I was encouraged by recent TNs to pull early 2000s Bordeaux satellite wines from my offsite storage and do a checkpoint through a head-to-head tasting. For this purpose, I decided to forego with my alphabetical grading scale and attempt the use of the popular numeric style.
All wines were purchased at release and immediately stored in my offsite storage. They were all p-n-p’d:
2000 Ch. Chasse-Spleen, Moulis-en-Medoc
A very dense and dark color, just like a black plum. Smell of leather, tobacco and wood. Very young and tannic, with creamy layers that accentuated this rich, big wine. Not shy with its ripe black fruit. Mocha. There’s also that modern Italian feel to it. Its like it tried to go international in style, but didn’t quite get there. 88
2001 Ch. Faugeres, Saint Emilion
A modern style Bordeaux on all counts. Oak, tobacco, and ripe fruit on the nose. Tannin and wood abound. Started out fine with earthy undertone and high acidity. But then became very forceful with its abundance of ripe black fruit. My palate seems to suggest that this has more than the 13.5 abv that’s printed on its label. Steak dinner didn’t help towards the end, as this started to get cloying. 86
2002 Ch. Sociando Mallet, Haut Medoc
It was a good thing that I requested to have one of this pulled because the bottle that was delivered showed evidence of a slight leakage. A very young traditional Bordeaux bouquet with cassis, earth, and cedar. Another tannic young wine. Lean with its fruit, but still exudes sweetness. Blueberries. Medium bodied. Lacks the vegetable notes that I associate with the producer. The most food-friendly among the 3 wines. Encouraging. 89