What I Tasted on My Spring Break - SPEC's Liquors

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www.specsonline.com (continued from p. 13) has an almost California style, due to ripe blackberry fruit with lots of cedar and tobacco and even pencil shavings, along with dusty gravelly terroir notes and a healthy dose of oak. Some of this style extends to the lesser siblings Clerc Milon and d’Armailhac. I tend to like the less expensive d’Armailhac better as a barrel sample and for the first five or so years after the vintage than its sibling Clerc Milon. After five or so years, Clerc Milon seems to pass d’Armailhac and continue to develop. To me, d’Armailhac has more power and fruit while Clerc has more elegance and balance. In 1926, a large part of the famous Pauillac second growth Ch. Pichon Longueville was sold. The new property was called Ch. Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande and is now widely known as Pichon Lalande. The unsold portion then became Ch. Pichon Longueville Baron de Longueville and is now widely known as Pichon Baron. The two chateaux face each other across the main road from St. Julien to Pauillac. Although they are formerly one property, the wines are quite different. Pichon lalande is an elegant, somehow feminine wine with an ethereal, perfumed character. It is much easier to evaluate in the second and third years than in the first where it is often overlooked due to its unforthcoming nature. Ch. Pichon Baron went through an underperforming slump until it was purchased by AXA in the 1980s. AXA installed Lynch Bages owner Jean Michel Cazes to manage the property. He quickly got things in order. With its juicyripe, straight forward, classically Pauillac style, Pichon Baron has since taken its place among the best of the second growths. It is always interesting to see which of the Pichons made the best wine in a particular vintage. In most vintages, both Pichons offer the complete package. The second wine of Pichon Lalande is Reserve de la Comtesse. The second wine of Pichon Baron is les Tourelles de Longueville. Affectionately known as “Lunch Bags”, Ch. Lynch Bages is owned and run by University of Texas-ex (yes, really) Jean Michel Cazes. A classic Pauillac featuring dark berry fruit, a berry liqueur perfume, dust, pencil shavings, and tobacco, Lynch Bages is an over achiever that routinely makes better wine than its fourth growth status would indicate. An added bonus is that the gregarious Cazes travels to Houston at least every couple of years to present and talk about his wines. The second wine of Lynch Bages is Haut Bages Averous. Fifth growth Ch. Batailley used to be a lot bigger, encompassing the vineyards of Haut Batailley as well those that are now its own. When the property was split, the existing chateau went with the Batailley name. Ch. Batailley is classic old style Pauillac. It rarely gets great marks when tasted young (it also never gets bad marks) but it is the sort of wine, like Gruaud Larose in St. Julien, that really rewards the time you cellar it with development and improved flavor. When I think of Batailley, I think of black fruit, pencil shavings, and tobacco with a rich but rustic feel. Ch. Batailley just tastes good every time I drink it. The Borie family have long owned Chx. Ducru Beaucaillou St. Julien, Grand Puy Lacoste Pauillac, Haut Batailley Pauillac, and Lalande Borie St. Julien. Until the 2003 vintage Francois Xavier Borie managed all four properties. The chateaux are listed above in the order of their precedence, with second growth Ch. Ducru Beaucaillou being the undisputed flagship property. At all four chateaux, the wines made under Francois Xavier’s regime were true to their appellations and often among the best in their classes. All are elegant, balanced wines that show plenty of fruit character and never had any harsh, over-extracted characteristics sometimes seen when a wine maker is trying too hard to make a great wine. Through the nineties and into this decade, the wines have improved vintage by vintage. With the 2003 vintage, older brother Bruno Borie has returned to the chateaux side of the Borie family's business. The brothers have split responsibilities and now each runs two of the chateaux. Bruno Borie has the two St. Juliens and Francois Xavier Borie has the two Pauillacs. Francois Xavier (who lives with his wife and children at Grand Puy Lacoste) is working to further improve the two fifth growth Pauillac chateaux as he focuses in on Grand Puy Lacoste and Haut Batailley. When I think of these two Pauillacs, I think of dark, ripe but still forward fruit and complexity in the pencil shavings and tobacco range with a gravelly-minerally nuance. Grand Puy Lacoste is a bit bigger and richer and a bit more intense due to its better terroir. Ch. Haut Batailley has long been a personal favorite as a Pauillac priced where I can drink it on a fairly regular basis. The second labels of both properties will become more important as more severe selection is made to make the first wines from both chateaux even better. The second label of Ch. Grand Puy Lacoste is Ch. Lacoste Borie. The second wine of Ch. Haut Batailley is Ch. Tour d’Aspic. All four of these wines are well worth seeking out. Spec’s is one of the first to bring Tour d’Aspic to the US. Bruno Borie seems to be changing the style of the formerly very elegant, perfumed Ducru Beaucaillou to something more like the rich style of Margaux’s Ch. Palmer. In 2003, he has succeeded in making a very good rich style wine that represents a departure onto a new path for Ducru Beaucaillou. The wine is excellent but it doesn’t taste quite like the great Ducrus I remember from 1995, 1996, 1999, and 2000. As this style change will change the way Ducru tastes and develops, this chateau’s track record is now largely out the window. The fact is that Ducru has great terroir and the wines should continue to be very high in quality. The 2nd wine of Ch. Ducru Beaucaillou is Croix de Beaucaillou.The unclassified Ch. Lalande Borie offers a juicy fresh, easy drinking style of St. Julien that I find very enjoyable. It also seems to be getting a bit better with each vintage.
