The Garcin-Lévêque Portfolio, 2019
The final instalment in this informal and rather random sequence of Bordeaux reports brings us back to the right bank. Previously I have published new tasting notes on recently released (and occasionally older) wines from Château Angélus (a mini-vertical back to 1990), Château d’Yquem (recent releases from 2017 and 2016), François Mitjavile (wines from Tertre-Roteboeuf and Roc de Cambes), Château Quintus (the 2017 vintage) and Château Climens (five wines from three recent vintages). And of course there was the rather more significant Bordeaux Nines report, on a tasting of wines from 1929, 1949, 1959 and so on, through to 2009. Today I finish up with a mix of St Emilion, Pomerol and Côtes de Castillon from Hélène Garcin-Lévêque.
The Garcin-Lévêque family followed the Cathiards of Château Smith-Haut Lafitte to Bordeaux, and have gathered together a handsome portfolio of properties. By far the most prominent of their clan is Hélène, who with her husband Patrice has overall control of four right-bank properties. Two of these, Château Barde-Haut in St Emilion and Clos L’Église in Pomerol, she has been looking after for many years; indeed, only last year I published a report on a twenty-vintage retrospective tasting of Clos L’Église, from her inaugural vintage which was 1997 right through to 2016. Poesia, meanwhile, is a much more recent acquisition; previously known as Château Haut-Villet, her first vintage in charge of this property, which enjoys an enviable position on the edge of the St Emilion plateau (complete with ruined windmill, pictured below), was 2014. With the acquisition of this estate she also acquired Château d’Arce, in the Côtes de Castillon appellation.
In this tasting Helene poured two vintages, 2017 and 2016. There was no wine made at Château d’Arce in 2017, a consequence of that years devastating frost, so I tasted seven wines in total.
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