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)

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.

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.)

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.

Haut-Bages Liberal 1990: Classic wonderful Pauillac

This wine is a true gem. 

Beautifully balanced, with ripe fruit and lovely earthy flavours, a truly superb combination.

It's got a supremely long and powerful finish

Wine-searcher.com says it's about £40, plus taxes. 

It was a little more than that at London's Planet of the Grapes wine shop/bar.

Parker gives it an 87. I'd suggest he needs to re-taste it. 

For me it was not far off a 95. 

A wonderful experience. One for any wine collection. 

Chateau Haut Marbuzet 2009: Glorious and will only get better

Yum

This was a wine of two parts. When first opened and sampled, rather later at night that it should have been, I was not particularly impressed.

I realised the next day, having given it a good airing in the decanter, just how damn good it is.

There's a lesson to learn: Never grab a bottle from the wine fridge late at night when friends come back for a final drink before overdue bedtime. Always take it from the rack (where the quaffing wine lives) rather than the 14 degree fridge!

It definitely needs an hour or two in the decanter, prefably longer I would guess, and should not be drunk when one has already ruined their palate, as I had when opening it.

Tasting it properly I found it very accessible for the commune. Silky was the word that came to mind. But it had beautiful length and depth, and the finish is a good minute of wonderful pleasure. It's not like Ormes de Pez or any of the bigger, more minerally wines of Saint-Estephe. It's more like Montrose than Meyney for me.

Writers have scored it at 90-92. I would certainly agree. The pleasure is also in the anticipation of tasting wines like this when they have aged properly. This still be a stunner in 10-15-20 years. I can't wait. Right now its around £30-50 per bottle, depending on tax etc, and worth investing in as a drinker for years to come.

My bottle was from the Carrefour in Bordeaux, which is well worth a look if you are in the area and are looking for good value young St Estephe wines in the 20-30 Euros a bottle range. Their 2005 selection seemed particularly excellent for the prices.

Bordeaux 2010 Cru Bourgeois, an excellent guide

The view from St Emilion, October 2012

If, like me, you regard the Cru Bourgeois Bordeaux 'classification' as packed full of hidden gems, but also confusing in its makeup and history, then take a look at this post from Chris Kissack.

He's right I think, in saying this is where to find incredible value in the 2010 Bordeaux reds.

But one has to be very careful, as more and more wines are allowed in, and some poor quality plonk now uses the label. More on that, here.

I certainly have begun to try and find the decent value 2009/10 drinkers, and it's hard going (and it feels sinful to drink them so young).

Kissack writes that, regarding the 2010:

"Many châteaux set new records for their prix de sortie. In such a situation, what can the Bordeaux-hungry drinker on a budget do? Look abroad for alternatives, to California or South America, as suggested by Benjamin Lewin MW in a recent edition of The World of Fine Wine? It hardly seems like a sensible solution to me, as such plainly warmer climes are bound to give a fleshier and darker wine, lovely in their own right perhaps, but a poor substitute for the cool climate style we have in Bordeaux. Much more logical is to look to Bordeaux itself, beyond the cru classé estates, to the wines of the cru bourgeois and other 'lesser' châteaux."

Here's a link to his review of the 2010 wines and tasting notes. A useful guide for red wine drinkers. 

Poujeaux 2008: Solid, if unspectacular, every day drinking

Cru Bourgeois from Moulis

Poujeaux is often regarded as one of the best of the small region of Moulis. Here's a map.

I've tried a few before. The 2004 and another vintage which I forget

I liked the 2004, the forgotten one I was not a fan of. I recall it was far too austere for me. Or perhaps had not been stored correctly, who knows.

This 2008 is just the right side of restrained for me. It's mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, but with more Merlot than you can taste.

It's not got a huge amount about it, but sometimes that's what you want. A nice, simple classy Medoc without too much bright fruit. (God, I hate that term)

So for a simple reliable 2008, if you like classic Medoc, it's worth a punt. It's clearly changing quickly as it ages though, as you can see from the Winedoctor's reviews.

For UK folks, it's about £20 a bottle, and worth it at that price.

I picked up my bottle at Carrefour in Bordeaux (amusingly, having just been tasting the 2012 harvest out of the vat at Le Pin!.. ah how the mighty fall) for about 13-15 Euros I think.

Chateau Meyney 2010: Drink a bottle a year for the next 20

The wine to drink in 2025 and beyond

Meyney is fast becoming one of my favourite wines.

I was turned onto it by the 1989, which is incredible. Since then I've also sampled the 2005 which is just as good. 

Meyney seems to combine all the best elements of Cabernet Sauvignon (66% of vines) and Merlot (25%) in a very affordable way. It feels like it should cost a lot more than it does. Thankfully it does not.

I've become increasingly appreciative of the grape combination, the more I read about the commune it hails from.

The wines of Saint-Estephe need that mix of both due to the location and weather combinations.

There's more Merlot than further south in Pauillac, needed, apparently, to smooth out the Cabernet grapes. This is due to, I think, to the fact that the vines are on reclaimed land and there's more clay, which suits Merlot more than Cabernet, which prefers more gravelly soils.

They say Cabernet provides the 'spine' whilst Merlot adds the 'flesh' to the wine.

If that description puts you off, it's worth noting that in his book on the region "Bordeaux St Estephe, Wines of a Great Commune" David Copp writes that the Merlot at Meyney "...is planted in a three metre thick streak of the same blue-clay sub-soil that is found at Chateau Petrus in Pomerol".

