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Last Friday we conducted a fascinating experiment at Farr Vintners when we served, in a blind tasting, the same wine from two different bottles – one with a screwcap and one with a cork. The result was remarkable, with none of the ten tasters spotting that we were actually tasting the same wine! Before we reveal the results here’s a bit of history...
Chateau Rauzan Ségla was bought by Chanel in 1994 shortly after they had narrowly missed out on the purchase of Chateau Latour. The Chateau was originally ranked at the top of the “Second Growths” of Bordeaux in the famous 1855 Classification of the great Chateaux of Bordeaux – just behind the First Growths. Next door neighbour Chateau Palmer was ranked a third growth. Prior to the Chanel purchase, the property’s reputation had declined somewhat, although it had still made great wines in some recent top vintages – such as 1986 and 1990. Chanel wasted in no time in hiring the boss of Latour – Scotsman John Kolasa – to run the estate and huge works took place in the buildings and the vineyard with extensive drainage works and replanting. One of the most immediate effects of the new ownership was the re-naming of the second wine from “Lamoureux” to “Ségla”. A savage selection process was instigated – which continues to this day – which results in around a half of the vineyard’s production going into the second wine and half into the grand vin.
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During the subsequent two decades the wines have got better and better and we’re firm believers that the second wine today is at the same quality level, at least, as the grand vin was before Chanel took over. Ségla has consistently been one of Bordeaux’s very best second labels and when the great 2009 vintage came along we were hugely impressed when tasting it from barrel, during “en primeur week” in the spring of 2010. Having heard that a small amount of each recent vintage had been bottled under screwcap as an experiment, we asked for 500 cases out of our allocation to be bottled with stelvin closures. We also bought halves, magnums and regular bottles with corks. In 2009 only 40% of production went into the grand vin (with a one-off Karl Lagerfeld label and a high price), 43% went into Ségla and 17% into a generic third wine. Despite the fact that the grand vin sells for nearly double the price of the previous 3 vintages, the price of Ségla 2009 was, and still is, only a touch higher.
Six years after the harvest we thought that it would be interesting to see if the development of the wine was different between bottles with cork and screwcaps. In a blind tasting with several other Bordeaux 2009’s the two versions were secretly served side by side. Although both were extremely good (and received near-identical scores), nobody spotted that they were the same wine. The screwcap version is probably the better wine for the long-term with more intensity and greater potential, but it is a little more backward today and needed time in the decanter. The wine from a bottle with a cork was more developed with a smoky, mature character that made the tasters think that it was a couple of years older. It was a fascinating experiment that customers of Farr Vintners can now try at home themselves as we can now offer this excellent wines in 3 bottle sizes and 2 different closures. Here are our tasting notes (served blind, 8/10/15).
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From cork:
“Deep ruby colour. The nose is ripe with black cherry and a little blackcurrant, but also showing hints of sweet spice from new oak, dried flowers, and slight cedar development. Enticing and complex. The palate is smooth, ripe and round with the tannins melted into the wine. Ripe black cherry, violets and hints of cassis are layered with nutmeg and cedar on a long finish. Super silky with no hard edges. 17+”
From screwcap:
“Deep ruby colour. Very aromatic, pure black fruit nose of cassis, black cherry and black plum. Full of pure dark fruit at the core, with a little smoke from the oak. The palate is fresh and vibrant, with layers of ripe black fruit structured by ripe, soft tannins. There is a real lift and elegance to this wine, which has perfect balance and precision. Long and still showing a wonderful youthfulness of fruit, this is a vibrant, juicy, delicious wine. 17+”
