We just saw this posted on the Decanter website, and look forward to reading the whole piece. The Moueix family have been great supporters of all of Bordeaux, and been increasingly concerned for the region as a whole.
Château La Serre - News
Edouard and Jean Moueix on Bordeaux
August 3rd, 2011La Serre 2010 review by Neal Martin
April 28th, 2011Really nice review from The Wine Advocate’s Neal Martin of La Serre 2010, tasted en-primeur. This wine was gorgeous when we tasted it in mid-March with Christian Moueix’ wines.
90-92 Points
2010 Chateau La Serre: A limpid ruby colour, the La Serre ’10 has a rounded, sensual nose with black cherries, redcurrant and plum. Always one of the most generous bouquets at this early stage, it offers commendable purity and lift. The palate is very feminine and pure with black cherries, cassis and dark plum, harmonious and silky towards the finish. One of my favourite wines with the J-P Moueix portfolio, this comes highly recommended. Tasted April 2011.
2010 Barrel Scores for Christian Moueix Bordeaux
April 13th, 2011Wine Spectator critic James Molesworth recently published his notes on the 2010 Bordeaux Barrel Tastings, giving several of the best scores on the Right Bank to wines produced and represented by world famous winemaker Christian Moueix. Here are a few of his notes:
The Château La Fleur-Pétrus Pomerol 2010 is creamy and lush, with layers of red, black and purple fruits. It shows muscle on the finish, but the fruit is here in spades, with terrific polish. It’s a great combination of power and freshness and reminds me of the ’98, but with more polish (96-99 points).
The Providence Pomerol 2010 is sleek, with a beautiful beam of red licorice and cassis. Long and supple, with dense structure but thoroughly integrated. It has lots in reserve, with lots of spice too (94-97 points).
The Château La Serre St.-Emilion 2010 is superfresh, with racy red licorice and cassis. It shows bright acidity and a very sleek finish. Sourced from parcels on the limestone plateau above the town, near Trottevieille and Troplong-Mondot, it’s a fine introduction to the minerally side of the appellation (92-95 points).
Moueix’ take on the 2010 vintage vs 2009:
“2010 is a very different year. The acidity is higher. With the dry summer, there was a blockage in maturity and the alcohol and acidity was higher. So the vintage won’t be as charming as ’09 was early on, and they will probably last a little longer. ’09 was so amazing right from the beginning, a blend of ’82, ’89 and ’90. But ’10 is still a bit austere and it will take some time to define itself.”
See more notes on Molesworth’s tasting with Christian Moueix here.
Robert Parker on 2009 Bordeaux
April 28th, 2010“2009 may turn out to be the finest vintage I have tasted in 32 years of covering Bordeaux.” That’s quite a statement coming from Robert Parker, but it solidifies the general consensus that is brewing among the wine press and trade. The 2009 Bordeaux vintage was one of the greatest on record, and gave many properties their best wines ever (these wines are denoted with an asterisk, “*”). Among the standouts were, of course, Châteaux Pétrus, Margaux, and Cos d’Estournel, but also Château La Fleur-Pétrus, a VINTUS exclusive, “a mind-boggling effort.” Full reviews are below the jump.
Château La Serre in Neal Martin’s Wine Journal
April 22nd, 2010
The Wine Advocate‘s Neal Martin is wrapping up his feverishly thorough coverage of the 2009 Bordeaux En Primeurs in St. Emilion, including some high praise for Château La Serre.
Château La Serre 2009, St. Emilion
“I always have a soft spot for La Serre and the 2009 is no different with ebullient red-berried fruit: raspberry, wild strawberry and a touch of redcurrant with fine definition. The palate is very pure, very feminine with pure red fruits, filigree tannins and a silky, beautifully delineated finish. Superb.” 90-92 Neal Martin, Wine Advocate
The Moueix Wines
April 19th, 2010The Moueix wines stood out for their incredible elegance and balance. On the right bank, as some have commented, there were some real monsters (in St. Emilion especially) and there were some Pomerols that seemed a bit disjointed, but the whole range of Moueix wines were absolutely some of the very best 2009s we tasted, really extraordinary. Christian Moueix has been saying for some time that he feels 2009 is an exceptional vintage, and characterized it to us as somewhere between 1982 and 1990. His 2009s are magnificent. The following are a few of the wines we tasted either produced by Christian Moueix or exclusively represented by his firm, Jean-Pierre Moueix.
