St. Emilion Winetasting, Part 1 of the Bordeaux Series

Our first tasting in the Bordeaux series was St. Emilion. The town of St. Emilion is one of the most beautiful towns in the Bordeaux region if not all of Europe! I was there in 2003 and fell in love with the picturesque village surrounded by vineyards on all sides. St. Emilion sits on top of a hill with a large steeple in the center and a church underground beneath the steeple. Pretty cool. There are probably more wine shops per capita that any place on earth and there are even more little cafes and bistros. It is all rather touristy but you can't help but get caught up in the romance that is St. Emilion.

The main grapes used in St. Emilion in order of importance are Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Because of the temperate climate of the Atlantic Ocean, St. Emilion and the lower right bank stays cooler longer compared to the rest of Bordeaux. This is why Merlot, being an earlier ripening grape, is more dominant. Only in the warmest years does Cabernet Sauvignon ripen enough to be of use in the higher quality wines. The other factor that sets St. Emilion apart form the rest of the right bank is its heavy limestone and clay soil giving St. Emilion a bit more power to age than some of its neighboring appellations.

I will also quickly mention classifications in St. Emilion. They are different than the Medoc Classifications and I think are a bit better. Basically there are three levels: 1er Grand Crue Classes (split into A and B categories), Grand Cru Classes, and Crue Classes. For a good look at all of them click here. One of the things that I really like about the St. Emilion classification is that the wineries get re-classified every 10 years unlike the great Bordeaux Classification which has only changed once since 1855.

Okay, enough of the lecturing, lets get to the wines. We tasted 5 different wines and they are listed below in their group ranking. We tasted the wines blind, each of us ranking each wine 1-5. I added the scores at the end and first place was given to the wine with the lowest score.

1st with 25pts. Chateau Faugeres, 2004, $35

Very dark in color with a beautiful nose and a nice full body with a long finish. The nose showed lots of earthy truffle aromas straight from the pour and opened up to more dark red fruits. the Alcohol was prevalent although balanced well with the weight of the wine. Overall, a very nice bottle of wine that was finished faster than the others.

2nd with 28pts. Chateau LaCours, 2004, $15

Lots of fruit coming out of the glass with a good oak and dyacital, buttery character. The palate was left a bit flat but had some strong tannin on the finish and a good acidity.

3rd with 29pts. Chateau LaCours, 2003, $22

Not too much of a surprise here except I thought the '03 would come first. But both were similar wines but I think this one had riper fruit characters. Strong cherry and strawberry notes came through and the palate again had a good strong finish although leaving a to be desired on the mid-palate.

4th with 30pts. Chateau Sinard, 1995, $25
5th with 31pts. Cheval Brun, 2003, $30

So, the tasting went well, we had a good time and learned a little bit too. Look for the next in the series as we tackle Pauillac from the Left Bank!