Bordeaux 2011 Cru Bourgeois: Médoc
The final instalment of this examination of the 2011 Cru Bourgeois classification, with tasting notes on 87 of the 256 classified wines, takes us north, to the vineyards of the Médoc proper, or the Bas-Médoc as it is sometimes referred. As I found with my report on the wines of the Haut-Médoc vineyards, there was still a wide range of quality here, so some guidance is still certainly required. Nevertheless, a number of the wines were certainly more convincing that those from the more famous communes of Pauillac, Margaux, Moulis and the like. Looking at the top five wines, four were from estates with which I am familiar and a couple of them I have visited in the past; one estate, however, was completely new to me.
Although the name seems to ring a bell, perhaps because of its similarity to that of Château Les Ormes de Pez, Château Les Ormes Sorbet is not an estate I have visited, and I have only tasted it once before at the 2010 Cru Bourgeois tasting last year. In the 2011 vintage it certainly does not match the quality found in 2010, all the same it is clearly a good wine for the vintage. The estate sits on the edge of the village of Couquèques, which is well up on the Médoc, close to Saint-Christoly-Médoc. There are 20 hectares of vines, averaging 35 years of age, led by Cabernet Sauvignon (65%) followed by Merlot (30%) and Petit Verdot (5%), and the property has been in the hands of the Boivert family since 1764. The wine in 2011 has some attractive, rather savoury fruit, with a more appealing seam of polished tannin than can be found in many other efforts in this vintage.
