Balthus 2007, world class 'garagistes' wine for £30 ish a bottle

Of course most of us don't drink £30 bottles on a regular basis.

I don't. My stock wine at the moment is Domaine de Sarabande 2010/11 at just over a tenner a bottle.

Alternatively the UK Wine Society has superb Rhone wines at as little as £7 each. Paul Jaboulet is one name to try, well known in the region.

But now and again you want to try something a bit special. Something a little rare or unknown.

Balthus is one of those wines. It's not super cheap, but it's a wine that has apparently beaten first growth wines at ten times the price in blind tastings.

Fine and Rare have it at £200 for six. A bit punchy on price? Maybe. But for what you get it's worth it.

It's from a tiny vineyard where they work really hard to only use the best of the best grapes, with lots of pruning early on to make the vines work really hard in producing the best grapes possible.

Then they use a slightly different process in production. Read all about it here. And the "garagistes" movement/style here.

The result is a really concentrated, 100% merlot wine that's quite different from anything else I've had. It needs a lot of time in the decanter. I would suggest four hours, then saving half for the following day.

Wine can't breathe enough (within reason) in my view. I had 1967 Bordeaux the other day that my friend finished the following day and said it was much better.

The Balthus is quite acid to start, but when it opens, really silky, smooth and rich. The tannins fall away and the concentrated dark fruit lingers wonderfully.

Highly recommended as a wine to show off to friends over dinner, given the tiny production and approach taken by the makers. Always nice to drink something wonderful with an unusual story behind it. Particularly when you know some people have paid 10 times the price for similar wines voted not as good as this by the experts.

More on how it scores is here.

Here's a fun video of the taste test where it beat so many top wines.

A quick look in the Berry Brother's vintage cellar

Last week I was lucky enough, with a few friends, to have a quick tour of the Berry Brother's cellars in London. The shop alone is worth a visit if you are in central London. The photos below speak for themselves, some lovely old wines in here, the earliest from the early 19th century. 

Agathon, Mount Athos, Evangelos Tsantali 2007: Organic Greek claret, yes really

very decent indeed

Well not quite.

Claret of course can only be from Bordeaux.

Unless, that is, you are Basil Fawlty.

But I blind tasted you on this you would swear this was 5-10 year old cabernet sauvignon from the left bank of the Gironde. You really would.

It took a while to come out of its shell and definitely needs 12 or 24 hours of decanting. I've had it open for 48 hours in the fridge with the air sucked out of the bottle and it's now really opening up.

And yes, it's from Greece. A blend of organic local Limnio and Cabernet grapes, it's really both a gem and a bargain.
It has the classic claret flavours for me. A little age, black fruit, a hint of smokiness and some tannins to give it character.

For £10.99 a bottle it's well worth a try. Here's where I bought it, my first purchase I think, from UK wine site Swig.

I'm a sucker for well written wine pitch from the various websites I sign up to for updates on wines. They sold me on the location as much as the tasting notes:

"The vineyards lie on the slopes of Mount Athos in Macedonia, which takes its name from the mythical giant, Athos, who threw an enormous boulder at the god Poseidon, but his aim was poor and it landed in the Aegean Sea, creating the rocky peninsula named after him. Known today by most Greeks as ‘Holy Mountain’, it is home to twenty monasteries (see photo above), where Eastern Orthodox monks live and work and farm the land organically. Evangelos Tsantali, the winemaker, buys their grapes and continues those principles in the winery, making a wine that is certified as fully organic."

"The blend is an even split between the local grape variety, Limnio, known for its velvety influence on a wine’s texture, and Cabernet Sauvignon. A double act similar to Bordeaux, where Merlot adds soft flesh to Cabernet’s muscle. Its gentle flavours and fine aromatics can be attributed to the fact that the vineyards sit at a height above sea level that confers warm days, but cold nights – the essential recipe for aromatic expression."

