Château Belair (Dubois-Challon)
St. Émilion 1er Grand Cru Red Bordeaux Blend
St. Émilion, Libournais, Bordeaux, France
Wonderful showing, though it needed a half hour or so in a decanter to compose itself and freshen up. Initially it seemed more autumnal than the 2000 was recently and I wondered whether it might have been better a few years ago. No, not at all, this is on a whole other level from the bottle I had in 2009, and those extra 5 years in the bottle are paying dividends in terms of maturity relative to the 2000. It has a deep tobacco flavor along with some cedar and lead pencil that almost give it some Left Bank personality, except that it cuts a much more slender figure. It has a pleasantly bitter streak like shades of the green pepper that sometimes arises in Loire cabernet franc, but that savory snap of bitterness isn't actually accompanied by anything green. Ultimately it pushes some of the buttons of a Loire wine while also serving as a reminder of what makes Bordeaux so inimitable at the end of the day. For all its wild flavors checking off all the boxes of animal, mineral, and vegetable, this is still an exceptionally classy bottle of wine, even aristocratic in its elegance and grace. There is no doubt this is from a privileged terroir, and the time in the bottle seems like it is confounding the easy style dichotomies. It is at the age where it doesn't make sense anymore to call it a "traditional Bordeaux," it is just Bordeaux, textbook Bordeaux that got itself right in the zone without breaking a sweat.
Wonderful showing, though it needed a half hour or so in a decanter to compose itself and freshen up. Initially it seemed more autumnal than the 2000 was recently and I wondered whether it might have been better a few years ago. No, not at all, this is on a whole other level from the bottle I had in 2009, and those extra 5 years in the bottle are paying dividends in terms of maturity relative to the 2000. It has a deep tobacco flavor along with some cedar and lead pencil that almost give it some Left Bank personality, except that it cuts a much more slender figure. It has a pleasantly bitter streak like shades of the green pepper that sometimes arises in Loire cabernet franc, but that savory snap of bitterness isn't actually accompanied by anything green. Ultimately it pushes some of the buttons of a Loire wine while also serving as a reminder of what makes Bordeaux so inimitable at the end of the day. For all its wild flavors checking off all the boxes of animal, mineral, and vegetable, this is still an exceptionally classy bottle of wine, even aristocratic in its elegance and grace. There is no doubt this is from a privileged terroir, and the time in the bottle seems like it is confounding the easy style dichotomies. It is at the age where it doesn't make sense anymore to call it a "traditional Bordeaux," it is just Bordeaux, textbook Bordeaux that got itself right in the zone without breaking a sweat.
1 person found it helpfulNov 8th, 2015Silky tannins and ripe plum, black spices, tobacco and puffs of mint... rich-bodied and very long lasting in the mouth. Amazing bottle!
Silky tannins and ripe plum, black spices, tobacco and puffs of mint... rich-bodied and very long lasting in the mouth. Amazing bottle!
Dec 29th, 2016