Bordeaux 2014 at Two Years: Pessac-Léognan
The memory of some wines just seems to stick. I will never forget my first taste, for example, of 2009 Château Latour, a breathtaking paradox of majestic weight and defined floral purity, sipped and spat while looking out over the Latour vines and the Gironde (because there is no such thing as blind tasting when it comes to the first growths, and when it is barrel samples you are looking at I think blind tasting is a bit nonsensical anyway). The 2014 primeur tastings of Pessac-Léognan provided another example of such a moment. Not Château Haut-Brion though. Not Château La Mission Haut-Brion either. Not even our old friend Château Haut-Bailly. No, it was another château that blew my tastebuds off, in much the same way that Charlie Croker blew the bloody doors off.
The wine – or barrel sample, to be precise – in question was 2014 Domaine de Chevalier. I nearly telephoned Olivier Bernard from the tasting room at Château de Rouillac (I think that was where I was tasting that day – funny how I can remember the wine so clearly, but not any detail of the room or château wrapped around us both) to place an order.
Coming back to the finished wines, in bottle, if I had placed a purchase then I wouldn’t have had any cause to regret it now – other than the fact en primeur prices are no longer the bargains they once were, of course. Putting prices to one side for a minute, the quality within 2014 Domaine de Chevalier remains tip-top. Nevertheless, although as a barrel sample it was a contender for top wine of the appellation, today that office has been filled by a more usual suspect.
Please log in to continue reading: