Château D’Armailhac: Tasting & Drinking
Château d’Armailhac is perhaps the least well known Bordeaux property in the Rothschild portfolio. The style is a little different to the other wines; it is certainly less masculine than Château Clerc-Milon, perhaps because of the greater proportion of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, a blend which can allow the wine to excel in vintages when others may not. A case in point is the 1999, a very good wine in a good but not superlative vintage.
When I think of Château d’Armailhac, I am sometimes tempted to use the phrase ‘poor man’s Mouton‘. It would be disingenuous of me to do so of course, for at least two reasons. First, it is about as appropriate to refer to this wine as the ‘poor man’s Mouton‘ as it would be to refer to The Rolling Stones as The Fab Four. The ‘poor man’s Mouton‘-moniker was coined many decades ago to describe the wines of Château Lynch-Bages, and although today I feel its use to describe that estate is inappropriate that doesn’t mean I am happy to see the term transferred to Château d’Armailhac. Secondly, the wines of Château d’Armailhac should be able to stand on their own two feet, without recourse to such mealy-mouthed comments. We only need to look at this estate’s neighbours directly to the north, and directly to the south, to realise that this estate should be turning out one of the best wines of the commune. Let’s not dress it up as a Mouton-imitator.
Unfortunately, I am not convinced that Château d’Armailhac has really achieved their full potential. The wines are admirable, desirable even, but they do not match the quality seen at Château Mouton-Rothschild and Château Pontet-Canet. Having said that, they have long offered relative good value instead, although this being Bordeaux sadly the wine is not perhaps such good value as it once was, due to recognition of the increased quality in recent years, as seen in vintages such as 2005, 2009 and 2010, and the ever-increasing price rises that have characterised the region over the past decade. (10/2/05, updated 20/3/07, 9/1/14)
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