Having recently had the immense privilege of trying the 1983 Petrus I can see just what he means.

I'd suggest you can even taste it in the 2010 Meyney, a wine ought to be far too young to drink now.

Clearly it is far too youthful, a classic Bordeaux year such as 2010 demands cellaring for decades.

But the Meyney 2010 is worth buying now and sampling a bottle a year or more, for evermore.

It's simply superb. Big, smooth, slightly muddy, it's just delicious.

Even now you can get to grips with its complexity, length, depth and balance.

I found it smoother than say, Pez or Ormes de Pez, which can sometimes be a little too 'minerally' by comparison. Parker gives it 89-91. I'd say 93. Others agree. More reviews are here.

At the current price it's a complete steal. I'll be buying as much as I can. More on availability here.

Marquis de Terme Margaux 2000: Great value for the year

Bargain 2000 4th growth but way too young

I sampled this recently at new-ish Marylebone wine 'workshop' 28-50.

It scores pretty high with the critics, from 16/20 upwards, and then from 86-92 with various others.

I'd give it an 88. But it's excellent value particularly if you pick it up at retail prices. Options for that are here.

For a 2000 4th Growth if you can pick it up for under £50 it's worth trying.

Various community tasting notes suggest it could still be a little young.

My limited experience of left bank Bordeaux is that 2000 is still very young. Most of those I has tasted of that year feel like they have a very long way to go. Terme 2000 may be no exception. Still a lovely drop as it is, but I'm looking forward to trying it another ten years.

Beychevelle 1981, excellent value aged Saint-Julien

Not rated by critics, but that's their loss

A common refrain among those who know wine, or at least, know a lot more than I do, is "buy the years next to the 'great' years if you want exceptional value".

The philosophy is that the great years (say 1982, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 etc) are often over priced.

Pick the right Chateau the year before or after, for example, and you could discover a real gem.

I heard this again recently in Bordeaux from someone whose family have been in the wine industry for more than half a century and own a first growth Chateau.

And so it was with the Beychevelle 1981, pictured left.

It's not rated by the critics. Wine Spectator gave it an 81, Robert Parker an 83. I'd give it an 89 personally.

It's not easy to find great 1981 vintages, from what I understand. On that basis, this is a gem as drinking it is a fairly rare experience not easily repeated.

This Beychevelle 1982 had lots of fruit left, a surprising amount I thought, and had clearly been well cared for in London's Planet of the Grapes wine store, and wherever else it has been. That's obviously so important for a 31 year old wine. It drank beautifully. Our host at Planet of the Grapes who tasted a glass with us, very much agreed that it was quite a special experience.

According to this site, there are some other good examples from Saint-Julien in that year for fans of aged value left bank Bordeaux.

Price-wise, it's about £50-60, which is outstanding value. More on stockists, here.

Marquis de Pez 2008: A decent drop at under ten Euros

I picked up a bottle of Marquis de Pez 2008 at Carrefour in Bordeaux recently. This was along with quite a few other wines, most of them in the 20-30 Euro a bottle range. I'll be reviewing them in the next few months as they are drunk.

Amusingly, we came straight from visiting visiting Chateau Le Pin (where we tasted the 2012 harvest from the vat) to filling up the car at Carrefour. How mighty are the fallen.

Marquis de Pez 2008, at around ten Euros a bottle, is among the cheapest I bought. I assumed it was the second wine of Le Pez or Les Ormes De Pez but that appears not to be right.

In fact, it's very hard indeed on Google to find out any thing about it at all. How odd.

The excellent book "Bordeaux St Estephe" by David Copp has nothing about it, and there seems to be little on the web.

I found one place it can be purchased, at ten Euros a bottle, here.

I assume it's close to Le Pez and Ormes de Pez. Berry Brothers seem to like Ormes de Pez 2008, as you might expect. Read more about it here.

So how is the 2008 Marquis to drink? That surely is the most important question.

Bright fruit, with that typical Saint-Estephe dry middle and a finish where you note the tannins, but not unpleasantly.

Let it breathe and you pick up that classic slightly muddy, mineral characteristic of the region.

I can't tell you it's got much more than that about it, but at the price, it's a very decent drop, if of course, far too young. 

Beau-Site 2005 Saint-Estephe: A decent mid-range drop

One of the many great things about living in London is the vastly improved restaurant scene.

A particular favourite of mine is the Hawksmoor steak restaurant in Spitalfields, near Liverpool Street Station.

It's the original of a fast expanding chain of five, and does excellent steaks.

Importantly, the folks who run it offer £5 corkage on a Monday evening.

And so I've spent a fair few Mondays enjoying great food and wine, at a much lower cost than usual, thanks to them.

Last night, for the first Monday night in a while, we sampled Beau-Site 2005, a Chateau I must admit I had not heard of.

As you can see from Wine-Searcher.com prices vary. We paid about £35 for our bottle, which is about the top end of what it's worth, I'd say.

If you sample some, it needs serious decanting. We had it open for half an hour but on first taste it was bitter and overly mineral. I almost declared it undrinkable. After another thirty minutes or so it opened up beautifully and went well with rare streak, as dry reds always do.

For most who sample it, it rates in the 80's and I'd say that's fair. It's still too young to drink really, but of course, the problem with storing lower/mid range wines like this are cost and space.

It's not amazing value at over £30. But if you paid under £30, you'd feel you'd done well.

Berry Brothers say the estate is good value and drinks well early. The 2010 looks like it will be worth sampling.