For the eighth day of Christmas…
For the eighth day of Christmas, db’s Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay rounds up three 100 pointers from La Place de Bordeaux’s spring and autumn collections.
The wines: It doesn’t get much better – three 100 pointers from la place de Bordeaux’s spring and autumn collections.
The format: Yet another mixed case, I know, but a rather special one at that. It contains three candidates for vinous perfection – each distributed through la place de Bordeaux.
Unique selling point: After the joys of the first week of vinous Christmas you might not think it possible for your true love to aim any higher, but here we reach a natural summit – three wines all released on la place de Bordeaux this year that have one thing in common. They each attained 100 points from yours truly (and each for the first time). They are: Kracher’s Trockenbeerenauslese No. 7 Nouvelle Vague Grand Cuvée 2005, Poggio di Sotto’s Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2019 and Promontory 2020.
Yours for: Again, these are not the easiest wines to source even a few months after their release, though all are currently available according to wine-searcher in Europe (two of the three in the UK) for a total cost of around £1200, duty and tax paid.
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Tasting notes
Kracher TBA No. 7 Nouvelle Vague Grand Cuvée 2005 (65% Chardonnay 35% Welschriesling; 241.8 g/l of residual sugar; 10.5% alcohol). Peach! Peach! More peach! But black raspberry too and crushed raspberry pips. Wow! Simply incredible in its purity and sheer fruit intensity. There’s toffee apple, butterscotch and crème brulée (in fact, much more brulée – the lovely bitterness of burnt sugar – than crème). Then one finds the minerality – saline, but stony too and almost slightly flinty in that very clean, pure, brilliant way. The texture is incredible – succulent, soft, crystalline and then energised by the freshness of the wondrous citrus element that arrive last of all and then interweave themselves with those peaches and, on the finish, we’re back to peaches, peaches and more peaches. Just wow! There are tears in my eyes. 100. It’s probably easiest to source this now directly from the property, where a half bottle will set you back exactly €100.
Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2019 (Brunello di Montalcino; 100% Sangiovese; certified organic; 13.5% alcohol). A legend in the making, this is sumptuous. Slow to reveal its charms at first, this is the Brunello equivalent of Cheval Blanc; a little more open and expressive when re-tasted just before the March releases. Pitch perfect poise, elegance, charm, finesse and delicacy. One of the most beautiful aromatic profiles of any Italian wine I have ever encountered. It’s incredibly floral – violet, lavender, peony and a mix of dried flesh-pink rose petals and fresh yellow rose petals (I’m back in my grandfather’s garden). Patchouli and confit floral notes too. There’s a dusty, earthy element too and a little cinnamon, freshly grated. In the mouth, there’s more amplitude here than the slightly more structured 2020 Brunello itself. The effect is to give the fruit, still generously enrobed in its floral pink silk pyjamas, more space to dance and glide and express itself. There’s amazing freshness, a milles feuilles sense of layering and a seemingly endless finish stretching all the way to a distant vanishing point. Incredible. 100. Available in cases of 3 bottles in bond from Cru World Wine for £646.50.
Promontory (Harlan) 2020 (Napa Valley; 100% Cabernet Sauvignon; 13.5% alcohol). Utterly beguiling. Gracious, calm, relaxed, composed, a little introvert and reticent but exuding class and balance and harmony even in its slight introspectiveness. Delightfully subtle. The delicate floral notes are the first to show – peony and lilac. Then the fruits. Cassis. Blueberries. And there’s a lovely slight stalky leafiness that really brings out the character of the Cabernet. So gracious. So utterly beautiful. Exquisitely balanced. There’s a diaphanous sheen and gloss to this that is so beguiling and it is so much less demonstrative in its intensity and concentration than any other Napa wine. I’m in raptures. Note the low alcohol. This was picked early – so early in fact that the forest fires had yet to begin. 100. Available from WineBourse for £2329.30 in bond for a case of 3 bottles. A similar case of the 2019 vintage is available from Fine & Rare Wines for £2385 in bond.
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