WTN: Young Bordeaux boredom

Three young Bordeaux (two recent retail purchases that a friend and I had made), all from half bottles. Not a great strike rate. Root day, or is this bad karma for not sticking with Riesling?

2008 Château Léoville Barton
Yeah, I know there's *no* point drinking it now, but was curious to see what it has to show right now. It's very primary, packed with brooding dark fruited flavours but there's a strong overlay of oak that dominates and never really integrates even with a lot of air. Really disappointing for a LB.

2001 Domaine de Chevalier
Cassis and red fruited flavours framed by some developing leathery notes, but there's still some oaky bitterness that sticks out on the back end, and it feels quite dull and monotonic. 0/2

2005 Château Cantemerle
This starts out rather closed and unyielding at first, but with time it starts to show a nice perfume of red fruits tinged with smoke and earth. Though it's not particularly complex, this conveys a finesse and a sense of lightness I rarely find in young Bordeaux, showing a beautiful polished texture with surprisingly gentle tannins on a medium weight frame. I expect this will be a lot more enjoyable with time, it's more about promise right now but still quite enjoyable.

Salil,

I'm sure you saw the answer coming... If you will open the wines ten or fifteen years too young, what do you expect?

"Boredom" seems like a really inappropriate word here.

Tell you what. Let's get together in, say, 2022 and we'll open the wines again - especially the 09 LB - and take an objective look at it...

Alex R.

Salil,

I'm sure you saw the answer coming... If you will open the wines ten or fifteen years too young, what do you expect?

"Boredom" seems like a really inappropriate word here.

Tell you what. Let's get together in, say, 2022 and we'll open the wines again - especially the 09 LB - and take an objective look at it...

Alex R.

The Domaine de Chevalier 01 in its 10th year from a reasonably forward vintage should be beginning to open up. At least it is reasonable to take a look at that age. That said, my only 2001 opened so far is Poujeaux which is drinking quite nicely.

Tim,

As opposed to the other two wines, I agree with you entirely that almost all the 2001 great growths are approachable now.

I know and appreciate Domaine de Chevelier rouge very much.
I'd be quite surprised to have the same reaction as Salil.
I do not discount or disbelieve what he said. But, as has often been said, there are no great wines, only great bottles.
Bottle variation and provenance could well play a role here.

Best regards,
Alex R.

[David M. Bueker]

I don't know where Salil purchased the DDC, but I do know it was a secondary market purchase. There's a reason I don't buy much from the secondary market or auctions. You NEVER know if a poor showing is the wine or the backstory of the bottle.

As for the Barton, I honestly don't see the point in opening it. 2008 is not a ripe, forward vintage, and it's not at all shocking for the wine to be heavily marked by its elevage. There just isn't the dense, fat fruit to give the wine early approachability, so instead you get the effects of the (normal) Barton cellar treatment and not much else.

Cantemerle is Cantemerle. Too bad it's about 2x what it should cost.

Any opinions on 2006 Cantemerele? It was not all that expensive in California.

Had it a few months ago. Liked it quite a bit - it's rather tannic right now, but I preferred to the '05.

Any opinions on 2006 Cantemerle? It was not all that expensive in California.

Several posters on Cellartracker seems to like to '06 Cantemerle, Haut-Medoc. I hope they are right, since I have a few bottles. Should be a good value @$30-$35.