Medium-plus ruby-red. When cold, this is wide and fresh with good purity. As it warms there is a touch of herb and the fruit has a more jammy edge. The tannin seems a little more prevalent when cold, linear, expanding into a very long finish. Warmer, it is fatter, the tannin sits better and the acidity is just right. Not a great grand cru, but it’s tasty and almost good value.
Splash decanted 15 minutes before drinking. Medium cherry/ruby red – the colour’s a little intermediate, but not much fading. The nose starts a little ‘solid’ plenty of ashy oak taking at least an hour to release the creamy red fruit – it’s good but not great. The palate is medium intensity with a spectacular finish, creamy and long, long, long. Most likely serves me right for opening at this age but I would have liked something to be happening in the mid-palate… Lovely balance – elegance over power, nice unobtrusive tannin and a real peacock’s tail of a finish, but this left me looking for just that bit extra. Excellent but as said, not yet great…
From the get-go, this is a more interesting wine than the Bonnes-Mares. More of everything vs how the Bonnes-Mares started. There’s a really cracking creamy depth to the fruit (I waited for 90 minutes in a decanter) that sustains an excellent finish, the tannins are softer but still large-scale. Today I marginally prefer the peaking Bonnes-Mares, as by the last sip it outstrips this RSV – looks like an interesting match-up over the next few years – I’ll have another look in 4 or 5 years.
Quite deep colour. Nose is quite wide but not so deep it really needs time to extend itself. Likewise this was a little disappointing on the palate when first opened – more a village standard. It was really about 90 minutes before this wine was singing, and I really liked the tune, both nose and palate expanded in all directions. There’s plenty of tannin, but not particularly astringent and has the fruit to match. Long in the finish – I was disappointed at the start, but sorry to see this finished. If you go for it, take 2 hours in a decanter, it’s young but it’s also very, very promising.
A developed, medium ruby red. The nose has a lovely dried red fruit and raisin aspect – just a little coffee and smokey ash too. The palate unfortunately is a bit of a let-down: The fruit is nice enough – as is the texture – but from the mid-palate onwards this is a little bitter, weedy (for a Grand Cru) and woody. In fact the wood note hovers perilously close to taint, but we had two bottles with consistent notes. A shame, as I know the 1999 is a very nice wine. A friend had Alex’s ’98 V-R Suchots and it showed far better than this. Not worth the entrance price.
The slightly cooked nose of the Clos de la Roche is turned up a notch on this Charmes, together with very dusty/powdery red fruit that makes the nose slightly unattractive for my taste. The colour is medium-plus ruby. On the palate the wine seems not that well integrated, deep red fruit, and forward, velvetty tannins that show a bitter edge. The last quarter of the bottle was vacuvined and left overnight – subsequently showing a little more balance and intense red fruit, but this time the acidity seems too forward. A wine that doesn’t find the right balance and isn’t in the same league as the superb 1999.
I’ve bought this wine from 1996 to 1999 (inclusive) but then my overstocked merchant dropped the label – I think I’ll have to pay a visit and keep my mini-vertical running… The wine is medium-plus garnet, little fading. The nose starts a little disjointed and heavy on the oak, given five minutes the oak has harmonised with a coffee topped plum and cherry pie effect – still quite understated – a cooked note spoils the overall effect a little. Direct from the cellar the fresh palate is not obviously fat, but becomes more so as the wine approaches room-temp. The tannins are of velvet and the acidity lingers into a gorgeous and complex finish – which comes as a surprise given the understated way the wine begins. If there’s one criticism, the wine seems more advanced than most ’98’s and not just on the nose – but it’s a lovely drop.
The colour is medium-plus ruby, not quite as developed as the Charmes. The nose shows a trace of oak and also a trace of the cooked note of the previous two Castagniers – but on a much lower register. The fruit is higher toned showing a little redcurrant above the cherry which itself sits above a meaty coffee note. The wine shows in a fresher and more aloof (I wouldn’t go as far as saying austere) manner than the Charmes but with a very impressive length. The acidity is just right and the tannin is thick and velvetty. This is a very good young wine.
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