TN: 2001 Château d'Aiguilhe

I was attending the annual Vancouver wine event some years ago - a tasting lunch where people are randomly allotted seats. I was fortunate enough to be seated beside Stephan von Neipperg, who ran Canon la Gaffelière and a small Castillon, d'Aiguilhe. They served the latter at lunch and I had the chance to learn a bit about it from the source.

I recalled that meeting when I opened a bottle of the 2001 d'Aiguilhe earlier this week. This is the data pn it:

Winemaking in stainless steel vats for 28 days. Extraction by pumping-over
Ageing in new oak barrels (70%) on the lees for 18 months. No fining or filtering
Bottling Château-bottled in May 2003
Blending 80% Merlot 20% Cabernet Franc

It was showing some signs of maturity in terms of colour, with pale edges and some bricking, had a very pleasant nose of dark fruit and cedar with hints of tobacco coming in as it aired. What I would call a very pleasant luncheon claret. I have seen other notes indicating bottles that presented as appreciably further along, but expect that would be due to cellar conditions (mine was kept at 55 F. since purchase around 2004).

[David M. Bueker]

I actually had my last bottle of this several weeks ago. It showed much the same as yours. I was quite happy with it given the modest price.

I like Aiguilhe. I had several of its 1998, a pre-Neipperg vintage I think, and its was a beautiful classically styled right banker at about ten years of age but my last bottle in 2014 had lost a bit of bloom. More recently I have bought quite a few bottles of 2012, 2014 and 2015 from a local hyper-market attractively priced in late teens of Euros. They are lusher in style than the 1998 but avoid goopiness, were very good drinks and quite a standby when I was wanting the right bank style. Alas, in my recent visits to the same hyper-market, I find that the 2016 is priced in the mid-20s and that the remaining bottles of 2014 have been hiked up to a similar level, so I will be buying much less.

It is nice when a producer that is modest in aspirations is also reliable and comes out with a good wine year after year. I think this is one of them.

They also have higher end wines of course - Canon La Gaffelière' (I still have some 89 it is time to sample) and a few others like Clos de l'Oratoire that are good wines.