Dinner at Château d’Issan, 2009
Only a couple of hours had passed since we had landed at Mérignac, that time having been largely been spent first in a grand rendezvous of incoming tasters, arriving in Bordeaux on three different flights, and secondly dashing around the Pessac-Léognan tasting at Smith-Haut-Lafitte. Our small amount of work for the day almost complete, it was time to head over to Château d’Issan for a tasting of the 2008 vintage, followed by a bite to eat with long-time proprietor Emmanuel Cruse.
I have already written of Emmanuel Cruse and Château d’Issan, and after meeting with Emmanuel in April 2009 I will be updating my profile to reflect recent developments at d’Issan, many of which we discussed over dinner that evening. Perhaps the biggest change to the d’Issan landscape in the past few years is the reclassification of 10 hectares of AC Haut-Médoc vines as AC Margaux. Once a source of fruit for one of d’Issan’s two non-Margaux cuvées, the grapes are now destined for the second wine, Blason d’Issan. The reclassification was made official in October 2007, and so it the 2008 vintage is the first affected; I suppose the most notable change will be that the volume of Blason d’Issan on the market will be greatly increased.
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