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

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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.