Bordeaux 2006 at Ten Years: St Julien
In the 2006 vintage St Julien seems to offer it all, and as a consequence I find it to be the most appealing appellations in this tasting. That does not necessarily mean it has the highest scoring wines, nor is it rich in wines that want to make me sell my grandmother so that I can afford a glass. But it does have very good quality across the board, with real consistency within the appellation, combined with good value too, provided you choose the right wine.
The wines also seems classically styled. While they might have the soft, plump and dark fruit that marks the vintage laid over their tannins, this only makes them seem all the more charming as a collection of wines.
The Léoville estates are almost always the most convincing here, and when you see on a map of the appellation how the three vineyards jostle with one another for the best spot closest to the Gironde, it is not hard to understand why. It is simply a matter of terroir, these vineyards of Günzian and Rissian gravel having the best drainage of any in the entire commune. These days all three estates turn out wines of very high quality, and that is certainly true in 2006. Not for the first time I struggled to separate them out in terms of quality, especially the 2006 Château Léoville-Barton and 2006 Château Léoville-Poyferré, which both promise delightful drinking, in different styles maybe, but at very similar levels of quality. Just ahead, however, with its charging tannins and plush fruit, is the 2006 Château Léoville-Las-Cases. Nevertheless, I would be delighted to have any one (or maybe all three) of these wines in my cellar.
