Cru Classé de Graves, 2014: Red Wines
Continuing on with this tasting report, I now come to the red wines of the 1998 vintage. The growing season kicked off with some warm spring weather and an early budburst, but any early advantage was lost as subsequent cool and damp weather during April and May kept the vines in check. Through the early part of summer the weather lurched from rain and hail to hot sunshine, and as the latter came to dominate in August there was even the threat of drought. The fine weather continued into early September and the Merlots were therefore harvested under good conditions, but later in the month the weather broke, and late-September and October were characterised by sporadic deluges of rain. Of course, the Cabernets suffered as a consequence, and this automatically favoured Merlot-dominant appellations, meaning not just St Emilion and Pomerol, but also Pessac-Léognan.
Having a stock of 1998 Château Haut-Bailly in the cellar means I have long appreciated the quality of the 1998 vintage for Pessac-Léognan. Happily this tasting revealed that the wine is not just a good example of the appellation and vintage, but is in fact one of the very best; on this occasion I rated only the superlative 1998 Château Haut-Brion (which was 59% Merlot) higher. The 1998 Domaine de Chevalier (pictured above, the central chai) was also excellent, and although my opinions are hopefully clear from my notes and scores below I know some other tasters plumped for the pencil-straight lines of this wine in preference to the slightly more seductive curves of the Haut-Bailly.