Swig Tasting Note: “Medium deep Morello cherry colour with just a touch of brick showing at the rim.  It has a delicately perfumed, Claret-like nose, with a lovely hint of autumnal maturity. It’s the sort of wine you want to sip slowly and keep coming back to, as it unfurls slowly in the glass. There are all the classic Cabernet Sauvignon notes of blackcurrant leaf, plum and capsicum, framed by notes of pencil shavings and powdered spices from the 8 months spent in new French barriques. The fruit on the palate is soft, ripe and subtly spiced, old-fashioned, almost, in its fine-grained texture and has the feel of a carefully handmade wine. The Claret-like impression on the nose gives way to a sunnier character on the palate, more reminiscent of a Tuscan Cabernet, with notes of dark cherry, cassis, laurel and the mellow aromas of mahogany and chestnuts. It’s not a ‘modern’ wine, so I wouldn’t recommend it if your default choice of red is a Californian Merlot, but it’s a lovely wine to serve just below room temperature and enjoy with a big cote de boeuf, a haunch of venison or barbecued lamb chops. 14% alc. Drink now-2017.”

Hidden gem year: 1996 left bank Bordeaux

Bargain vintage drinking

As an amateur enthusiast and small collector of some vintage bottles of red, I've come across a few years which I think represent very good value given the quality and price on offer.

One of these is 1996 Bordeaux, on the left bank.

I've never had a bad bottle from the year, and there is incredible variation as the wines age.

For example Potensac 1996 is a bit of a gem. It tastes to me like a 2000, smooth, elegant and with a long long way to go.

Meanwhile Cos Labory 1996 is a completely different beast. It's claret that Jancis Robinson and others suggest drinking now. It's on the way out they say. I'd agree, which is what makes it such a bargain at just £30 a bottle with tax and duty.

I found a couple of cases on BBX, the Berry Brothers exchange where you can buy from individuals online within the Berry's system.

Other great 1996 wines worth a look from the left bank are Calon Segur and Sociando Mallet. Both cracking, if a little more costly at around £75 and £50 each.

For value aged claret drinking, there's a lot of mileage left in the vintage.

Meyney 2003 - supreme value mid-range drinking

I just picked up half a case of this, best scores for the Chateau ever by Jancis. 

I've had it once and it was very very good. The 2010 is also staggeringly good already. But is already £45 a bottle here in UK.

Seems like quite a bit left around, at around £30 a bottle. 

I swapped it for a 15 minute speaking gig ten mins from home. Seemed like a better deal than the cash.

Here's what Jancis has to say: 

Ch Meyney 2003 St-Estèphe

13 Oct 2010 by JR

Date tasted	01 Oct 2010
Producer	Ch Meyney
Appellation	St-Estèphe
Vintage	2003
Region	Bordeaux
Country	France
Score	17
Colour	Red
Alcohol
When to drink	2010 to 2020
Published	13 Oct 2010
Reviewer	JR

Dark crimson. Translucent and appetising and so delicate and ethereal! Quite exceptional. So lifted. Very well done, lots of fruit there. Even if not that much density. (Average group score: 16.8)

Good short summary of how the Cru Bourgeois system works

This from a Forbes food and wine writer, Katie Bell:

"The short history goes something like this: in 1932, the Bordeaux wine brokers designated 444 wines as Crus Bourgeois.

In 2003, the first official classification of the Crus Bourgeois du Médoc was established and included 247 châteaus out of 490 candidates. 

Several châteaus (excluded from the classification) deemed this as unfair. The classification was annulled in 2007 and then, lo and behold everyone came to some agreement on things and in 2009 a Crus Bourgeois du Médoc Official Selection process was implemented.

Now, in order to be designated as Cru Bourgeois a wine must be evaluated each year by a select panel. Some wines don’t make the cut, but they are welcome to try for the following year."

The full article is here.

Bargain 2005 St Emilion: Croque Michotte, an organic gem

Good honest right bank quaffing

Sometimes you just want a hearty well-drinking rich Bordeaux.

I had this a couple of months back, when the weather was much colder. It went wonderfully with a rich beef and bean stew.

Perhaps not so much a summer red, given its power but the ripe fruit and low acidity (OK that's from the Wine Society blurb, my notes are not that good) might mean you could drink it before winter.

This wine is about £16 a bottle from the non-profit UK Wine Society. Decent value at that price, I'd say.

The 2005's are just starting to come into their own for me. Just beginning to drink well. 

What a year it will turn out to be. They say 2010 is going to be the best year in history for Bordeaux (better than 1870, 1945, 1961 or 1982). While we wait, the 2005's will do very nicely.

Ormes de Pez 2007: Decent early drinking

2007: A forward year, so they say

Ormes de Pez is one of my favourite wines.

A former Cru Bourgeois, (I think) it has probably more minerality than any other wine I know.

