Bordeaux 2006 at Ten Years: St Emilion
Over the past couple of years I have been working to improve my understanding of St Emilion, the largest of all Bordeaux’s ‘big name’ appellations, and in terms of terroir also the most diverse. This I have done in parallel with expanding my coverage of the region, visiting it more frequently, wandering about in vineyards, digging at bits of dirt, taking photographs and subsequently updating old profiles and adding new ones. Doing so has brought home just how extensive and varied this appellation is; even limiting myself to the grand cru classé châteaux and above, I think I shall by adding new profiles and updates for this region for another year or two yet.
As a consequence any opportunity to examine anew the wines of this appellation is a welcome one. The wines presented here were, admittedly, largely familiar names appearing in a familiar vintage, but it is a while since I have tasted many of them, and there were one or two less commonly encountered châteaux.
Leading the way in this assessment at ten years of age was 2006 Château Ausone, a stunning wine with deep seams of fruit complexity, lifted by wonderful structure and a touch of minty green sapidity. I would dearly love to have a case or two of this in the cellar; unfortunately, I would probably have to sell off my entire stock of Muscadet to be able to afford just one bottle; whereas for some drinkers such a decision might be a no-brainer I would miss that electric-mineral combination of gabbro terroir and Melon de Bourgogne, so for now I think I will just have to shop around for more affordable alternatives to this wine. It is glorious though, clearly one of the top wines of the vintage, and in this tasting I was quite comfortable placing it on the very top tier, along with Château Latour and Château Haut-Brion.