Château La Fleur-Petrus 2009 (VINTUS US Exclusive)
Three days into the tasting, and after tasting a lot of wines on the right bank, we finally got to taste our right-bank babies. Wow. Château La Fleur-Pétrus 2009 is truly something special. There is so much going on in the nose, beautiful red fruits and spices, totally complete throughout the palate but a sense that the wine creeps up and starts building and building, and stays so long through the palate. Every year we fall in love with this wine all over again becaussine of its character – so elegant, almost Burgundian in some years; not about power but about nuance, beautiful structure and length. This 2009 is getting universally great press and for good reason.
Ch La Fleur-Pétrus as viewed from its famous neighbor, Pétrus
Château Providence 2009 (VINTUS US Exclusive)
Terroir has real meaning in Christian Moueix’ Bordeaux. The restoration of Château Providence (acquired in 2005) and construction of its cellar was painstakingly carried out for just a 10 acre vineyard, and a minute production of 1,250 cases a year. Starting with the inaugural 2005 vintage, the first after Christian Moueix purchased the property, Providence has become one of the most exciting properties in all of Bordeaux. The vineyard is picture-perfect, and had always been well-managed even before Christian Moueix purchased it. The changes Christian made were, as in all his vineyards, the elimination of herbicides and chemicals, and a specific system of single guyot pruning that best allows easy circulation of sap within the vine. There is no formula for pruning, each vine is pruned differently, treated as an individual. At harvest time, there are an extraordinary 300 pickers covering the Moueix vineyard patches that ultimately total only around 200 acres. That is the definition of making wine in the vineyard, and not in the winery.
As since its first release, Providence has a darker fruit profile and is more powerful than La Fleur-Pétrus. It’s a power that is apparent right away and stays right on through the long, long finish. An extremely impressive wine, and utterly fascinating in how different it is from La Fleur-Pétrus, just down the road; come to think of it, Providence is perhaps more like Pétrus in character than La Fleur-Pétrus.
A perfect gem, the restored Château Providence
Providence is a tiny vineyard. The barrel room you see actually contains the entire 2009 production of both Providence and Hosanna.
Château La Serre 2009, Saint-Emilion (VINTUS US Exclusive)
This property is an absolute joy for us to represent. Just below you can see Luc d’Arfeuille, whose family has owned the property for 100 years. He and his wife are just wonderful people, with huge hearts, and their wine is one of the undiscovered treasures of the right bank. Their 17 acre vineyard is at the very top of St. Emilion, just outside the village, running onto southern slopes; “La Serre” means greenhouse, and references the fact that the vineyards see sun all day long. The vines sit on shallow clay soils above limestone – the road dividing two major vineyard parcels on Château La Serre is in fact blocked off, since there is an old limestone quarry below the vineyard and it’s dangerous for cars to drive over it.
La Serre’s neighbors include Pavie Macquin, Ausone, Trottevielle, and some vineyards used for Valandraud. La Serre is in other words in an incredible location, and is noteworthy for several reasons: the grapes achieve fantastic ripeness and as a result they see no need to green harvest and increase concentration; consequently the style is one of elegance over weight. Secondly, the wine offers tremendous quality for the money, it is one of the absolute little gems of Saint-Emilion.
The 2009 is just so pretty. Lovely red fruit and freshness, powerful and persistent. I also had a bottle of 2004 over the weekend in honor of this wonderful couple, and it was spot-on. La Serre is among the most serious QPR we’ve found on the right bank. It is getting very strong initial press for the 2009 vintage, as well.
Monsieur et Madame d'Arfeuille
La Serre Vineyard Plot right in front of the house
l’Hospitalet de Gazin 2009, Pomerol (VINTUS US Exclusive)
This is the second wine of Château Gazin, which as a property has been reclaiming its position as one of the top sites in Pomerol. Beautifully fresh, balanced – a pleasure to drink. Many of the 2009s across Bordeaux had tannins that, because they achieved such high levels of ripeness, were another universe from the barrel samples we are used to; as a number of people have pointed out, you could drink the wines. With Pomerol, however, we found that our favorite wines, including the entire range Christian Moueix represents, had tannins that gave the wine structure, and was not just part of mass of “a lot of everything” – i.e. fruit and alcohol. This style of wine we found had more freshness, balance and complexity. Certainly the case here, and none the less drinkable.
Bordeaux 2009!
April 19th, 2010We’re back! Many things happening, including an update of our website, but we digress…this email is about Bordeaux 2009. The first wines are being released, and we thought it would be a good time to send out a few thoughts on the vintage.
Many of you have heard the hum building around the 2009 vintage, but a lot of variables are still to fall in place – namely, pricing for the classified growths and the thoughts of Robert Parker. Plenty of press and trade have made their pronouncements; we’ll try and stick to some nice stories and pictures, with softly worded opinions.
