It has been a busy year!  We are so far behind in our blog, but have every intention of making up for lost time.

To start, here’s the recap we have to add from last January’s (gasp!) Annual Bordeaux Fete.  We need to get this down for the record before next year rolls around in a few short months!

I was very happy to be able to go this year, as I missed last year.  This year, Christina and I attended the one put on by K & L Wine Merchants and the participating Chateaux in San Francisco, since we had just moved to the Bay area. The Bordeaux Fete was at One Market Restaurant and we tasted the new 2012 releases from:

Ch. Langoa Barton, St. Julien

Ch. Leoville Barton, St. Julien

Ch. Ormes de Pez, St. Estephe

Ch. Lynch Bages, Pauillac

Petit Figeac, St. Emilion

Ch. Figeac, St. Emilion

The 2012’s while not in the same league (or price) as the 2009’s or 2010’s, they are good in their own right.  The 2012’s are medium bodied with good fruit/acid/structure and will be good to drink while you are waiting for your 2010’s to mature in your cellar.  These wines will be a pleasure to drink in the near-mid term, particularly with food.

This is always a fun event to taste the new wines and talk with the Chateaux proprietors that we have gotten to know over the years.  This year in addition to Jean-Charles Cazes from Ch. Lynch Bages and Lilian Barton-Sartorius from Ch. Leoville Barton, the event included Chateau Figeac, with proprietor Hortense Odoine Manoncourt.  We had spent some time with Hortense at Chateau Figeac on our trip to Bordeaux and it was great to see her again.

The tasting format in San Francisco is a little different than what they do in Seattle.  In San Francisco, they set up three tables with all of the new release wines being poured by the proprietors and you get to taste them over an hour time period.  After tasting the new releases, we were given a glass of non-vintage Thienot Brut Champagne as we made our way to the dinner tables.  Once at the dinner tables, the older wines were poured to enjoy with the food courses.  Here are the other wines that we tasted with the meal:

 2013 Blanc de Lynch Bages – Tangerine, lemon mineral nose.  Very nice bright clean lemony white fruit, with a little stone mixed in.  Lively acidity, smooth mouth feel, medium-light body.  Nice long lemony energetic fruit finish.  This is a very nice white Bordeaux wine that is only produced in smaller quantities, so it may not be easy to find, but is worth the effort.  I will have to track some down for the cellar.  93 pts.

2009 Figeac – Ripe black/red berry fruit nose.  This wine is lush with sweet black/red fruit, some spice and a little forest floor.  There is good acidity to the wine, medium-full bodied with lots of very fine ripe tannins (iron fist in velvet glove).  It is nice to taste a right bank right wine if a field of left banks, just for comparison.  This is a very nice wine from a great vintage.  93 pts.

2005 Langoa Barton – Subtle nose of red / black fruit.  In the mouth crunchy dark red and black berries, hints of forest floor and tobacco, with bright acidity.  Nice medium – long dark fruit finish.  91 pts.

2005 Lynch Bages – This wine has a suave nose of spicy dark cherry fruit.  In the mouth, the rich sweet dark black/red cherry fruit combines with baking spices and just a hint of leather.  The wine has very nice acidity and very fine ripe tannins.  The wine has great balance to it and a very long sweet spicy dark fruit finish.  This wine is still very young, but is just starting to show what it has in store for a very long future.  The 2005 Lynch Bages can be enjoyed now with air time, but will reward further cellaring.  It wine will gain even more complexity as it is still on the uphill climb to maturity.  Drink now or over the next three decades.  95+ pts.

2003 Figeac – Very ripe red and black fruit nose.  In the mouth, very ripe dark red bing cherry and black berries, decent acidity, with a very tannic fine grained structure.  Medium – long very ripe dark fruit finish.  Over the course of the evening, the wine seemed to lose some of it’s acidity that supported the very ripe fruit.  I would drink the 2003 sooner rather than later, over the next 10 years or so.  91 pts.

1995 Lynch Bages – Rich dark cherry fruit nose.  In the mouth, plush sweet dark red / black fruit combine with forest floor and baking spices.  This wine has good acidity, soft mostly resolved tannins and a long beautiful dark spicy fruit finish.  The wine is drinking really well now and will continue to do so over the next 10-15 years.  If you have some of the ’95 in the cellar, open one now and enjoy it.  94+ pts.

1999 Leoville Barton – Black cherry fruit and spice nose.  In the mouth, very concentrated dark black cherries, spices and a little forest floor.  Nice acidity, with some very fine grained ripe tannins still present.  The wine has a very nice sense of balance, with a very long dark sweet black fruit finish.  This wine is drinking really well right now, but I think it will continue to improve. 94+ pts.

2004 Suduiraut – Orangey-yellow in color, nose of very ripe fruit and butterscotch.  In the mouth, again very ripe tropical fruit, over ripe melon, honey and butterscotch.  This wine is too ripe for my taste, it doesn’t have the acid to back up the sweetness, so it comes across as heavy.  Medium length very sweet finish.  82 pts.

It just so happened that the same day as the dinner, the Seattle Seahawks made the finals for the SuperBowl.  Since Seattle was the next stop on the tour for our winemaker friends, we zipped into the city early to buy them a little something so they could show their support at their next dinner.

Too bad the Seahawks didn’t pull through this year – but perhaps those hats will come in handy again next year! It will certainly be here before we know it…