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Battle of the Titans: Bordeaux Competition
Thursday, March 19, 2009
1) 1999 Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
Intense nose with violets, sweet spices, and vanilla.  Medium bodied, smooth with rounded tannins and concentrated fruits.  Long finish.  A perfect time for enjoyment.  
             
2) 2000 Calon Segur
A sleeping beauty – disappointingly, this wine has slumbered into a “sleeping” phase, refusing to reveal its true characters.  Ruby in color, it offered a faint, luring nose of cedar, chocolate, and licorice.   Integrated on the palate with dark fruits, good acidity, and firm tannins.   The powerful balance indicates that when this sleeping beauty wakes up, she will only be more beautiful and complex.  
                  
3) 1993 Leoville-Las Cases
Upfront, the nose was dark with densed earth and leather.  With time, the nose evolved into dry fruits, spices (cloves), and dry flowers.  Delicious and intriguing on the palate with its solid backbone – Good length, slightly bitter finish.  A fine masterpiece in a difficult vintage indeed!
                   
4) 2002 Lafleur
Dark fruits on the nose, accompanied by coffee, sweet spices and hints of licorice.  Elegant, smooth and straight-forward on the palate with luscious black plums. Long, dry finish.  Not as “sharp” or well-shaped when compared to its left bank peers.   Quite different from wine #3!
  
5) 2000 Canon La Gaffeliere
Sensational and layered bouquet of dark blackberries, sweet spices, tobacco, chocolate, vanilla, and roses.   It contains all the perfume notes that make you go back for a second sniff.  Opulent fruits on the palate.  Concentrated with a slightly bitter finish, this wine will further age beautifully. 
     
6) 2000 Langoa Barton
This wine brought us back to the left bank…  Dark ruby in color with hints of purple, wine #6 was very earthy and smoky upfront. With time (and a lot of swirling), notes of black fruits and licorice emerged.  Structure and rich on the palate, with a good mix of dark and dry fruit.   Length was relatively short compared to its peers. 
   
7) 2003 Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
This wine does not need too much aeration.  Flamboyant, enticing nose, with powerful aromas of blackberries, sweet spices, licorice, and flowers.   Intense and full-bodied, a chewy wine with intense dark cherries.   Though wonderful for enjoyment now, this wine will further age beautifully in the cellar.  In short, it is difficult not to ask for a second pour! 
   
   
Summary:
 
For the scoring system, we eliminated our rating on the wine we each brought.   Looking at absolute point scores, Pichon Longueville 1999 came first, followed by Canon La Gaffeliere 2000 and Longoa Barton 2000.  In terms of top votes, Pichon Longueville ’99 got the most number of #1’s and Pichon Longueville 2003 got the most number of # 2’s.   Tasting the Pichon vertical was interesting. Their nose was quite similar, flamboyant, and gorgeously layered. The 2003 was more youthful and tannic. 
           
Standing among the left bank titans, what would usually be angular for St Emilion appeared mellow.  Vintage also matters. We caught both Pichon Longuevilles in the right moment; but the big, bold Calon in its dormant stage.  Wine #4-#6 (Lafleur ’02, Canon La Gaffeliere ’00 and Longoa Barton ’00) were quite closed upfront and required patience.   
         
This is a big battle of the titans.  All the selected wines are great generals that had gained much characters aging in the bottle and further evolved beautifully in the glass.  
           

 

 

 
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