Super Pomerol Bordeaux Wine Tasting featuring Chateau Petrus, LaFleur, Le Pin and more...

Saturday, March 11, 2023 - 07:30 PM

This Event has been read: 1259 times.

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Jack: If they want to drink Merlot, we're drinking Merlot.

Miles Raymond: No, if anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any fu*&^% Merlot!

 

 

Merlot is the second most planted varietal on the planet earth, although its popularity has helped give this outstanding varietal an identity crisis.

The name Merlot is thought to be a diminutive of merle, the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to the color of the grape. Its softness and "fleshiness", combined with its earlier ripening, makes Merlot a popular grape for blending with the sterner, later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon, which tends to be higher in tannin.

When done right Merlot is one of the greatest wines on the planet.  When it is done wrong it is one of the least enjoyable of all wines.  After the boom of the late 1990’s which was sparked by the nations’ most popular news programs 60 minutes expose called “the French Paradox” where they discovered that the consumption of wine was linked to superior heath in people from France.  The U.S. started drinking more wine and Merlot was the bell of the ball so wineries planted this finicky varietal all over the state of California and beyond to quench the demand for this healthy elixir.  

There is no question among wine lovers that the greatest expression of this varietal is from Bordeaux and Pomerol the small one horse town is above all else when it comes to Merlot. There is no question when it comes to supply and demand that Chateau Petrus is the most sought after of all the wines from Pomerol so when I acquired a bottle of 1989 Chateau Client, then a few bottles of LaFleur, a bottle of Le Pin and when the two (100 Point) vintages of Chateau Petrus arrived there was no question that these would all be placed into one of our "Once in a Lifetime" wine tastings ASAP.

Tonight, we will taste through an incredible line-up of Pomerol with a few surprises for those that attend this incredible “Once in a Lifetime” event that is the second weekend of  three night celebration of drinking the world’s greatest wines- why because it’s my birthday month!! 

1989 Château Clinet, France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol - CellarTrackerChateau Lafleur Pomerol 2009 - Westchester Wine WarehouseLE PIN 2010 | Finest and Rarest Wines | | Sotheby'sA picture containing text  Description automatically generated

 

Super Pomerol Bordeaux Wine Tasting
Saturday, March 11th
7:30pm

 

1989 Chateau Clinet Pomerol

1989 Chateau LaFleur Pomerol

1990 Chateau Lafleur Pomerol

2000 Chateau Lafleur Pomerol

2008 Chateau Lafleur Pomerol

2008 Chateau Le Pin Pomerol

2009 Chateau Petrus Pomerol

2010 Chateau Petrus Pomerol

 
Menu

Cheese and Charcuterie Selection

Tomato Soup with Grilled Beemster Sandwich

Venison tartar with Parmesan Crisp

A5 Japanese Waygu Filet Mignon with Lyonaise Potatoes and Bordeaux Wild Mushroom Reduction

 
 

The fee for this tasting which includes dinner is $3995.00 + Tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.  Please let us know when you make your reservations if you have any dietary restrictions. 

 

 

 

A bit about Chateau Petrus:

 

Image result for chateau Petrus

It is without question the most recherché claret on the face of the Earth.  Most wine aficionados have never even tried this ultra-exclusive wine.  Many say that it is overpriced, but those in the know realize that price is only relative.  Is Petrus a truly great wine or is it a greatly over-priced wine.  The production is so limited (less than 4,000 cases) that allocations are usually taken without even a mention of the asking price.

Things were not always so good for this tiny property.  The Petrus phenomenon is fairly recent.  A little over sixty years ago hardly anyone had even heard of Petrus, and fewer were interested in buying the wine.  Pomerol itself had not really caught the eye of the Bordeaux drinkers, it was not until 1900 that the Syndicate of Pomerol was founded; the commune was considered to be a lesser appellation of Saint Emilion.  Saint Emilion itself, until the latter portion of the nineteenth century was regarded as greatly inferior to wines coming from the Medoc and Graves.  This is the reason, not because of some self-imposed restriction, that the 1855 Classification consists (with the exception of Chateau Haut Brion) only wines coming from the Medoc.  Unlike the other areas in Bordeaux, Pomerol has never had a classification of its own. 

In the first mention of Petrus in the notebooks of the Bordeaux firm Tastet and Lawton it was owned by the Arnaud family.  This was in the 1830’s and at that time the only grand vins of Pomerol were, Vieux Certan, Petite Village and Trotanoy.  Petrus was added to this list a few short years later.  It remained in the Arnaud family until after the First World War and by this time they had firmly established Petrus as one of the top houses in Pomerol, in a good year it would fetch prices on par with a second growth Medoc wine.  Now a limited company, it was gradually acquired from 1925 onwards by Mme Edmond Loubat who became sole owner by about 1945. 

It was the Loubat family that brought Petrus to top-growth status; Mme Loubat was a woman of great personality, who never made the mistake of compromising the integrity of her product.  She took every opportunity to show the rest of the Bordeaux that her wines were as good as anything-made in Pomerol, Saint Emilion, and the rest of the Medoc. 

