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

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Administrator Veronique Sanders (daughter of the former owners) has quietly made Ch. Haut Bailly one of the hot properties
in Pessac Leognan. Producing only red wine, Haut Bailly is year-in-and-year-out one of the best new wines of the appellation.
Older vintages age gracefully gaining a rich texture to go with great elegance and finesse. The fruit is mostly dark berry with
some red cherry and a lovely tobacco and earth perfume. I doubt Haut Bailly will ever be trendy but it is always satisfying.
The second wine is La Parde.
As far back in my wine drinking life as I can remember, Ch. Smith Haut Lafitte in Pessac Leognan has been a favorite
producer of both red and white wines. The reds are elegant, balanced, full flavored, medium-weight clarets. The freshly
balanced whites, predominantly Sauvignon Blanc with enough Semillon for fatness, display fresh white peach, green pear,
and lime fruit with hints of tropical character and a lovely fruit-mineral perfume.
Andre Lurton owns Ch. La Louviere. And Ch. Couhins Lurton. And Ch. Cruzeau, and Ch. Rochemorin, and
Ch. Coucheroy, and Ch. Bonnet, etc. The beautifully restored La Louviere is the flagship property. La Louviere makes an
earthy rich red wine with a slightly rustic but still elegant, balanced feel. The white is a bit more rich than refreshing but still
full of fruit flavor and subtle, supple oak over the minerals of Graves. Both are very satisfying. La Louviere is a favorite but
Lurton’s other properties are all well worth a look, especially from a value standpoint. The pioneering Lurton will
bottle La Louviere’s 2003s with a Stelvin (screw-cap) closure.
Ch. Carbonnieux makes red wine from Pessac Leognan but is best known in the US for its reference standard white
made mostly from Sauvignon Blanc. This white is all about freshness and perfume with crisply balanced bright citrus and
tree fruit over minerals and acid structure, all with no discernable oak flavor. This is a year-in-year-out favorite that will sell
only a few cases as futures but does very well off the shelf on release. Thomas Jefferson took a pecan tree
to Carbonnieux that is still growing there.
Owned by the Thienpont family and made by Alexandre Thienpont, visiting Vieux Ch. Certan (VCC) in Pomerol is more like
visiting Burgundy except the trip to the cellar does not involve going down a flight of stairs. Everything is small here: The
average production is 4000 cases. In 2003, VCC made only 800 cases. The estate is unique in Pomerol in that it is planted
with about 40% Cabernet Franc to accompany the 60% Merlot. The very high proportion of Cabernet Franc gives the wine
complexity, elegance, and dimension. The flavors are subtle cherry and plum fruit with a perfume that runs from tobacco to
berry liqueur. The wine often bears more resemblance to Cheval Blanc (across the border in St. Emilion) with which VCC
shares both similar terroir and that high proportion of Cabernet Franc.
The 2nd wine of VCC is Gravette de Certan. Both VCC and Gravette are very pretty wines.
I often stop first at Ch. Cheval Blanc (one of the acknowledged two great wines—with Ch. Ausone—of St. Emilion)
and next at VCC—or vice versa. That habit has convinced me of how close these two properties are in style and quality.
The differences are more of scale than style. Cheval Blanc is a bit better structured and may be more
age-worthy; VCC is prettier and more perfumed.
The second wine of Cheval Blanc is Petite Cheval.
Hubert de Bouard, longtime owner of Ch. Angelus in St. Emilion, also owns Ch. La Fleur St. Georges in Lalande de Pomerol.
Angelus, like Cheval Blanc and Canon la Gaffeliere, is planted to a relatively high volume of Cabernet Franc and so makes a
more elegant, balanced (are you starting to see a theme here) style than your run-of-the-mill St. Emilion. (continued p. 23)