Our first taste of St Emilion was Cheval Blanc – what better place to begin. Tour du Pin was pretty, well made and could be one of the best values from the commune. Petit Cheval is outstanding, complex, impressive and down right delicious. The Grand vin then goes and wipes the floor... A tour de force and clearly one of the greatest wines from this illustrious estate.All good things must come to an end and they certainly did at the UGC St Emilion. Another heavy shower, a pathetic fallacy if we ever saw one, soaked us and our spirits. Let’s start with highs (in no particular order): Larcis Ducasse, Troplong Mondot, Clos Fourtet, Canon, Pavie Macquin and Figeac. There were all too many wines that were unbalanced, outrageously tannic and generally unappealing.
Still under heavy skies, we travelled to Angelus where we were met by pretty girls and delicious wines. What a great stable of beautiful right banks from Hubert de Bouard. First off Fleur de Bouard proved an enormously attractive Lalande de Pomerol, the Grand Cru St Emilion Bellevue was staggeringly good, all velvet and undergrowth, whilst Angelus was seriously slick. From the crowded Angelus to the tight squeeze of Ausone, another of the vintage’s greats, how they achieve a wine of such concentration and focus year in year out is quite puzzling.
As usual we left Tertre Roteboeuf until last, the heady cherry on our flavoursome cake. Tertre was rich but vivid and vital, whilst Roc de Combe was glorious, pushing its sibling as close as ever for sheer intense quality. We had an insightful and thoroughly interesting interview with Francois Mitjavile, this will follow soon.
