Yet another glorious morning- the roses are out and the wisteria looks resplendent on the walls of Ducru Beaucaillou as we head to our first meeting. What a wonderful way to start the day; Bruno Borie is rightly proud of his 2010, which is a wine with amazing texture and depth and a real classic in the making.
The second stop was Lynch Bages where Ormes de Pez expressed the strong grainy structure of St Estephe and the Lynch expressed its huge brooding power, (which is as bench mark as you can get), highlighting the sheer masculinity of a top Pauillac in 2010.
On to Pontet Canet… where the Tesseron family have crafted beautifully balanced wines, silky and velvety in texture, with an extraordinary richness of fruit. They provided a wonderful contrast to the power packed wines of Leoville Lascases where the Clos du Marquis excelled in particular. Afterward, lunch beckoned at the fabulous ‘L’Envers Declot’ in St Emilion, where we enjoyed a superb bottle of 2001 Larcis Ducasse. It highlighted both its own and the vintage’s very high quality on the right bank.
The afternoon’s tasting was one high after another. The supremely composed Canon was followed by a very refined Cheval Blanc. Then it was on to Pomerol to taste two of my “˜stars of the vintage’, Vieux Château Certan and Le Pin. Alexandre Thienpont likened his 2010 Vieux Château Certan to his very famous 1998 and it was easy to see why with its fine elegance and balance of fruit.
We finished the day by tasting a deliciously succulent and hedonistic Château Feytit Clinet, which whilst it is not for the long term will give masses of pleasure at a relatively young age.
Now, with the day coming to an end, we are heading to Domaine de Chevalier for dinner…