The palate is profound with open, slightly sweet
herbal animally edge to the savoury, intense fruit. This is a
Languedoc star with a hint of the northern Rhône. Very
good/excellent 93/100
Guessed correctly
Market price £35
Comments: the Leoville Barton is so different to the two
Languedocs it’s a slightly odd comparison. I love the Grange des Pères,
which just shades a very impressive flight.
Flight
3 Syrah Based
JL Chave Hermitage 2001
Deep spicy nose with some taut, dark fruit and subtly gamey,
marmite notes in the background. The palate is spicy and expressive
with beautifully poised dark fruits and good acidity. There’s a
touch of meaty olive character so typical of the northern Rhône.
Taut and structured: brilliant. Very good/excellent 94/100
Guessed correctly.
Market price £80
Clos de la Belle 2001 Vin de Pays du Gard
Open sweet, ripe herby nose leads to an expressive palate
showing midweight sweet, ripe open fruit with a subtly gamey, herby
edge. Superb stuff: warm and southern. Very good/excellent 91/100
Guessed correctly
£22.95
Clot de l’Oum 2002 Côtes du Roussillon Caramanay
Inky dark. Fantastic nose of taut, ripe, liqouricey fruit. The
palate is hugely concentrated inky dark fruits. Firm tannins underly
this rich, savoury, structured wine. Spicy and expressive, I like
this win a lot: it has some wildness to it. Very good/excellent
93/100
Guessed correctly
£16.95
Comment: three very different wines, with the first and
the last not hiding their personality-full identities at all. The
relative newcomer, Clot de l’Oum, is the bargain pick here – a
wine showing lots of personality and richness. One to watch.
Flight
4 Grenache based
Château Rayas 2000 Châteauneuf du Pape
Lighter colour than the others. Lovely open herbal nose with
complex sweet fruit and southern spices. Sweet palate: spicy, open
and lush with a smooth, subtle spiciness. Notes of tea and herbs.
Very expressive: a profound effort. Quite unusual. Very
good/excellent 94/100
I thought this was the Abuelos.
Market price £80
Domaine Fonte Caude ‘Les Boissières’ Alain Chabanon
2000 Coteaux du Languedoc
Sweet ripe, subtly herbal nose showing rounded black and berry
fruits. Spicy structured fruit on the palate: quite dense and full
with ripe fruit, hints of spice and game. A very appealing southern
wine. Very good/excellent 91
Guessed correctly
£17.95
Terre Inconnue ‘Los Abuelos’ 2001 Vin de Table
Lovely sweet open nose: this is very ripe Grenache. The palate
has a ripe, open, tell-tale palate of sweet, subtly herbal, rounded
Grenache fruit. Great depth to this but also very open. Unusual, but
I like it a great deal: the very sweet, seamless fruit reminds me of
the 2000 Château des Tours wines, so I think it’s the Rayas. Very
good/excellent 92/100
£23.50
Comments: I was surprised that I got the Rayas and
Abuelos the wrong way round. I was fooled by the fact that the
Abuelos was actually the darker wine and it reminded me strongly of
the 2000s from Ch des Tours, with its texture and colour. Some
people think Rayas isn’t as good as it used to be. This may be the
case (I haven’t tried older vintages), but I still thought the
2000 was quite profound.
The
group verdict
These are the summarized data from the 35
people tasted the wines, including several top journalists. Each
taster was asked to mark each wine out or 20 on its individual
merits, and to indicate which wine they thought was which
(comments from Grand Cru Wines.)
Flight
1, Merlot based
As
a trio, all three wines performed well, with all three wines neck
and neck in terms of overall marks. Many tasters were surprised that
the Pétrus didn’t stand out more.
1st
1999 Merle aux Alouettes, Alain Chabanon 16.08 points
2nd
1999 Domaine de Ravanès Les Gravieres du Taurou 16.05 points
3rd
1999 Château Pétrus, Pomerol 15.92
Flight 2, Cabernet based
No
great surprises here, with both the Léoville Barton and the Grange
des Peres very highly rated but quite different in style.
1st
2000 Château Léoville Barton, St Jullien 16.91 points
2nd
2000 Domaine de la Grange des Pères 16.88 points
3rd
2000 Domaine les Creisses Les Brunes 14.48 points
Flight 3
Tasters
liked the elegance of the Clos de la Belle and the mineral style of
the Clot de l’Oum, and the Chave showed very well also. This was
maybe the most exciting group of all, with three very fine wines.
1st
2002 Clot de l’Oum Numero Uno
17.09 points
2nd
2001 Hermitage, Chave
16.17 points
3rd
2001 Clos de la Belle
16.11 points
Flight 4
Many
tasters were surprised by the light colour of the Rayas, and
opinions were divided, although many obviously liked the wine very
much. Some found the Los Abuelos almost too concentrated and “late
harvest” in style.
1st
2000 Les Boissières, Domaine Font Caude 16.69 points
2nd
2000 Château Rayas, Chateauneuf du Pape 16.05 points
3rd
2001 Terre Inconnue Los Abuelos
15.09 points
The overall wine votes were very even
across the board, with only about 2.5 votes separating the top wine
from the bottom wine, giving the following result:
Place
|
Wine
|
% guessing wine correctly
|
highest/lowest score
|
average points
|
1.
|
2002 Clot de l’Oum Numéro Uno
|
46%
|
19.5/12
|
17.09
|
2.
|
2000 Château Léoville Barton
|
77%
|
19 / 11
|
16.91
|
3.
|
2000 Domaine de la Grange des Pères
|
58%
|
19 / 13
|
16.88
|
4.
|
2000 Les Boissières, Alain Chabanon
|
36%
|
19 / 11
|
16.69
|
5.
|
2001 Hermitage, JL Chave
|
50%
|
20 / 13
|
16.17
|
6.
|
2001 Clos de la Belle
|
38%
|
18.5/ 8
|
16.11
|
7.
|
1999 Merle aux Alouettes, Chabanon
|
41%
|
19 / 12
|
16.08
|
8=.
|
1999 Domaine de Ravanès Gravieres
du Taurou
|
45%
|
19 / 10
|
16.05
|
8=.
|
2000 Château Rayas, Châteauneuf du
Pape
|
46%
|
20 / 12
|
16.05
|
10.
|
1999 Château Pétrus, Pomerol
|
45%
|
20 / 10
|
15.92
|
11.
|
2001 Terre Inconnue Los Abuelos
|
32%
|
18 / 11
|
15.08
|
12.
|
2000 Domaine les Creisses “Les
Brunes”
|
65%
|
20 / 10
|
14.48
|
Contact
details:
Grand Cru Wines, 1100-5 Avenue des Alpilles
, 13310 Saint Martin de Crau, France
Email : gcw@wanadoo.fr
Website: www.grandcruwinesltd.net
Fax : (0033) 490 47 1321
Telephone : (0033) 490 47 2906
Back
to top
|