713-526-8787 There are three Leovilles: Leoville Barton, Leoville Poyferre, and Leoville las Cases. It used to be one large property that got divided into the current three estates. All three are classed as second growths. The three estates make their wines differently and each has admirers. Leoville Barton and Leoville Poyferre use their terroir to make ripe, generous, forwardly appealing wines with typical sweet St. Julien Cabernet fruit. They have the potential to age and develop beautifully. Both wines are a pleasure to drink at almost any age. Leoville las Cases is a different animal altogether. Las Cases tries very hard to be a "serious wine" as its owner would like to see it become a first growth. To that end, he makes powerful brooding backward wines that are serious but at least to me are not much fun to drink. I haven’t had a Leoville las Cases younger than 1981 that I thought was ready to drink. I wonder if some of them ever will be. To be fair, Leoville las Cases has many admirers and Robert Parker may be chief amongst them.The second wine of Leoville Poyferre is Moulin Riche. The second wine of Leoville Las Cases is Clos du Marquis. Technically speaking, Leoville Barton doesn’t have a second wine. Anthony Barton owns both Ch. Langoa Barton and Ch. Leoville Barton. As Leoville Barton does not have its own chateau, the wines are made at Langoa Barton. Nevertheless, Langoa Barton is sometimes lost in Leoville Barton’s shadow and that is a shame. In their own right, the wines of third growth Langoa are fine mid-range St. Juliens. While not so excellent as the second growth Leovilles, Ducru, or Gruaud, they are consistently fine and usually are very fairly priced. Unlike some of his neighbors, Anthony Barton is a realist about wine prices. Barton combines the second wines of Langoa Barton and Leoville Barton into one cuvee called Lady Langoa which is seldom seen in the US. Old Bordeaux hands will tell you that second growth Gruaud Larose rewards patient aging as well as any wine from Bordeaux. And they are right. I’ve had lots of young Gruauds that wanted a bit more fruit or a bit more complexity. I’ve never had an old Gruaud I wasn’t thrilled with. The property is all about finesse and balance and elegance. Somehow, the fruit always emerges and the perfume comes on. This is the chateau to buy to keep. First growth Ch. Margaux is gorgeous. And the wines from Ch. Margaux are gorgeous. They are powerful but feminine with a luxurious but subtle perfume and a texture somewhere between Lafite’s weightlessness and Latour’s power. The fruit is red and black and the complexity is in the tobacco and pencil shavings range with a very subtle earth note. Of all Bordeaux chateaux, Margaux has the power most often to transport me in the same way that great art or great music does. Margaux’s Second Label is Pavillon Rouge du Ch. Margaux. There is also a 100% Sauvignon Blanc white grown on the estate called Pavillon Blanc du Ch. Margaux. Second growth Ch. Rauzan Segla began a renaissance in 1994 when the property was purchased by Chanel and John Kolasa (formerly of Ch. Latour) was installed as director. Chanel spent more refurbishing the vineyards, expanding and improving the winery and remodeling the chateau than they spent buying the property. Rauzan Segla (formerly “Rausan Segla” – Chanel “reclaimed the zede”) is now a showplace in all senses: Viticulturally, viniculturally, and from an architecture and design standpoint. The wines had slumped badly in quality before Chanel. John Kolasa’s first task was to blend an acceptable wine from the 1993 that was in barrel. He did so by creating a second wine, Segla, and selling unsuitable barrels in bulk. Now Rauzan Segla averages 40-45% Grand Vin, 35-45% Segla, and 10-25% wine that does not make the cut and is sold on the bulk Bordeaux market as generic Margaux with no right to the chateau’s name. Kolasa’s improvements include new tanks that fit each vineyard block, large new plantings of Petite Verdot, improved drainage in all the vineyards, and much more. The results are impossible to argue with. Rauzan Segla is a classy, balanced, flavorful wine with classic Margaux perfume made in a medium-weight, decidedly non-blockbuster but absolutely lovely style. This chateau has not had a single misstep under the current management. Most Bordeaux aficionados would argue that Ch. Haut Brion and Ch. La Mission Haut Brion are numbers one and two in the Graves pecking order. They are located directly across the road from one another (on the “Haut Brion Plateau”) and both are owned by the Dillon family, who also own La Mission’s next-door neighbor Ch. La Tour Haut Brion. When you taste at Haut Brion or La Mission, you taste all three of these wines plus Bahans Haut Brion (the second wine of Haut Brion) and la Chapelle de la Mission (the second wine of La Mission Haut Brion) and the two whites from the flagship properties, Ch. Haut Brion Blanc and Laville Haut Brion. This is one of my favorite stops every year on the Bordeaux wine tour. The wines are always at least fine, often excellent, and more than occasionally outstanding.The reds are a balanced mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc. They reflect that balance with a great mix of berry, cherry, and plum fruit swirled with gravelly minerals and a distinctive tobacco and cedar perfume. The results are the standard for the rest of Pessac Leognan (the best part of Graves).The whites are balanced blends of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon that are barrel-fermented and aged and undergo full malolactic fermentation. They are often stunning in their richness and focus with tropical lime and pear fruit and the essences of peach and lemon, sweet oak, and a distinctive gravelly mineral character. As rich as they are, they are balanced with lively lime acidity and that swirl of minerality. The second wines of the two whites are blended into one label and marketed as Plantiers du Haut Brion.
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What I Tasted on My Spring Break - SPEC's Liquors

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