Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Henry Marionnet

Tuesday, I took the time to visit Henry Marionnet, the famous winemaker from Touraine, to taste, with famous friends, his wines as well as an experimental wine made with no SO2 and non grafted vines. Time passed to fast and I still had many technical questions when I left. Hopefully, we will be able to continue during Vinexpo.

In any case, I am happy to have been able to see this beautiful vineyard planted more than 150 years ago and with plenty of life left… It is a mystery to see these vines still alive and productive, even after 100 years. Like the ones we own in Maury.

Below, comments made by Peter Hirsch on Mark Squires BB:

1998 Valandraud - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (5/12/2007)
Consumed with some Bryan Flannery 60 day aged Ribeyes.
I just can't keep my hands off these bottles. Maybe they'll be better in the future, but it's just damn good wine, today. As I've written before, a flavor profile that reminds me very much of '89 Haut Brion (or any really great Graves wine). Tobacco leaf flavor, great length, great balance, lots of complexity (3-D flavors), I really love this juice. An initial '93' RP rating, I've always wondered if it was underrated due to the very high Cabernet Franc component in this vintage? Parker often says he underrates Cheval Blanc initially for the same reason (and the '98 CB got upgraded from 93 to 98+). Price on this wine has been pretty stable over the last few years ($200 or so), so it's actually cheapened relative to other great wines that have massively escalated in price. Guess those tricky wine funds aren't buying this (great!). (97 pts.)

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