Many people are saying something along the lines of, “while there are exceptional wines, they are not as consistent as 2005”; “some wines were too big”; etc. Objectively, 2009 is a vintage marked by record or near-record levels of concentration, tannin and alcohol. As stated previously, we’re not going to make overly authoritative statements, and have no desire to contribute in encouraging higher prices in a still very difficult environment. After two weeks at home, however, and looking back at our notes, we think there are so many spectacular wines among the top hundred properties. It will be hard not to view 2009 as a great vintage. We’re happy at this point in time to lay out the same “ifs” and “buts” as everyone else, but the fruit in these wines is so pure, powerful, complex and long, it’s astounding. And as everyone has been saying, the producers that made wines of freshness and balance made truly extraordinary wines. That’s our generalization, take it as you will.
It may come as a surprise to some, but among the very first producers to commit to VINTUS back in 2004 were Christian Moueix, Chateau Margaux and Chateau Cos d’Estournel, and we have been heavily involved in Bordeaux with every vintage campaign since 2003. Michael has spent a quarter century visiting Bordeaux, returning at least once a year for en-primeur and various other occasions. We are the exclusive US importer for two of Christian Moueix’ jewels, Chateau La Fleur-Pétrus and Chateau Providence, and work with any number of classified growths as well as properties that offer great value. In a great vintage, we’ll purchase on futures up to 100 of the properties we feel most confident about in terms of quality and trade and consumer interest.
In subsequent posts you’ll see some more specific commentary, as well as photos from our recent trip to Bordeaux.
Wine Enthusiast on Bordeaux 2009
April 12th, 2010Wine Entusiast‘s Roger Voss was on the ground in Bordeaux for Primeur Week, and has posted his initial reviews of the vintage. The wines are excellent across the board, he reports, with some châteaux producing their finest efforts ever, at least in the initial tastes. As others have reported, this is a ripe year that has found impeccable balance, with rich flavors and smooth tannins. Says Voss:
Across the region, there are great wines. Comparisons are being made to 2005, 1982 and, even, for those with long-enough memories, to 1947. There are also some references made to records from the 1893 vintage. Although the summer was long and hot, the daytime temperatures never reached the excessive levels of 2003. Nor were summer nights as warm as those in 2003. That means that 2009 wines are balanced, even with all their richness.
Any way you slice it, 2009 was a great year, with many stellar wines. Roger’s reviews are below the jump. Enjoy!
Jancis Robinson on 2009 Bordeaux
April 10th, 2010Jancis Robinson, MW, has posted her reviews of the 2009 Bordeaux vintage. Château Margaux came in for the highest score of the vintage, 19+/20, followed closely by Château Pétrus (19), Château La Fleur-Pétrus (17+), and Pavillon Blanc and Rouge (17 each). Full reviews are below the jump.
2009 Bordeaux – Right Bank Edition
March 30th, 2010James Suckling of the Wine Spectator is on the ground tasting the 2009 vintage in Bordeaux, and he is deeply impressed with the quality coming out of the Right Bank. Says Suckling,
“That’s what is so impressive with the vintage. Apparently, many of the young wines are the most concentrated ever from their respective wineries, yet the young reds remain fresh and balanced. I keep hearing about the concentration levels of polyphenolic compounds, or tannins, being off the charts. Winemakers say they are 88, or 95, or whatever. It doesn’t mean that much to me. But it does mean that the 2009s, in many cases, are packed with ripe tannins, yet they are balanced and remain fresh.”
2009 is shaping up to be one of the best vintages of the decade, with powerful, concentrated wines that will likely be long-lived. James’ initial reviews below speak for themselves.
Château Pétrus 2009
“What a nose this has. I close my eyes when I smell this, and I see perfectly ripe Merlot grapes crushed in the vats. Blackberry, mineral, black licorice, coffee bean and chocolate lead to a full body, with round yet firm tannins and beautiful fruit. The luxurious finish offers a cashmere texture and gorgeous fruit. Rich and subtle.” 97-100 Wine SepctatorChâteau Providence 2009
“Offers fabulous aromas of crushed blackberry and blueberry, with lightly roasted coffee bean and black olive. Full-bodied, delivering polished, chewy tannins and a long, juicy finish. Rich and powerful. Blockbuster. Roasted fruit on this. Best ever from here?” 95-98 Wine SepctatorChâteau La Serre 2009
“Blueberry, blackberry and mineral aromas follow through to a full body, with fine tannins and a juicy, chocolate finish, turning velvety and beautiful.” 90-93 Wine Sepctator
