Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2004 Tasting

I tasted this over Sunday lunch with the family. First of all the bottle looks like it’s a wine bottle on steroids: very wide shoulders on it compared to the classic shape claret bottle of the Mouton Rothschild 1982.

A bottle on steroids the Mouton Rothschild 2004

Artwork by Prince Charles

We decanted it for roughly an hour before consumption and during the time it took to drink it didn’t do much in the glass. Although it was pleasant, it seemed to fade away a bit towards the end of the bottle. Saying that, the Mouton 2004 is drinking surprisingly well considering it’s age but it has a long life left ahead of it still with great length on the palate, lovely fruits and silky tannin. On the nose there is lots of classic cedar, dark fruit and graphite. There is a lovely rounded finish on the palate. This Mouton is intense and quite complex with tannin balanced by the fruit and acidity. I feel it will only get better with time and at some point I have no doubt it will become excellent. Enjoyable to drink right now but better left to cellar at least for a few more years. A typical young Mouton.

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Moncharm Ronan 2009 (by Clinet)

I drank a Magnum of Ronan 2009 (by Clinet) over dinner with some friends last night, it is an excellent everyday drinking wine and at £12 a Mag it’s a bargain!

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Moncharm Louis Carillon Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru- Les Combettes 2008 Tasting

I had been given this white Burgundy very kindly as a birthday present (thanks John) and chose a perfect spring evening that more resembled a hot August evening than one in March to drink it. Perfect! Upon opening the bottle, my nose was greeted with beautiful nuances of summer flowers, butter and gooseberries. It was extremely well balanced on the palate with great length, a typical Chardonnay: buttery, sweet from ripe fruit, oak, vanilla with an acidic twinge at the end. Sweet on entry, acidic on the finish, a wine for summer if ever I have had one. Drink now with great pleasure a beautiful balance here and an extremely fat wine with an almost voluptuous feel.

90/100

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Chateau Leoville Barton 2006 Tasting

The Leoville Barton tasting at Moncharm

I have tasted this second growth Bordeaux twice thus far, once with my colleagues at Moncharm and again at home. It performed slightly better on the latter occasion as it had a little while longer in the decanter to open up. The Leoville Barton 2006 has a very lovely upfront nose of tobacco, vanilla and lead pencil and is very strong and fragrant.  Once in the glass has a very purple almost blue hue to it.  On the palate there is a lovely black raspberry taste, then you are hit with the mouth puckering acidity with a very tannic finish as it’s still very young but don’t be fooled there is a very fine balance going on here, between its youthful tannins and the acidity. Quite pleasant to drink now with a nice dinner but it would most definitively benefit from another 5+ years cellaring time. A tough choice to make however, in hindsight I’m glad I opened it when I did. This proved to be quite a red herring as I did not expect it to perform quite as well as it did, I look forward to tasting this in the years to come to see how it evolves. Impressive! Given the price I may invest in a case for future drinking.

92+/100

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