As a complete novice writing about wine, in a complete cop-out I’ve decided to only review or write about bottles that I’ve really enjoyed – after all who am I to bag out someones hard work & what not. So strap yourself in for some dribble, for here is the first edition of ‘The Good Stuff’.
Chantacaille Clauzel – St Emilion. 2016 (merlot blend)
Interesting wine this, offered through Langtons at $45 but made off a tiny plot of well situated wines basically on the border of Pomerol & St Emilion with close proximity to the likes of Cheval Blanc and L’Evalgile, both of which will set you back ten or twenty times the price. I’ve never looked much into St Emilion on account of never reading too much positivity about the wines or their value; quite often the styles are described as ‘ripe’ or ‘extreme’ & the thought of spending a lot of money to get a bottle of wine shipped around the world only for it to taste like a bold, new world wine seems to lack a good dollop of common sense.
But in this case I think that logic has been pretty flawed, as this was not an ultra bold style but instead medium bodied, savoury and well put together. Indeed the fruit was modestly proportioned and particularly well balanced with those classic Bordeaux type flavours – pencil shavings and what not. This is a well balanced wine that ticks quite a few boxes.
Lillian Ladouys – St Estephe. 2016
Lillian Ladouys has a similar price point to the Clauzel, but in the glass it’s a completely different wine. LL is in the Southern part of St Estephe across the road (ish) from Lafon Rochet & is owned by the same mob who have successfully restored fifth growth Pedesclaux in Pauillac to some resemblance of its former glory. We gave this a long decant but (despite the high merlot content) it was still very firm, savoury and very St Estephe. The nose was restrained & the tannins well and truly coated your teeth. Sticking your nose into the decanter you got more a feel for the types of flavours, there was some biscuit and pencil lead. I enjoyed it on the first night but wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. The next day it truly blossomed, violets and lilac emerged reminiscent of a beautiful spring day, to go with the tight structure and strict tannins. I suspect that this is a wine that will drink very well at 8 – 10 years old and is very much to my own personal taste.
Chateau Carbonnieux – Pessac Leognan. 2016
Carbonnieux is a well situated chateau which makes fairly large quantities & is perhaps better known for it white wine. Neal Martin loved this & I bought some on the back of his tasting note & score. It’s certainly different & very much in its own style; all the primary fruit flavours are tending towards very fine tertiary notes and the wine tastes about as old world as you can get. I struggled a bit with descriptors but if you said something along the lines of tea leaves, perhaps some aniseed, tobacco & almost a carnival type smell wouldn’t be too far off. Throw in the silky/Soft tannins & expansive finish and you’ve got a pretty decent Pessac Leognan here.
Chateau Montlandrie – Castillion. 2016
For those that don’t know, Denis Durantou, the owner of L’eglise Clinet in Pomerol also makes a series of right bank wines including a benchmark Lalande de Pomerol as well as a keenly priced St Emilion. This wine, named Montlandrie comes from Castillion; not the most prestigious place to make wine but a vineyard in good hands. This is pretty reasonable ‘drink now’ style Bordeaux, friendly & fruit driven with some red fruits and a bit of sweetness that seems to come from the oak. Montlandrie this vintage is a wine that shows good generosity, a bit of warmth and some nice drying tannins to finish. Of the quintet of Bordeaux we dived into this month, I probably preferred this least but would still recommend it once value and early drinking is taken into account.
Roc de Cambes – Bourg. 2016
Roc de Cambes is a right bank wine from Bourg, not too far from Margaux but on the opposite side of the river. Here Francois Mjatville makes the undisputed benchmark of the appellation, and very much on his own terms at that. This wine became on my radar after a few mentions and a dedicated article on a blog called ‘Vinolent’, written by Joss Fowler who works in the English wine trade & writes particularly well. His note on the 2009 Roc de Cambes describes the energy of the wine and concludes with the line ‘you could light a torch with this wine’. My wife and myself drank the 2016 RDC over three days and it was fantastic on all three, very much peaking on the third. The fruit profile was mostly black/dark fruits, quite bold & punchy but becoming quite friendly with air. This bottle had so much to say; a genuinely exciting wine.
Gembrook Hill 2017
I tried the 2015 of this towards the end of a long lunch one day and whilst fairly under the influence & though i was in no state to make an accurate call on it, I was quite taken with it & thought it was on track to drink fantastically in five years time. So as you do, I went and bought six of the current release – the 2017, which struck me as very much a different wine. Firstly, this is very new world & obviously Victorian at that (not a bad thing). Rose petals and (for want of a better descriptor) fancy soaps or even fairly floss come to mind – not in terms of sweetness but in terms of bright attractive flavours. Countering this though is the shape of the wine; it glides through with a breezy sense of weightlessness that seemed particularly well calculated to delivering several waves of flavour. This is top notch new world Pinot Noir indeed.
Cape Mentelle Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
The 2016 Cape Mentelle is a fantastic wine with an exquisite attention to detail, combing wonderfully focused Margaret River fruit purity & the structure of a good Pauillac. An oversimplification of course, but this wine combines the classic & refined poise of the 2015 with the downright specular lashings of goodness in the 2014. At sub $100 the quality and value of modern Cape Mentelle cabernet is indisputable. Quite simply, this is a no brainer.
The Wine Accomplice 