When the time came to pass the torch on at Petrus Mme Loubat was left in somewhat of a predicament.  She had no children and only two heirs, the only children of each of her two sisters.  These two were not tight, so Mme Loubat decided to give one share of Pertus to Jean Pierre Moueix which would enable him to have a say in the management of the property and to make an exact division of the remainder between the heirs.  Her confident and ally Jean-Pierre Moueix began as simply the proprietor of Chateau Fonroque in Saint Emilion but finding no negociant interested in his wine during the depression of the 1930’s, he set up a negociant business.  The Moueix family owed, farmed for absentee landlords or had the marketing rights, in part or exclusively, for the majority of the top properties in the area, including:  Lafleur-Petrus, Trotanoy, Lagrange and La Grave in Pomerol as well as Magdelaine in Saint Emilion.  In addition, Moueix sells a third of Cheval-Blanc, half of Ausone, and has been the sole agent for Petrus since 1947.  Moueix brought Lignac’s shares in 1964 and his son Christian is the sole proprietor and responsible for managing the chateau today.

The secret of Petrus begins with the soil.  The soil here is clay with a curious blue tinge to it.  Underneath this clay is an impermeable layer of hard iron soil known as crasse de fer, or machefer.  The vineyard is planted almost exclusively to Merlot with about 5% Cabernet Franc, however this is not always used in the grand vin blend, for it is only in exceptional years that the Cabernet Franc gets really ripe.  Therefore, Petrus is usually 100% Merlot. 

The vines are very old, an average of 40-45 years, some as much as 80 if not more.  Christian Moueix is a perfectionist and when a single vine gives up it is not immediately replaced.  This way he can maintain the venerability of not only individual vines but of sections of this vineyard and can thus tell you as well from which part of Chateau Petrus each vat of new wine comes and almost how old each constituent drop of the final blend is.  Perfectionism can often times be confused with eccentricity and Christian has been accused of being both.  In years when there has been rain at the time of harvest, he has employed helicopters to generate a downwind to dry out the grapes.  In 1992 the ground was lined with plastic sheets so that no moisture should penetrate the earth.  All of the grapes that go into Petrus are harvested on the same day; they even go to the extent of waiting until after lunch to begin the picking.  By the afternoon the dew has evaporated, and the berries are dry and warm potentially about a half degree of alcohol riper than in the morning. 

 

A bit about Pomerol

 

The Pomerol vineyards are located on a plateau that rises and falls slightly as it slopes gently down through a series of terraces toward the valley of the Isle River, which flows into the Dordogne River.  The appellation is bordered on the north by the Barbanne, a tributary of the Isle, on the east by Saint Emilion (the Cheval Blanc and Figeac wine estates), and on the south and west by the city of Libourne.  Pomerol is an area only two and a half miles long and two miles wide with exceptionally favorable geology and unique wine-producing potential.  It is one of the smallest of the Bordeaux wine areas and produces a yearly average of about 350,000 cases of wine.  Most of the region's properties, with a few exceptions, are small; the 185 wine estates in Pomerol have an average of eight acres of grapes each.  The area is mainly characterized by a unique set of geological conditions.  The surface soil is gravel, more or less compact or sandy; and its subsoil contains ferrous oxide, locally known as "crasse de fer", which, together with its specific microclimate, gives Pomerol wines their distinctive personality.

 

It is speculated that wine grapes have been grown there ever since the Romans inhabited Gaul.  The development of the vineyards began in the 12th Century and continued throughout the Middle Ages.  Pomerol was an important stopping place along the road of the pilgrims journeying from all over Europe to the Spanish pilgrimage of Saint Jacques de Compostelle.  The Knights of Malta built a manor and a Roman church - since destroyed - as well as a hospital.  The ancient hospital is the present Château Gazin building; it may be one of the last vestiges of the middle ages in Pomerol.  Unfortunately, the troubles of the Hundred Years' War led to the abandonment of most of the vineyards.  Subsequently restored, they again suffered greatly during the Religious Wars.  Minutes in the archives of Libourne date the beginning of Pomerol's evolution toward its modern form to the middle of the 18th Century.  It began in 1753 when Louis Leonard Fontemoing, a grape-grower in a locality called "Trop Chaud" ("Too Hot"), transformed his vineyard by taking out the white grapes and putting in red grapes.  Besides the Pressac red, bouchet (or cabernet franc) and merlot made their first historically recorded appearance.  They are the dominant varieties in Pomerol today.

 

Some historians claim that the real ascendancy of Pomerol began in the second half of the 19th Century.  However, modern tasters have reported on many great Pomerol vintages (dating back to the 1920's) from the region's pre-eminent estate, Château Pétrus.  Nevertheless, pre-war vintages of Pomerol were not much in demand; and most winelovers of that era did not seek out Château Pétrus or any other of the notable Pomerol properties.  It was not until the legendary 1947 vintage that Pétrus gained notoriety in wine circles.  Although we have not tasted that particular vintage, those experienced tasters who have had the privilege of sampling the 1947 Pétrus at its zenith (it may still be at that level today) claim that the 1947 Pétrus is one of the greatest wines produced in the 20th Century.  Despite the fame of the 1947 vintage, another generation of winedrinkers generally ignored the wines of Pomerol.  We recall drinking exceptional Pomerols from vintages in the 1960's that commanded prices well below their counterparts in the Médoc (the area of Bordeaux where fabled estates such as Mouton, Lafite, Latour, and Margaux are located).  However, beginning in the 1980's - specifically the 1982 vintage - Pomerol began to command average prices that exceeded those of most other Bordeaux wines.  Today older vintages of Chateau Pétrus sell for up to $10,000 a bottle!