Bordeaux 2013 Primeurs: Moulis & Listrac Tasting Notes
Despite Château Clarke showing as best of the bunch, average quality was probably slightly higher in Moulis than in Listrac, but the wines did tend to show the nature of the vintage. Although aromatically the fruit can be appealing at times, with some wines showing attractive scents of black cherry, this being particularly true of Château Maucaillou, in general this finding didn’t tend to translate through onto the palate. Here the textures of the wines are generally rather low-key. The palates are really defined by their acidity, which is certainly present, and on occasion by a lick of tannin and oak. But they do not have the substance or flesh of a grander vintage.
In Listrac, as already mentioned Château Clarke was slightly superior, but even here there was a rather loose-knit and warm feel to the wine. In other wines the fruit character came across as rather crunchy, nothing too wrong with that in the right context, such as a richer, more texturally pleasing vintage. Here, though, it just seems to reinforce the lighter character of the wines. And in other wines the fruit seems more dry and dusty, which is certainly less appealing. Again, the acidities stick out here on the palate, and the wines simply don’t possess the necessary substance to fill out their middles.
