Three Wines From Bordeaux 2009

 Having had the pleasure of the mature Lynch-Bages, I wanted to explore how the 2009 vintage stacks up by tasting three wines from different left bank subregions.

The results were surprising to me. The favorite from these three wines was the 2009 Chateau Beychevelle from St. Julien. This is quite a dark fruited wine with cassis and plum flavours on the palate. Tobacco augments the long finish. This is a well balanced wine with lively acidity promising a long future. The highlight for me was the equal power and elegance of this wine (97 points). 

The 2009 Chateau Malescot St Exupery is a wine I have reviewed before. In this tasting, I found it quite muscular, somewhat surprising for the Margaux subregion. The blackcurrant, redcurrant and espresso flavours are quite concentrated. Still, this is an elegant wine with a satisfying mouthfeel and a long finish (95 points).

The 2009 Chateau Duhart-Milon Rothschild from Pauillac does not have the same intensity, but the blackberry and blueberry flavours deliver a silky texture. This is quite a smooth wine as you would expect from the Lafite stable (95 points).

Sub-regionality did not show up in expected ways. The Margaux was concentrated rather than perfumed, the Pauillac smooth rather than tannic. In Bordeaux, the winemaker wins over terroir, at least this time.

Overall, the 2009 vintage certainly delivered at this price point. The fruit flavours are intense, and the wines balanced. I reviewed more value based wines from this vintage before. There, the results were much more mixed.