WTN: Decline and Fall of Brigitte Barde-Haut

Back in my salad days, I had a soft spot for 97 Barde-Haut, a fruity, flavorful, lower alcohol concoction that shut down hard circa 2001/2 (it reopened recently, but I only have one left). Chasing after paradise lost, I began to stock up on a few of the subsequent vintages, choosing to ignore the change of ownership that spelled doom to the earlier style.

1998 Chateau Barde-Haut Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 12.5%
Oak, deep cherry, and cedar aromas. Delicious fruit, good density, fine acid/sweet balance, resolved tannins, civilized alcohol. Drinking well, with years ahead of it. Only quibble is too much oak.

2001 Chateau Barde-Haut Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 13.5%
Not shut down, but gobs of oak, jammy stewed fruit, and faint cedar. Good mouth density, astringent tannins, alcohol slightly salient, marred by charred fruit flavor and an acidity that, while adequate, tastes separate. Disjointed, and not particularly tasty. Could be too young to drink, but is more likely the victim of point-chasing new ownership.

Oswaldo,

Thanks for publishing these notes, I see so many positive reports on Barde Haut that I wondered if no-one else could taste what I taste in this wine. It's not a wine I have experience of back to the vintages you mention, but have tasted the '04, '05, '06 and '08 in recent years and found they all have elements that tie in to your note on the 2001. Sometimes it is stewed fruit, baked flavours, with notes of meat stock and balsamic vinegar, all way over the top for me. And often a lot of extraction on the palate too. Stylistically they are a mile away from a wine I would choose to drink.

Yes, starting with the 2000 vintage, they became the property of Sylviane Garcin-Cathiard, who owns Clos l'Église in Pomerol and Haut-Bergey, and the style seems to have changed in a direction that I don't find appealing too.

[Jenise]

Yikes! Thanks for the notes, I own some of the 01's and it's good to have my expectations, er, managed.

Shameful thread title..

2001 Chateau Barde-Haut Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 13.5%Could be too young to drink.

I liked the 01 more than you did, about 4 years ago, but then questioned if there would be any improvement. As I stated in other thread, I'm less and less enthused about cellaring low acid modern Bordeaux. I thought this was fairly modern in 1997-1999 period, not sure there were drastic changes, maybe there were. It's been severely discounted recently ($15 for the 2006), ok for drink young modern Bordeaux.

But I question which changed more, wine or your tastes.

[David M. Bueker]

Just because of curiosity I looked up RMP's review of ht '97. He gave it a 90 & talked about its blueberry jam flavors. I think the style change may have come earlier than Oswaldo realized.

But I question which changed more, wine or your tastes.

I liked the 98 on Tuesday and didn't like the 01 on Wednesday!

I just searched Barde Haut on old WLDG, first 2 notes were mine:

late 2004 (at Oswaldo's in Tribeca)
1998 Château Barde-Haut (St.-Emilion)
Ok, turnabout is fair play, this one is MORE tannic than I expected. This is a big strong wine, with plenty of ripe tannins. Fat ripe dense new-wave St.-Emilion with lots of oak (though not overbearing), both red and black fruit, and a long finish. Very good, but I think I’ll adjust my window for this one back a bit. A-

Sept 2002
The 1997 Barde-Haut (St. Emilion) was quite nice for the vintage. Crushed raspberries and blackcurrant fruit on the nose and palate, with some apparent but not overwhelming toasty oak and vanilla flavors marking this as a more internationally styled Bordeaux. With a little time in the glass some definite additions of chocolate and cedar. Plenty of life left in this ''97, it was well-worth the $22 price. The few ''97s I bought were mostly "drink-ups", but I think I can probably hold my other couple of Barde-Hauts for quite a while. A-

So old style didn't seem so old style to me. What has changed is my opinion over last 5-6 years of how these modern St-Emilions will age, as now I've had chance to experience, rather than predict.