There are few Saint-Estephe's that can compete with it for big, bold, earthy mineral flavours.

Calon Segur and Phelan Segur, both of which I have been sampling recently, are at the other end of the Saint-Estephe scale for me. Much more subtle. Not better, just different.

The only other Saint-Estephe I know that reminds me of Pez is Lafon Roche, another big beast from the north of the left bank.

This wine, whilst extremely young, almost criminally, is drinking well right now. It has all the character of Pez you would expect.

 I hear the left bank Bordeaux 2007's are generally drinking well across the board.

Mine came from Carrefour in Brussels. More on where to buy it here.

It's not as huge as the 2003, which is possibly the most extreme of this genre I have tried (it's so intense friends of mine disliked it) and I thought this 2007 was well balanced by comparison. It's well worth a try.

1978 Las Cases and 1996 Calon, Cos and Leoville Barton

Cos D'Estournel 96', unbeatable

 Yesterday a few friends and I enjoyed a small horizontal tasting of 1996 wines, and a rather special birthday bottle.

First, the 1996 wines. We tried:

1996 Cos D'Estournel

1996 Leoville Barton

1996 Calon Segur

Opinions differed slightly on the Calon. Some felt it still very closed, even after an hour or so in the decanter.

Others said its nose was superb and it was a great example of Calon Segur's more recent output.

The Barton, we all agreed, was a little rough around the edges.

Las Cases, Barton, Cos and Calon, lined up

It lacked balance, but that may be been the bottle: One of our party has tried it previously and noted that bottle was quite different, as far as he recalled.

The Cos won, as Cos usually does in these circumstances. It still has decades to go, and the forest floor mustiness is just emerging, with so much fruit, depth, character, complexity and finish, it was the wine of the night.

The only one that competed, for very different reasons, was the 1978 Leoville Las Cases. This was something of an outlier to the others, impossible to compare really.

A St Julien wine, but overlooking the Latour vineyard in Bordeaux (Pauillac), some might say it had gone past its best. But for us it still had plenty of fruit, depth and complexity, with that wonderful aged claret nose and finish. A truly great "super second" that I doubt I will taste again, at least in that year.

The wines came from Fine and Rare. Not cheap, but well worth it for a special celebratory evening.

Cos Labory 2005 Saint-Estephe: A keeper and a drinker

Gorgeous left bank, will be a stunner

I've just discovered this chateau and it seems like excellent value.

I picked up some 2005 and two cases of the 1996 recently.

The 1996 is a bargain, I think, at around £250 per case on the Berry Brother's wine exchange system, BBX.

The 2005, they say, will not be drinking properly until 2015.

I've opened one bottle and left for a couple of days after opening you begin to taste how good it will be when it has aged.

The 2005 is scoring between 88-92 and 16.5/20 upwards. What that means I don't know.

I had a 96 pointer wine recently that was plain awful. But this wine is worth laying down for the next decade.

Having made two trips to Bordeaux in the last 18 months and met wine makers from Cos D'estournel, Pichon Baron, Latour, Comtesse Lalande, Smith Haut Lafite, Haut Bailly, Cheval Blanc, Petrus, d'Yquem, L'arrivet Haut Brion, Lynch Bages, Le Pin and a few others, I can tell you they are all worried about climate change. Very worried. Weather may outstrip technology in wine regions in the next ten years. It's worth stocking up now.

Chateau Brown 2009: Tasty but 14.5% alcohol is too much

14.5% phew. Tasty though.

Call me a bluff old traditionalist, as Blackadder once said, but 14.5% alcohol, is too much for any red wine, except perhaps a dessert wine, however it tastes.

Chateau Brown 2009 is good but way too alcoholic even for that very forward year.

It has good balanced minerality, it's peppery, with huge dark fruit typical of 2009.

Fans of full-bodied American wine and fans of Parker will love this. It has more Merlot than Cabernet Sauvignon, which I am always a little dubious about.

It's also dark, inky and full of blackcurrent and cassis, Some reviewers said chocolate, and I kind of see what they meant.

Its slightly tannic but not overly so, and tastes like it should be drunk fairy young.

Chris Kissack, AKA the Wine Doctor, really rates this 2009 but oddly fails to mention the very high alcohol content.

I would give this a 15 or perhaps a 16, if I did ratings, which I of course do not. Who am I do so?

In conclusion, it's tasty but too strong to be a real gem, even at around £20 per bottle.

