Some more notes from earlier this summer.
1989 Château Gruaud Larose Low neck fill. Decanted about one hour, served with grilled NY strips. Garnet red color. Cassis, oregano, and slight barnyard funk in the nose. Black fruits, tobacco spice and very dry in the mouth. Tannins are a little drying on the finish. Good but maybe a little underwhelming.
1999 Château Cantenac Brown Translucent dark red color, vibrant nose with high toned mint, spicy tobacco leaf, red fruits. Cedar, cassis, light cinnamon and smoky cranberry fruit with soft tannins but lively acidity. Elegant and drinking really well right now. It continued to develop over several hours in the glass. Very good.
1999 Château Haut-Beauséjour This seemed very soft and fruit forward, with a good nose of cedar, and ripe blackberry, and almost fully resolved tannins. Flavors drop off quite noticeably in the middle. International style Bordeaux. It didn't seem at all typical for St Estephe.
2002 La Soufrandiere (Brett Brothers) Pouilly-Vinzelles Les Quarts Very aromatic, acacia flower, marzipan and ripe apple nose. Texture is a bit thick, like half and half. Good fruit flavors, pear and a little honeycomb. Some minerals towards the end. A good acidic spine kept this vibrant and kept the rich texture and flavors fresh and interesting. I really enjoyed this a lot, could have easily mistaken this Macon wine as a higher priced Cote de Beaune. This is open and drinking well now but seems to have the balance and material to age well also. I guess there really are a couple of brothers named Brett making wine in Burgundy. I gather that the wines named La Soufrandiere are made from their own estate, and the ones labelled Brett Brothers are their negociant label. I liked this enough to order three more bottles.
Best,
