Mixed Wine Tasting Notes

Chateau Du Cedre “Le Prestige” 2000 (Cahors, France)
Stood for a few days prior to opening and served following resting in decanter for approximately 1 hour. Kept at a cool below-room temperature. Thick tannin deposits welded to the inside of the bottle. Clear, bright, deep colour with ruby red rim and little suggestion of the 13-years age. Clean nose, immediately open with surprisingly primary character blending into more teriary characters. Dark red fruits with some volatiles and woody, savoury spice characters. Medium-plus intensity. Full bodied palate with medium-plus acidity and clearly perceptible alcohol (13.5%!) Firm tannin still present. Dark fruit character. Good length on the finish. This is excellent and probably not even at the mid-point in life. I would feel confident about cellaring this for at least another 5-years, more likely 10. I would love to see how this develops; this has a fine future. A great vintage and a good example of top-level Cahors. I would describe is as being typically solid, powerful and rustic South-Western (albeit with some polish for Cahors) compared to the elegance normally used to describe the downstream wines this area historically bettered. It needs some solid South-Western cuisine to match its power.  Interestingly, the following day the remains were mistaken for a just-opened younger Cru Bourgeois Bordeaux we tasting when it was passed around blind. However note that this didn’t particularly improve in the bottle after the first evening. 16.5-17(with time)/20.

Château Sénéjac 2003 Cru Bourgeois Supérieur (Haut-Médoc, Bordeaux)
Stood for a few days prior to opening and served following resting in decanter for approximately 1 hour. Kept at a cool below-room temperature. Clear, light ruby with some orange developing on the rim. Clean, open nose. Elegant, light nose showing some medium maturity. Woody, wax polish volatiles, a little dark spice, but predominantly a gentle cedar wood character. The palate was light, medium acidity (despite the vintage), alcohol not to the fore (despite 13% on the label). Medium-light body. Elegant, smooth, quite rich and well defined, well-polished and clean. Medium tannins. Not a heavyweight, and wouldn’t stand up to anything overly powerful in terms of food accompaniments. This developed will in the decanter over the evening and following day. While not metamorphosing into anything particularly more spectacular, it did plump out a bit with more open and appealing aromatics on the nose. I would drink now; while it might hold a few more years I can’t imagine it is going to develop into anything much finer and it is really very enjoyable drinking now. 16/20.


Mas de Daumas Gassac blanc 2006 (Vin de Pays de l'Herault, France)
This white wine is something of an enigma – and I would expect nothing less from the Guibert family! Blended from an eclectic mix, this is predominantly one-third each of Chardonnay, Viognier and Petit Manseng with a host of other varieties making up the remainder. Samuel Guibert talks of their white wine having different stages of its existence, with fragrant primary viognier-dominant character of youth developing into maturity in stages. This wine would appear to be a good example of that. Now 6 years old, it is really extremely difficult to pigeon-hole, something quite unique, almost a little eccentricity of the Gassac Valley. Clear medium lemon appearance. Nose is open, clean, medium-plus intensity and developing. I just can’t place it as being like anything else – there are hints of a Jura or something here. Dry honey, lime, mixed nuts, Fascinating stuff. The palate is dry with fresh medium-plus acidity. Medium alcohol, nicely balanced. Very clean and refreshing. Pronounced flavour intensity similar to the character on the nose.  Long, concentrated finish.  Partnered surprisingly well with a baked Camembert cheese! The uniqueness of this will not be to everyone’s taste I suspect, but this is a thought provoking wine to be sipped and considered. Ready to drink but could age further. Will be interested to see how the rest of the case develops in years to come – right now I’m not making any predictions!

Cave des Vignerons de Buxy - La Buxynoise Montagny 1er Cru 2005 (Burgundy, France)
Half-bottle. Despite being their then-top wine, this has been very hit-and-miss in my experience. The other half I opened so was badly oxidised it was undrinkable and got poured away. This was much better, nutty and mature, but certainly starting to tire out. These wines are really not meant for keeping, and their variability has put my off purchasing from this well-known cooperative.


Jim Barry, McRae Wood Shiraz, 2006 (Clare Valley, South Australia)
Brought along by Mark McDonald to one of our post-WSET ‘wine tasting’ socials! This was a memorable wine from the evening – black and concentrated quite primary characters. It was tasted blind, and I placed it as being many years more youthful than it actually was. Oaky, full of spicy black fruits, full bodied and ripe rounded tannins. Some menthol character served to confuse people further, with an initial guess by many that this was a Cabernet-dominated blend. The wine is lifted and aromatic, something like menthol pretty striking on the nose. Really excellent wine. Needed rich red meat to balance it out. Will keep for many years to come.

Domaine Le Clos des Cazeaux “La Tour Sarrazine” Gigondas 2004 (Rhone, France)
This lovely old and welcoming winery on the outskirts of Vacqueyras is run by the Archimbaud-Vache family. Having followed them for over a decade now, we’ve had some wonderful hits and also a few misses. The latter partly down to wines that have disappointed, but also partly down to a few perhaps being kept past their peak enjoyment. The wines do seem to have a loyal following in the UK as they offer relatively good value for money, have good medium-term cellaring potential, and are imported by the Wine Society (who also sell vintages en primeur).

This particular wine, however, was purchased direct from the winery in (about) 2006 on a visit. I do remember being impressed at the time by what seemed to be a change (an improvement to my mind) in their winemaking style with more concentrated and polished wines at the tasting compared to the more rustric traditional style I recall encountering in the past. Sadly I didn’t make detailed notes at the time, but I do remember the Vacqueyras village wines also being quite improved and very good.

This particular bottling seems to have carried that through with some medium-term bottling aging – indeed it is currently showing really very well, and I suspect 2004’s like this will live in the shadow of the famous 2005 vintage that followed. 

The wine is clear with little sediment thrown (it was stood for several days prior to opening). Medium ruby with a garnet rim developing. Pronounced legs inside the glass. Open nose immediately on decanting, not broadening out much further after a couple of hours in decanter. Medium intensity. Smokey and earthy with quite a lot of dusty ripe red fruits. Seems like there’s a very light touch of Brett there, just to add a touch of complexity. Very appealing. The palate is similarly broad, rich and full bodied. Generous ripe red fruits set against a medium tannin body. The fruit is lovely and really balances out the tannin. Medium acidity. Slightly hot when you think about it, but hides 14.5% alcohol very well. Medium-plus length. 

This is without doubt the best bottle of La Tour Sarrazine that I’ve tasted. At its peak now at nine years old. I imagine it will hold it for another couple of years, but why wait, it won’t improve further. I would say this could give lesser-ranking Chateauneufs a good run for their money as this offers excellent value. Needs full flavoured meats and cheeses to do this justice – lovely winter wine. 16+/20.