For a big(ish) tasty wine, I'd suggest instead a Saint-Estephe instead, Chateau Pickard perhaps, at this price range.

Sarget de Gruard Larose 2004: Excellent value under £25

Superb nose, will be better in five years

Second wines of second and third growth's are the way to go for value drinking.

That is, if you define value drinking around the £20+ mark.

That's hard to justify for every day quaffing of course.

But before opening this, Sarget de Gruard Larose 2004, the second wine of Gruard Larose, I'd had a glass of the Wine Society's Catena Cabernet Sauvignon for about £11 per bottle.

What a stark contrast, The Catena was really nothing special, despite the Wine Society hype. Big alcholic New World fruit, not much density, little complexity and a relatively disappointing length of finish given how they have sold this wine on their website.

Then we tried this Sarget de Gruard Larose 2004, which I bought in Carrefour in Bordeaux in October last year. I don't recall what I paid for it, perhaps 20 Euros.

Wow, what a difference. This 2004 is on the cusp of greatness, for the price and the year that is.

It's say £9 more than the Catena mentioned above, but a world away in difference. Well worth the extra £9, I would argue.

You can decant it for an hour or two, with an aerator (do they make a difference? I don't know) and just sit and breathe in the nose in a big Bordeaux glass for half an hour.

I didn't take a sip for ten minutes.

What a gorgeous nose of ripe cassis black fruit with a hint of mustiness/forest floor/age, and perhaps lead pencil shavings (first time I have picked that up in wine).

Pencil nonsense aside, it's certainly got a woody (but not oaky) bouquet, combines age, power and fruit superbly, and has wonderful balance.

The finish will improve I think, over the next five years or so. At nine years old, it is still rather young. It is still slightly tannic but I am sure those will even out in the next few years. One to keep, and to drink a bottle of occasionally to see how it is maturing.

Really superb value at around the £20 mark.

Here's one UK retailer that sells it.

I shall be hunting down a case of this to put away for 2015.

(I just noticed that I'd reviewed this wine before, here. I thought I had, but couldn't find it when I searched for it on the blog, but here it is. Interesting to note I had picked up slightly different notes last time.)

A visit to Château d'Yquem, king of wines

You can just stand and admire...

 According to my learned friends who know wine, unlike me, Château d'Yquem is the world's best wine.

I'm not sure who decided that, and I am sure there are some who would disagree. 

I wouldn't know, as I haven't tasted its best. 

On a recent trip to Bordeaux I was lucky enough to pay the place a visit.

Despite the somewhat gloomy October weather, which ruined the harvest to the point that for the first time in 20 years, Château d'Yquem will make no wine from the 2012 harvest, the place still takes your breath away. Like Chateau Margaux and Pichon Baron, it simply does not look real.

A fairytale setting. We arrived during part of the harvest, which you can see below being brought in.

Stunning, even in October's gloom

 We tasted a few grapes from the fields, without realising we might be some of the few that did in 2012.

We tasted the 2006, and I can't recall much about what it was like I'm afraid, and I hang my head in shame.

In my defence, a visit just before to Haut-Bailly had probably overwhelmed my humble palate.

I remember it was of course very very good, but I am told 2006 was not the best year for Sauternes, which is probably why freeloading visitors like us were given it. I'd have done the same.

This is not of course to cast aspersions on the excellent hospitality we were shown, merely to indicate that like Wayne in Wayne's world, we were unworthy (of the good stuff)

Here's a bit about it from Wikipedia, and a few more pictures are below:

"Fresh" from the fields

"The vineyard has 126 hectares (310 acres) in the Sauternes appellation, though only 100 hectares (250 acres) are in production at any time. Each year, vines from two to three hectares are grubbed up and left fallow for a year. Since grapes from newly planted vines are not worthy of the chateau name for five to seven years, about 20 hectares are held in reserve each year. The vines consist of 80% Sémillon and 20% Sauvignon blanc, though the latter's vigour implies the proportions are more nearly equal in the final wine.

Harvesting is carefully timed, and on average six tries through the vineyard are undertaken each year to ensure that only the botrytized grapes are selected. The yield averages nine hectolitres per hectare (2.5 acres), compared to the usual twelve to twenty hectolitres per hectare in Sauternes. The grapes are pressed three times and transferred to oak barrels for maturation over a period of about three years.

