Ch Latour a Pomerol

Despite the Latour of its name, this estate has no connection with the Latour estate in Pauillac, being instead more connected to Chateau Petrus. Perhaps Latour refers to the small tower embellishing the charming chateau close to the village church in Pomerol. Madame Loubat who assembled the estate from various properties in 1917 was the owner of Ch Petrus at the time. It then passed to her niece in 1961, but was then farmed since 1962 by Ets JP Moueix (see also entry on Christian Moueix)whose now portfolio of properties include Ch Petrus. The estate has now been donated to Fondation de Foyers de Charité de Châteauneuf de Galaure in 2002.

Chateau Beau Sejour Becot

I remember looking at the long name of this estate and also that on the neighbouring entry in Johnson's little wine book and wondering about their connection. I don't think I have met the other one, but having now tasted the 2005 vintage of this chateau and also having a bottle of their 1975 in my collection, it is decidedly time to find out more about this estate and its history.

The original estate was descended from a monastic vineyard in the Middle Ages, which was renamed Beausejour in the late 18th century. In 1869 the estate was divided with one half becoming Beausejour-Duffau-Lagarrosse and the other half eventually being sold  in the 1920s to a Dr Fagouet, with that name being appended to that estate. The Becot family acquired the estate in 1969 and changed it to the current name, and they instituted an extensive programme of modernization. As for the 2005 vintage, it was dark and opaque at the centre with a thin rim of deep ruby, and a nose which was closed at first with slight sweetness and fruit. The palate was sweet and fruity with a touch of mint, well supported by a tannic acid fruity backbone.

Chateau Climens 2006

I started blogging about this wine and ended up writing about the 2001 vintage which was awarded RP100. As we have noted before, Climens is one of two first growths in Barsac, the other being Coutet. Tracing its name back to the 16th century, viticulture was started in the next century with the estate producing both white and red wines. The estate was bought by the Gounouilhou in 1855 when it was classified Premier Cru, and it remained in the same family until it was bought by Lucien Lurton in 1971.

Made entirely from botrytised Semillon, the wine is noted to be better in youth, though in the great years, it has been favourably compared with Yquem. As for this wine, golden orange in colour with a sweet luscious dried apricot nose, the palate was sweet luscious and rich with notes of exotic fruit, well supported by a nice backbone of dried apricot acidity. Delicious!

Gallo's better offering

The Gallo name is often associated with cheap supermarket wines, which is understandable given that many a times we do see that name on entry level supermarket wines. However, some of their better efforts are worth a second, more considered inspection. As Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher wrote in "Tastings" (the weekly wine column of The Wall Street Journal), Gallo is a big conglomerate with clout and they had been suspicious about the talk of better wines, putting it down to clever marketing. That was until they were surprised when they ended up marking out for recommendation a top range Gallo wine through blind tasting.

Having read that, I jumped at the opportunity when I saw a bottle of their single vineyard offering, ironically enough at Wellcome Supermarket of all places. Well, I didn't mistake for a claret as Gaiter and Brecher did, but then I wasn't tasting blind. It was however a reasonably well made wine and certainly worth a try. There is still a more expensive flagship Cabernet, but whether you are interested in spending nearly $1000 on a Gallo offering is another matter.

France vertical tasting 2005

This was the theme of last month's PWC tasting in which we had nine wines from that vintage (+ a non-vintage champagne for welcome drink). Apart from a relatively unfamiliar 2nd growth Sauternes (Ch Romer du Hayot), they rest fell neatly into four groups of two: two Burgundies, two Rhones and two each from left and right bank.

The Burgundies a Chablis and a Beane 1er Cru Greves, whilst there was a Chateauneuf and a Cote-Rotie from the Rhone. The left bank was represented by Reserve de Leoville Barton from St Julien and Ch Calon-Segur from St Estephe, whilst the right bank fielded Ch Beau Sejour Becot and Latour a Pomerol.

A right royal Mouton label

The artwork for the 2004 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild label is taken from one of the watercolours painted by HRH the Prince of Wales. The reason for the royal artwork was that 2004 was the centenary of the Entente Cordiale between France and Great Britain and there had been a number of celebrations culminating in official visits by both Heads of State.. That agreement was signed by Edward VII, the great great grandfather of Prince Charles who painted the watercolour used for the label.

Prince Charles needs no introduction to those of us who hail from Hong Kong's colonial past, but not everyone knows that he is a talented artist, working mainly in watercolours. To the painting of Mediterranean Pines on Cap d'Antibes, the Prince had added in his own handwriting "To celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Entente Cordiale – Charles, 2004"

Ch Calon-Segur 2005

I tasted this wine at the PWC France 2005 dinner the other day, having blogged about someone choosing it for Valentine's Day just this February. I am pretty sure I had tasted this classified 3rd Growth a few times before, but this is not an estate with which I am overly familiar. Together with the Ch Beau-Sejour Becot, they were the stars of the evening, one each from right and left banks, though both better for quiet sipping than to match with a cheese souffle suffering from a heavy hand with the nutmeg.

As for this wine, it had a deep ruby rim with a dark core and a sweet fruity nose, which extended well throughout the palate. It was amply supported by an acid tannic backbone.