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Southwold 2013 - Saint Estèphe

Friday, 25th January 2013 by Stephen Browett

From the plummy opulence of Pomerol we now move to the Cabernet-Sauvignon based wines of Saint Estèphe.

We selected the top 11 wines of the commune for this flight and also put in Sociando Mallet. This Northern Médoc property has long been regarded as making wines of classed growth quality and it’s certainly very similar to St Estèphe in style.

Eyes down for another flight

In previous tastings we have sometimes found Saint Estèphe to be a bit of a tough flight. There is no doubt that in lean vintages the wines do tend to have very firm backbones and tannins that dominate the fruit in their youth. Exceptions to this rule have been 2003, 1990 and 1989.

I would say that 2009 delivered the best flight of Saint Estèphes that we have ever tasted. These wines might have good “grip” and structure but they were packed full of ripe fruit with plenty of substance and body. Despite this being a blind flight, there were two wines that stood out like sore thumbs. These two really did completely dominate the scoring with a near photo-finish. You hardly need me to tell you which they were do you? The top 5 wines of the flight, as voted by the group, were:

  1. Montrose
  2. Cos d’Estournel
  3. Lafon Rochet
  4. Phélan Ségur
  5. Dame de Montrose

The Montrose had great scores from everyone but the Cos d’Estournel was a bit more controversial. To be honest, it was so easy to spot this wine because it is so extraordinary. Consequently those who love it (eg me) gave it massive scores whilst those who find it too over-powering (no names mentioned…) marked it down. Consequently Montrose just pipped it to the post on the voting but it was very close. These are two awesome wines and both well worth their 100 point rating from Mr Parker.

A table groaning with 2009 samples

My own personal five favourites were these wines with Pagodes de Cos, Phelan Segur and Ormes de Pez just behind:

Haut Marbuzet – Medium/deep colour with lots of sexy new oak on the nose. Sweet, black, cassis fruit here. Opulent for the commune. Impressive richness with good structure. Powerful and lingering. Very attractive. 16.5

Lafon Rochet – A deep colour but rserved on the nose. Solid, chewy, powerful with firm tannins and dense black fruit. This will close down before it opens up again but it is classic St Estephe. Impressive. 16.5

Calon Ségur – A dark colour. Big nose of brambly blackcurrant fruit. Layers of dense, solid, meaty richness on the palate . Powerful cassis with firm tannins. Solid, serious and traditional. Hiding its light under a bushel at the moment. 17

Montrose – Inky black colour. Huge wine. This is chewy, intense and strapping. Amazingly thick. This is the essence of Cabernet Sauvignon. Strong, powerful, a real black beauty. Clearly a long-term classic and the most backward wine of the vintage. Monster. 18

Cos d’Estournel – Really dense with a colour as black as the darkest night. Huge, soaring, powerful nose. Incredible texture and density. This is a real stand-out wine. One of the greatest young Bordeaux I’ve ever tasted. If this is not the Cos I will go and jump off Southwold pier! The power and intensity are breath-taking with layer upon layer of black cassis fruit enveloped by smoky, spicy oak and controlled by firm tannins. It may be decadent and daring but this is classic Bordeaux to me – just very concentrated. This is no new world fruit bomb. Most of us loved this, a few were unconvinced.  Stunning in my humble opinion. 20

2009 corks

 

Tagged with: Bordeaux 2009 | Southwold
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