WTN: 2000 La Fleur Haut-Bages Liberal

2000 La Fleur Haut-Bages Liberal

Sampled at a rather large wine shop tasting with several other lower end Bordeaux. This was my first exposure to Haut-Bages Liberal wines, and it was far superior to everything else on the list.

Color: Purple-red. They were short on stems so the wines were served in plastic cups unfortunately - ugh!

Nose: Initially mute. Really took off after about 5 minutes in the "cup". Dark fruit, earth, spice, tobacco, and leather were easily identified.

Taste: Rich fruit was quite apparent. Very nice spice/earth/tobacco mix in the background. Excellent balance and a pronounced, almost tangy citrus-like finish. This is the first wine I have ever tasted with a very clear tobacco note to it.

At $27 I took a bottle home. I figure it will only get better if served in proper stems. We will probably drink it in the near term as it appears this wine is not necessarily made for longevity. Also, the sales rep said he had tasted this wine about two months ago, and I wasn't even close in complexity to how it tasted yesterday.

[Robin Garr]

Sounds like a winner, Sam ... we'll look forward to your TN, and I'll also be particularly interested to hear how your experience compares when you think about the differences (and similarities, if any) between tasting it in a plastic cup at the wine shop and from a proper glass at home.

[James Roscoe]

Sam,
Great note, but when will it be ready to drink? Could you tell from the tasting? As an aside, whenever my wife and I go to the local wine store tastings, we always bring a glass with us. Usually one of our old ones from our "pre-wine geek" days or one of the cheap winery tasting glasses. The store that we go to actually encourages it. Obviously any glass is btter than the specimen cups that most store tastings seem to use. Thanks for the notes!
Cheers!
James

James,

We will probably drink it within the next few months. From the bits that I have been able to find on the net it looks like the recommended drinking window is pre-2008.

The suggestion to take your own stems to tastings is a good one. I've been to many tasting and this is the first one that didn't at least have the plastic stems available. The other odd thing was that they didn't have dump buckets available. These wines definitely had "wine geek" appeal. The neophytes were put off by the general lack of sweet fruit; "tastes like rotten grapes" was a comment from a guy who said he really likes "black berry wine". Geeks are most definitely put off by poor tasting organization.

Sam