On average, 65,000 bottles are produced each year. In a poor vintage, the entire crop is deemed unworthy of bearing the Château's name; this happened nine times in the 20th century: 1910, 1915, 1930, 1951, 1952, 1964, 1972, 1974, and 1992 and in the 21st century one time: 2012."

Bringing in the harvest

Good, I think

It keeps for centuries, apparently

No fatuous caption needed

2001 Rieussec, Sauternes: "Monumental"

Holding a not very good degree in English Literature, I thought I knew something about flowery, verbose descriptions.

That was until I discovered wine critics, retailers and decent plonk.

Wordsworth at his worst has nothing on the wine industry.

But sometimes that's justified, almost.

So it may prove with Rieussec 2001 from Sauternes. I'm not a huge fan of sweet wines.

Give me a Negroni anytime, or a Marsala, so I used to think. Even a decent port.

Yes I know they are aperativos, (Port excepted) but generally I'd rather drink them than most sweet wines.

Many are just, well, too sweet for me. I tried the Climens 2006 at New Year, and was largely disappointed.

But I've been lucky enough to try a few of the top Sauternes in the last year or so.

Climens 2001, which I attempted to write about here, is one of the greatest wines of all time.

Rieussec 2001, which scores between 95 and 100 points (see here) is also amazing.

Parker's Wine Advocate apparently says "A monumental effort, the 2001 Rieussec boasts a light to medium gold color in addition to a fabulous perfume of honeysuckle, smoky oak, caramelized tropical fruits, creme brulee, and Grand Marnier. The wine is massive and full-bodied yet neither over the top nor heavy because of good acidity. With intense botrytis as well as a 70-75-second finish, this amazing Sauternes will be its apogee between 2010-2035."

It's a truly wonderful drop. On balance I preferred the more subtle Climens. But that is perhaps splitting hairs.

It may also have been that my palate was somewhat affected by the all the Calon Segur we had tasted just before it, reviewed here in a recent vertical tasting. 

Lalande D'Auvion Medoc 2001: Mature claret at a bargain price

Aged claret at under £15, you can't argue...

Working today in deepest Suffolk, UK, I found a wonderful little wine shop, with the help of a friend.

The owner has some absolute gems on his shelves.

His shop is called Wattisfield Wines in a lovely village called Walsham Le Willows. 

One these gems is this Lalande D'Auvion Medoc 2001.

At £13 this is a steal.

Mature, aged claret that opened up beautifully after an hour.

Critics seem to score it in the late 80's. For value and taste, it's fabulous.

The reviews, as always, seem to pick up things that I could never taste. But I can tell you it's delicious. I can't swear that: "This tawny-hued wine is beginning to reveal secondary aromatics of smoky bacon, caramel, leather and earth"  but for under £15, it is superb.

The grapes are harvested mechanically, according to the research I've done. But for the price you can't expect them individually caressed by an experienced picker.

This is what I love about learning about wine. You can find hidden gems in the least expected places, such as Walsham Le Willows. Here's where you can buy it. For value, it's hard to beat.

Wine Society Pauillac 2005: Bargain claret

This is excellent drinking claret from the non-profit UK Wine Society.

I tried it alongside Phelan Segur 2005 over Christmas dinner and it stood up very well.

It was big, smooth, and powerful. Very typical of the commune.

It's hard to find now on their website but the 2006 is likely also very good.

At around £20 per bottle it's excellent value.

I preferred the Phelan, but from a value perspective the Wine Society is hard to beat.

Chateau Phelan Segur 2005: Tasty but far too young

This wine is highly rated by some critics.

Depending on whom you read it's the best year for Phelan Segur since 1982 or 1990.

I decanted it for 15 hours before dinner and it did open up very nicely.

Apparently it's: "The finest Phelan-Segur since the 1990, the 2005 offers up scents of charcoal, creme de cassis, blueberries, and white flowers. With lovely fruit, abundant fat and richness, medium to full body, and moderately high but sweet tannin, it should drink well for 15 or more years. Score: 89-91 Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (170), April 2007"

It didn't quite meet my expectations based on the above.

Don't get me wrong, it's a very very decent drop but too young to drink now.

This of course is true for most 2005's.

I couldn't quite pick up all of the above but one gets the sense that this wine could score 90+ in the next 5-10 years.

Worth buying for sure but best for laying down for some time to come.

Cantelys 1999: Bargain vintage Pessac

I'd seen mixed reviews of this wine and was undecided about buying it.

