To Robin Garr re certain wines

To Robin Garr re certain wines: If it is not too much trouble (I am sure you are very busy) I would much appreciate having your opinion of the 2010 Cantemerle and the 2012 Rauzan-Segla. Best regards, Richard L

[Robin Garr]

Richard, I’m afraid you’re asking the wrong guy. I love wine and I’ve written about wine since 1980. But I don’t cellar wine, I rarely spend more than $20 for a bottle (although I’m quite discriminating in that range) and the only Bordeaux I’ve tasted in the past year was a good but modest Blaye. So I’m going to be useless in answering that question. Sorry!

[David M. Bueker]

FWIW, 2010 Cantemerle is $50 at my favorite local shop, thus taking a serious hit for overall value. The 2015 (a lovely vintage for the wine) was only $25.

To David M.Bueker: The 2010 Cantemerle is to me far superior to the 2015 (which I have had). The 2015 is a borderline case for me. I have a few bottles of the 2015, but I will not buy any more unless it improves far more than I expect it will. I will probably buy no more. In fact I think I will buy no more red Bdx. unless i find a fine wine scoring 95.5 or more (preferably 97 up, haha) at a sensible price.
Richard L

In fact i think i will buy no more red Bdx. unless i find a fine wine scoring 95.5 or more (preferably 97 up, haha) at a sensible price.
Richard L

I stopped buying GC Bordeaux over 15 years ago, but not on the basis of any arithmetic calculation. My reason was simply my age coupled with the fact that Bordeaux of that calibre, particularly left bank, needs at least 15 years to begin to show in the way I like. The same went for GC and 1erC Burgundy. As I'm still here for now, I'm beginning to regret not having any 2005s, although from what I hear most still need another 10 years to be really singing.

Since then Burgundy prices for GC and 1erC have gone crazy, especially for some trophy growers, and by comparison most Bordeaux of similar quality looks reasonable. For example, Château Gruaud-Larose 2014 is on sale in a local supermarket for <€60. That looks almost like a snip to me. How does that price rate by your method, Richard?

Cantemerle is an old favourite of mine based on its performance in the 50s and 60s. I don't have much experience of recent vintages but, good though they were, I didn't think 2011 and 2012 lived up to my memory (possibly distorted) of 53, 59, 61 and 66. Maybe 2010 would.

To Tim York : Your question interested me. I think the LB red Bdx. seem to be sooner drinkable now than in the past (wine-making methods? climate change?) and we keep our red wines slightly warmer now. Drinking them at about 10 years old gives us pleasure, but i think for the 2015/6s we will have to shorten that a bit, unless we want to leave a large legacy! Your wine at 60 euros would be about $72.60 US, if one had a magic carpet. I would probably rate it at 92 (Neal Martin's score). I consider G-L at the very bottom of the 2nds (along with GPL on "reclassifying"). In theory I would pay $74.84 (about 61.85 euros) but I avoid such narrow margins and no longer buy in quantity LB red Bdx. below a score from me of at least 92.5 . Now I would probably need a score of 95.5 or more ("great" rather than "very good") to buy any. Hoping that helps, Richard L

Wow! Since I've been using CT (about 7 years) and have been bowing to the site's score mentality, I've never scored a wine above 95 and there are only two of those, namely Léoville-Poyferré 1982 and Pichon Lalande 1966. In my vinous memory, I can only think of a small handful of wines which I might put in the 96-100 range, including Latour 45, La Tâche 62, a Dönnhoff eiswein poured by the maestro at a tasting, a Huet Vouvray moelleux 47 and Ausone 59.

I've always liked the graciousness of the wines of Gruaud-Larose which have come my way and feel that the estate well deserves its ranking in the seconds. I prefer its style to many more "super" seconds such as Cos d'Estournel and Léoville-Barton. I'm inclined to go for a few bottles of that 2014, a nice classical vintage.