I was invited to a tasting on the 9th of November by the Castillon Winegrowers Association.
I have a soft spot for Castillon. It’s one of those under-rated Bordeaux appellations that’s a treasure trove of good value wines.
There were about 20 of us at the tasting that started off with a short presentation by Maïwenn Brabant. She outlined some of the appellation’s marketing efforts including one that I found particularly interesting: Castillon winegrowers will go to people’s houses free of charge for groups of at least 10 people to share their wines and talk about them. Winegrowers have even done this in Paris, all at their own expense.
With that kind of motivation and effort, they can help but succeed!
Here are my notes.
IMPORTANT: Please consider the points within the following context. I am a tough grader. For me, acceptable wine is 10/20, 12/20 is OK, 14 is quite good, and 15 on up is special.
Also, obviously, we are talking about wines that cost only a fraction of the grands crus.
2012 Château Peyrou
Medium deep color. Not very expressive red fruit nose. Round, fruity, and juicy on the palate. Nice to drink at the present time. Uncomplicated and immediately appealing. Very Merlot: soft, with a rubbery finish. Good mid-range Bordeaux.
14/20
2011 Domaine La Tuque Bel-Air
Fine even color. Nose of candied fruit, liquorice, celery, and cocoa. Plush and round on the palate, but with a good tannic backbone. Plenty of black cherry fruit and a medium-long aftertaste. Great value. On retasting, I found a rustic aspect, but this is a good sign to me – that this is a vin de terroir.
15/20
2011 Château Pillebois
Nice color with a deep core. Suave bouquet. The oak overwhelms the fruit, but not in an unacceptably heavy-handed way. The wine has a brawny framework, but a hollow middle palate. Oak ageing dominates the flavor profile, but there is also brambly fruit. Finishes slightly dry.
13/20
2012 Château La Brande
Medium-deep color with youthful purple rim. Subtly perfumed nose but ash aromas in the background. Round attack becoming sharpish and appetizing on the palate. An essentially one-dimensional wine that lacks richness. It seems more serious on the aftertaste, but there is also a certain hard, unyielding quality.
13/20
2011 Château Pitray (premier vin)
Brilliant, deep red color with attractive purplish overtones. A nose of deep berry fruity. Big and chewy on the palate. Melts in the mouth, seguing into an attractive easy-going juiciness with oak to back it up. A successful modern style.
14/20
2010 Château Moulin de la Clotte, vieilles vignes
Lovely dark color with violet rim. Understated nose of black fruit. Textbook Merlot on the palate. Tremendously round and easy-going, but tends to drop after the attack and dries out somewhat on the finish. Out of balance because of too much oak, but in a commercial style.
12.5/20
2012 Château Bellevue vieilles vignes
Medium-light color with purplish tinges. Bit old fashioned and secretive on the nose. Closed-in, but shows nice ripeness and freshness. Good tension on the palate. Fluid attack, then dips. Thirst-quenching wine, but with proper tannins to give it substance. Weakness on the middle palate detracts, but the tannin gives character. Best with strongly-flavored dishes. Oak ageing makes this conducive to further cellaring.
13.5/20
2012 Ch. De Laussac, Cuvée Sacha
Fine youthful color. Oaky, minty, and reminiscent of New World wines on the nose. Big and round on the palate, but the promise of the (fairly fluid) attack is not sustained thereafter. Fairly confected and oaky. Will appeal to people who like flashy wines, but this does not seem very much like a vin de terroir to me. Dry and grippy on the finish.
12.5/20
2010 Château des Demoiselles
Relatively light in color. Some ash aromas. Sweet but not remarkable or particularly well-focused. Big and mouth filling on the palate. Sensually soft. Very seductive and follows through nicely, neither overdone nor weak. Lovely Merlot fruitiness. As much as the bouquet is on the nondescript side, the wine is surprisingly attractive on the palate. Not serious, but sexy. Good acidity. A Merlot for self-professed Merlot haters.
14/20
2012 Château Bréhat
Bright cherry-red color with purplish rim. Fresh blueberry nose. Sweet and simple. Very easy-going, as well as fat and juicy on the palate. Quite soft with little structure. Some liquorice flavors on the aftertaste. The wine has virtually no tannic structure and is too rough after the soft start.
11.5/20
2011 Château Grand Tuillac
Nice, medium-deep color with a good youthful tone on the rim. Very ripe nose with black fruit and throat lozenge aromas. Sweet and powerful. Starts out quite soft on the palate, then struts its stuff with fine fresh acidity. Not a classis sort of Bordeaux, but definitely moreish and appetizing. Not tiring or topheavy.
14.5/20
2011 Clos Puy Arnaud
Deep, youthful, and not entirely brilliant color. Lovely up-front black cherry nose. Very sweet and enticing. Rich and enveloping on the palate. Develops well. Quite charming and perhaps too facile, but this would unquestionably create a few surprises if included in a blind tasting of Saint-Emilions… The best wine of the tasting.
16/20
2012 Domaine de l’A
Medium-deep color. Creamy, complex, but odd nose with weird and wonderful overtones, including dill! Too simplistic and supple on the palate, going into a hot, dry aftertaste. Overdone. Disappointing in light of good wines I’ve had from this estate in other vintages.
11.5/20
2011 Château Cap de Faugères
Average color in all respects, pretty much what it should be. The nose hesitates between neutral and off-putting. The wine is angular and not altogether pleasant on the palate, which is surprising in light of the estate’s reputation.
11/20
2014 Château du Roc
Good, vital color with purplish rim. Uplifting, fresh, seductive, and classy bouquet that is curiously Pinot-like (!). Starts out round and attractive and then melts into an unpleasant hardness. There is ageing potential there, but the wine at this stage appears over-extracted and unbalanced.
11/20
2011 Château Claud-Bellevue
Good medium-deep color. The nose is muted and hard to define, but there are some meaty overtones there. The wine is quite big on the palate and New World in style. Unfortunately it is altogether too obvious, fat, and oaky.
10/20
2014 Ch. Beynat
Medium-light color. The nose is not terribly expressive, but features some interesting spicy notes. The wine goes from soft to harsh, and is a little dilute. There’s definite dryness on the finish, but this wine will taste better in a couple of years.
13/20.