In the end I picked up a Magnum from FromVineYardsDirect.com for pre-Christmas drinking with the family.

Not a huge risk at around £45 for a magnum.

On opening I was distinctively unimpressed. But increasingly I'm learning not to judge a wine until its been open for several hours, preferably 24.

Upon opening this Pessac was closed, flat and unremarkable. There was no sign that its been 13 years in vat, barrel and bottle.

A day later however, and those classic Graves notes come out.

It's age begins to show itself, it opens up and the finish lengthens.

Good fruit, great peppery characteristics, it's got some personality about it, after 24 hours in a wide bottomed decanter.

By no means an extraordinary wine, for just over £20 a bottle equivalent, it's a decent entry level aged Pessac.

For a dinner party where you don't want to spend over £50, it's a decent bet.

Cantelys has been said to have hugely improved over the last decade, so it may well be worth checking out later vintages.

Calon Segur "vertical tasting" 2000, 1996, 1979, 1970

2000, 1996, 1979, 1970, yum

 For the first time, I had the privilege of what's apparently known as a "vertical" tasting of some great years of a Bordeaux vineyard.

The wine? Calon Segur from Saint-Estephe on the left bank of the Gironde north of Bordeaux. 

We took advantage of the Hawksmoor Restaurant's Monday night £5 corkage in Spitalfields, London. It's a great deal.

We put together some good years: 2000, 1996, 1979, and 1970 over excellent steak, spinach, delicious mushrooms and triple cooked chips.

 Starting with the 2000, it was remarkably closed, even after sitting in a decanter for over an hour. It's going to be a wonderful wine in ten years time, but for now it's best left in the bottle. It's perfectly drinkable of course, but like other Bordeaux 2000's I have had, it needs another five or maybe ten or more years.

The 1996 was the standout wine. One of the most amazing bouquets' I have ever experienced. The nose reminded us of the fuss made about Burgundy wines, huge, floral, woody, a hint of must, simply stunning.

It sat in the decanter for a while and got better and better. I am so pleased I own a case of this wine in storage as it was the first time I had tasted it. Wow.

Cork problems but gorgeous wine

Then we moved onto the 1979. Despite a "high neck" on the bottle the cork was nearly gone. The corkscrew went right through it, pushing the cork into the bottle, and we feared the worst.

Luckily the restaurant had a strainer and we rescued the wine.

It was clearly past what many critics might call it's best. But the intriguing thing about wine that is just over the hill in terms of fruit content is the variation, how it opens up, how fast, and how much fruit is left.

The 1979 is well worth trying if you can get it and you like older wines.

Finally the 1970. Oddly it had more fruit than the 1979 and is a real beauty. It was a real privilege to drink a 43 year old Bordeaux and to sample the others with great friends and excellent food. I would recommend to any readers trying a vertical tasting. The four of us spent a couple of months looking forward to it and it was likely a unique wine experience. I'll no doubt enjoy more vertical tastings like this, but probably not with Calon Segur, after all, there are so many great wines to try.

The wines ranged from £50-80 per bottle. Dinner was around £250 for four. So perhaps £500 all in. £125 per head. Not bad at all for an unforgettable evening.

Here's some links for the wines: 

http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/calon+segur/1970/uk

http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/calon+segur/1979/uk

http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/calon+segur/1996/uk

http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/calon+segur/2000/uk

Sarget De Gruaud-Larose 2004, solid St Julien

In a blind test you'd say it might be Pessac

Saint-Julien is one of my favourite communes in Bordeaux.

I'm not really a right bank man. I've tasted a few, even some of the greats, and compared to the Medoc wines, particularly Saint-Julien, Saint-Estephe, Pessac and Pauillac they leave me cold.

That's not a popular view with some real wine buff friends of mine.

The exception so far was the 1983 Petrus. Oh my, now that's a wine. I doubt I'll taste it again but I'll take the memory to the grave.

Anyhow, here's another cracking Saint-Julien, Sarget De Gruaud-Larose 2004. It's the second wine of Gruaud-Larose.

I reviewed (kind of) the 1998 main wine here.

It's a great value entry-level Saint-Julien at something like £25 a bottle.

Mine came from Carrefour in Bordeaux. It's more peppery than others I have tried from the commune. A nice mineral edge. Well worth sampling. I'm thinking lamb chops would work with it.