1995 Bordeaux Tasting at Wine Watch

Music is just like wine. Each of us has very different tastes in what we like and dislike.

The music that is “best” for one person can easily be “worst” for another people. So it’s

always fun to see when wine is mentioned in song.

This is the first very good vintage that the critics had to talk about in the 1990's and many of the wines are now just now starting to reach its peak years of drinking pleasure.  Most of the top wines from 1995 are still babies and will need another couple of decades to be really drinking at their best. 

This is true scientific research that we are doing here at the Wine Watch, checking each bottle to see when the best time to consume for the most drinking pleasure.  It's hard word but we are willing to sacrifice our body for our wine drinking people.

Tasting Wines:

1995 Chateau Trotanoy Pomerol

(93 Points)   "Certainly the best Trotanoy between 1998 and 1982, the 1995 has a deep saturated ruby color that is dark to the rim. Relatively shut down when tasted in 2002 on several occasions, the wine, with coaxing, does offer some notes of earth, raspberry, black cherries, and a hint of licorice. Medium to full-bodied, powerful, and backward, it is an impressively constituted Trotanoy that is relatively large-scaled but the huge level of tannin also means it might be a modern-day version of the 1970. Time will tell. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2025. Last tasted, 2/02."  The Wine Advocate

1995 Chateau Angelus Saint Emilion

(95 Points)  "A superb effort in this vintage, Angelus's opaque purple-colored 1995 is a massive, powerful, rich offering with plenty of ripe, sweet tannin. The wine's aromatics include scents of Provencal olives, jammy black cherries, blackberries, truffles, and toast. A very full-bodied wine, it is layered, thick, and pure. This is the most concentrated of the 1995 St.-Emilion premier grand crus." The Wine Advocate

1995 Le Petit Cheval Saint Emilion

1995 Chateau Lagrange Saint-Julien

(90 Points) "The 1995 Lagrange is similar to the 1996, but the fruit is sweeter, the acidity lower, and the wine less marked by Cabernet Sauvignon. The color is a deep ruby/purple. The wine boasts a roasted herb, charcoal, black currant, mineral, and new oak-scented nose. Medium to full-bodied and ripe, with copious quantities of jammy black cherry and cassis flavors presented in a medium-bodied, low acid, moderately tannic style, this well-endowed, purely made wine requires cellaring." The Wine Advocate 

1995 Chateau La Mission Haut Brion Pessac Leognan

(95 points) This vintage is aging at a glacial pace and the tannins are currently more significant than their counterbalancing components of fruit and glycerin. While the word “potential” seems to be the most positive descriptor for this vintage, there are some nagging doubts about whether all the tannins will melt away and the fruit will hold. As in most 1995s, the color remains a healthy dark plum/purple. One of the bigger wines of the vintage, the ripe, powerful Merlot component has buttressed the Cabernet elements, giving the wine plenty of body, tannin and La Mission’s classic asphalt, cassis, blackberry, smoky barbecue, meaty notes intermixed with a hint of hot rocks. The 1995 is still a young wine and I am beginning to wonder if this vintage overall will resemble 1975 rather than something with more charm? Anticipated maturity: 2020-2035?. (95+) (RP) (8/2012) Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

1995 Chateau Margaux Margaux

(95 Points) "Medium garnet colour going brick at the rim. The nose is beginning to showing signs of evolution with aromas of leather, game, warm cassis, dried plums and cloves. Medium to high acidity, medium body and medium to firm, fine tannins support earthy, blackcurrant-preserve fruit. Long finish."  The Wine Advocate

