WTN: 2007 Esporão PS, 2004 Cahors.

2007 Esporão Private Selection Withe, Alentejo, Portugal. 14,5%

Completly different from the 2006 (13,5%) there is no fruit in there.
A very strong gold yellow, Aromas of nuts, almonds, buther and tost notes. A tipical over maturity , unfortunally low acidity fro that body and a strong bitternes. To bad, my experiace with the 2006 was really better, but i don´t now if is my palate changing, and now this is no more a good wine from me...

2004 Clos Ressèguiere, Cahors, France. 12,5%
(malbec 80%, merlot 20%)

Clearly secondary aromas of old oak with soisbois, sweat... earthy and dark fruit, not jamy! After a wile, i really define the aromas from cafe and orange sweet crystallized. In the mouth is young, with aggressive tannins, and medium body, very gastronomic with good acidity and flavored! i liked, i think that is good for ageing and for sure with aeration could be more balance. I will try more wines from Cahors.

Marcelo, I have some experience of Esporao and know the style of wine produced. In fact, last time I met the owner at a tasting I thought that the style was becoming too "modern".
From your description, I would think this was an off bottle/travel damage.
Prices have been creeping up too!

2 problems in the same bottle... not so lucky....
The other fact that make that not so good, was my expectation... because I taste that thinking, wow! i like it!

Bob/Marcelo
Yes the lack of fruit & bitter edge may be indicators of cork taint... though IME (but I'm far from a TCA expert) the lack of fruit often makes the acidity stand out. Whatever, this doesn't sound appealing!

Cahors has a fond place in my drinking memory, as one of the first wines to attract my attention with big structure, but fruit to match to it ... and all for a bargain price. In recent times I've found the style all over the place, occasionally neutered into a bland dry red, sometimes raw & tannic, sometimes rich but a bit soulless. This one sounds more to my expectation of Cahors. I'm going to grab some Ch Lamartine soon to try another. When I do find one to my tastes, I expect I'll settle into it as a regular purchase.

regards

Ian

Ian, perhaps we should add Cahors to the Open Mike list!!!

I am ready for the Mourvedre OM, are you going to set it up for us?

Bob/Marcelo
Yes the lack of fruit & bitter edge may be indicators of cork taint... though IME (but I'm far from a TCA expert) the lack of fruit often makes the acidity stand out. Whatever, this doesn't sound appealing!

Cahors has a fond place in my drinking memory, as one of the first wines to attract my attention with big structure, but fruit to match to it ... and all for a bargain price. In recent times I've found the style all over the place, occasionally neutered into a bland dry red, sometimes raw & tannic, sometimes rich but a bit soulless. This one sounds more to my expectation of Cahors. I'm going to grab some Ch Lamartine soon to try another. When I do find one to my tastes, I expect I'll settle into it as a regular purchase.

regards

Ian

Nice Ian, I will wait for your post. My grandfather has one bottle of Lamartine, and I will drink also as soon as possible! he!
I think that Cahors, in this first impression, was like a good value from a good structure but with low alcohol... obviously i need to drink a lot to see whats happening, but in the first moment i had a good impression...

The Esporão does sound tainted, though it seems likely they are going for a more modern style. Marcelo, we should do a comparative tasting of Esporão and Crasto, since they belong to cousins and are represented by the same people.

Ian, perhaps we should add Cahors to the Open Mike list!!!

I am ready for the Mourvedre OM, are you going to set it up for us?

Bob
Yes, there seemed to be enough Mourvedre interest and it would be good to tack on (as an OM) to the end of the monthly wine focus. Shall we kick off a week from now (26th October)?

Yes Cahors would be a good OM. I've none in at the moment, but looking to remedy that soon from a locl wine shop with a good selection of halves!

I'll report back assuming they've still got them & if so, an Open Mike would be fun.

regards

Ian

Bob
Just checked the stocks and I've less than I thought - just a bandol and possibly something from Languedoc - I'll check for sure, but may be something of a passenger... but lets do it anyway as I recall there was wider interest. Starting on Monday and going on to the end of the month?

regards

Ian

The Esporão does sound tainted, though it seems likely they are going for a more modern style. Marcelo, we should do a comparative tasting of Esporão and Crasto, since they belong to cousins and are represented by the same people.

Oswaldo, that is a brilliant idea. Count me in as I want to drink up some Crasto wines I have here. Would be of much interest so do it.Esparao, limited selection here but know where there is some more!

Bob
Just checked the stocks and I've less than I thought - just a bandol and possibly something from Languedoc - I'll check for sure, but may be something of a passenger... but lets do it anyway as I recall there was wider interest. Starting on Monday and going on to the end of the month?

regards

Ian

That is good for me, are you going to mention blends with say 60% mourvedre or straight 100%?

Cahors has a fond place in my drinking memory, as one of the first wines to attract my attention with big structure, but fruit to match to it ... and all for a bargain price. In recent times I've found the style all over the place, occasionally neutered into a bland dry red, sometimes raw & tannic, sometimes rich but a bit soulless. This one sounds more to my expectation of Cahors. I'm going to grab some Ch Lamartine soon to try another. When I do find one to my tastes, I expect I'll settle into it as a regular purchase.

That is an interesting observation, Ian, about Cahors style being all over the place. There is quite a lot of truth in it. A number of producers use quite a lot of new oak, which is far from traditional, but I feel that the best of these wood addicts' cuvées like Ch. du Cèdre Le Cèdre, Triguedina Prince Probus, Lamartine Expression do integrate well after a number of years and show real Cahors personality.

Cahors is trying to produce three levels of wine, in theory corresponding to different types of terroir.
1) Simple wines to be drunk young on their fruit; there is an excellent one like this in our local supermarket, Ch. Crozes de Py, selling for about €5.
2) More ambitious wines with more structure and ageing potential.
3) Grand Cru wines coming from specially designated sites; this is more an ambition than a reality; the only one which I know of is Ch. du Cèdre's GC selling for c.€70.

Bob
Will do - I'll do a brief write-up intro, possibly tonight.

Tim
Ta for this info, the shop has each of the three Lamertine Cahors and in halves, so a good excuse to do some sampling. Seems like a good excuse for an open mike!

regards

Ian

Follow-up
As I was focused on halves, and some were stuck off-site in bond, just the two Cahors picked up:
2000 Ch Lamartine Cahors (their basic bottling)
2002 Ch Lamartine Cahors Cuvee Particuliere (AFAIK an old vine based bottling)

Thus something to try out when we do the Cahors open mike.

regards

Ian

Sounds great Ian.
Hum, any idea for next months Focus? Guess it is white wine time eh. No-one picked up on my white Rhone varietal idea..yet!! Someone mentioned Austria a while back I believe.

http://www.wineanorak.com/alentejo/esporao.htm

Jamie Goode on his website has just posted some excellent notes on recent releases from Esporao. I am a big fan of these wines but quite pricey here in AB-land!