1995 Chateau Pichon Lalande Pauillac

(96 Points) "What sumptuous pleasures await those who purchase either the 1996 or 1995 Pichon-Lalande. It is hard to choose a favorite, although the 1995 is a smoother, more immediately sexy and accessible wine. It is an exquisite example of Pichon-Lalande with the Merlot component giving the wine a coffee/chocolatey/cherry component to go along with the Cabernet Sauvignon's and Cabernet Franc's complex blackberry/cassis fruit. The wine possesses an opaque black/ruby/purple color, and sexy, flamboyant aromatics of pain grille, black fruits, and cedar. Exquisite on the palate, this full-bodied, layered, multidimensional wine should prove to be one of the vintage's most extraordinary success stories." The Wine Advocate

1995 Chateau Mouton Rothschild Pauillac

(95 Points) "Bottled in June, 1997, this profound Mouton is more accessible than the more muscular 1996. A blend of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, and 19% Merlot, it reveals an opaque purple color, and reluctant aromas of cassis, truffles, coffee, licorice, and spice. In the mouth, the wine is "great stuff," with superb density, a full-bodied personality, rich mid-palate, and a layered, profound finish that lasts for 40+ seconds. There is outstanding purity and high tannin, but my instincts suggest this wine is lower in acidity and slightly fleshier than the brawnier, bigger 1996. Both are great efforts from Mouton-Rothschild. Anticipated maturity: 2004-2030."  The Wine Advocate

1995 Chateau D'Yquem Sauternes

(95 points) Served from an ex-chateau bottle. The 1995 Chateau d’Yquem is moving into its secondary aroma phase. A deep golden color, it has a dense and almost Barsac-like bouquet with tangerine, apricot, acacia and melted candle wax. It displays good intensity, unfolding beautifully in the glass. The palate has a strident opening, with a slight bitter edge that lends this Yquem great tension. One can discern layers of marmalade infused with honey fruit, with a powerful, spicy finish that lingers long in the mouth. This is drinking perfectly now, but will surely age with style over many years. Tasted March 2014. (NM) (6/20) Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Menu:

Selection of cheese:  Beemster Gouda and Parmesan Reggiano

Veal Carpaccio with garlic wild mushroom aioli and fried leeks

Duck confit with Bordeaux Demi Glaze

This tasting is a pre-poured sit down event and is limited to 12 tasters.  The price for this tasting is $250 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463

This year is one of controversy in Bordeaux as it was initially very highly touted by the press.  Many were just ready to praise anything that looked even remotely good as the first four harvests of the decade were not very good.  So when the 1995 vintage came around and the
wines were a product of a large harvest, there was also some economic advantages to giving it high marks. You have to go all the way back to 1986 Bordeaux harvest to find a vintage that produced yields like this. After a moderate winter, the first few months of the growing season delivered enough rain to reset the water tables. The warm spring got the bud break off right on schedule and the flowering completed before June. June, July and August set records for heat and a lack of rain going back as far as 40 years! It was an incredibly hot, dry summer. It rained quite a bit from September 7 through September 19. Those rains caused issues with the Merlot and pushed up the harvest for the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, which is part of the reason why these wines show a tannic profile. The 1995 Bordeaux harvest officially began the day the rain stopped on September 20.

1995 Bordeaux wine is a polarizing vintage.  When the critics first tasted these wines the professionals forecast 1995 Bordeaux wine in a positive light and that they just needed time to shed their tannins. This was perhaps because it was the first vintage since 1990 to warrant purchasing as a future and consumers were thirsty for Claret as they bought everything in sight. Even though they were shocked that prices were up more than 100% from the previous vintage in some cases. 1995 Bordeaux wine was considered to be consistent, as it appeared that good wines were produced from the Left Bank and the Right Bank.

With time has 1995 Bordeaux become a disappointment?  There are some that feel it is now a similar vintage to 1975, where far too many wines lack charm. The tannins are still hard in some of the top wines and the wines have an austere character, do they just need more time or will the 1995 Bordeaux wine fails to offer elegance and flattering textures in the end.  

Is it time to give up on the 1995 vintage?  That is why we do these events for scientific research and to see first hand how these 1995 BOrdeaux are tasting now that they are 20 years old.