The 12 days of Bordeaux Christmas: part two

In this second part presented in traditional ‘12 days of Christmas’ style, Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay chooses six gift suggestions from amongst La Place’s more exclusive new releases. 

On the seventh day of Christmas

The wine: Morlet Coeur de Vallée 2020

Format: A single bottle (or 6 in a carton) of an, as yet, still not quite iconic Napa super-star in the making whose local reputation is well-established and whose international reputation is rising rapidly.

Unique selling point: One of La Place de Bordeaux’s growing number of Napa super-stars and still a bit of an insider’s secret. An incredible wine, above all in the context of the vintage.

Yours for: Not cheap, but this is Napa. £1014 in bond for six bottles from Burnett & Herbert in London.

Tasting note: Morlet Coeur de Vallée 2020 (Oakville, Napa Valley; 94% Cabernet Sauvignon; 6% Cabernet Franc; 15.7% alcohol). Just lovely and so utterly impressive in the context of the challenges of the vintage. Cedar. Rose petals freshly collected and pounded in a pestle and mortar to intensify their aromatic profile. Peonies too. Patchouli candles. Wow. The florality is fabulous. Sloes and damsons, fresh plums and plump brambles, blackberries and mulberries. A lovely complexity to the fruit signature and an exquisite texture in the mouth to match. Gloriously refined, soft, lithe and tense. Sumptuous, almost sinuous and with supreme elegance and finesse. One of the genuine stars of the September releases. 99.

On the eighth day of Christmas

The wine: Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino 2018

Format: Typically only available in the form of a six-bottle original wooden case.

Unique selling point: Undoubtedly one of the wines of the year for me and a staggering achievement in the context of a somewhat difficult vintage. I’ve been lucky enough to taste this three times in the last six months and have been delighted and shocked in equal measure each time by the combination of textural finesse and aromatic complexity. It exudes a freshness that belies the vintage.

Yours for: As Brunello goes this is not at all cheap, at around £693 in bottle for a 6-bottle wooden case (from Cru). But it might well change what you think about Brunello for ever.

Tasting note: Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino 2018 (Brunello di Montalcino; 100% Sangiovese; 14% alcohol; certified organic and biodynamic). First released in December and so part of neither the March nor the September campaign. Really exciting. Fabulous harmony and elegance and complexity with that lovely spicy richness so redolent of top Brunello. Dried cherries, cinnamon toast, cloves and fresh garrigue herbs, a slight balsamic lift, roasted hazelnuts and liquorice, a brilliant stony minerality, this wine offers so much. Power, but in refinement. Rich, compact, plump yet crystalline, pure, fluid and very gracious. Chewy fine grained tannins on the finish and a very long life ahead of it. Utterly brilliant, even before one begins to set it in the context of the vintage. 97.

On the ninth day of Christmas

The wine: Chateau Mouton-Rothschild mixed case

Format: Three bottles, one each of the exceptional 2010, 2009 and 2000 vintages in a limited-edition luxury case hand-crafted from oak and sourced directly from the property -and so with perfect provenance.

Unique selling point: There aren’t very many of these as they are an exclusivity of Millésima. The latest in a series of very beautiful and covetable objects from Mouton-Rothschild.

Yours for: If your true love has to ask, sadly she or he probably can’t afford it. (But, entre nous, we’re talking £6100, duty and VAT paid, for three bottles). As you’ve probably already inferred, this is not the cheapest way to acquire a bottle of each of these historic vintages. But on the plus side there are plenty of uses to which the empty case could be put!

Tasting note: Sadly, I’ve yet to taste any of these vintages of Mouton Rothschild from bottle.

On the tenth day of Christmas

The wine: Kracher 2020 vintage Kollektion case

Format: A beautiful 6-half-bottle collection case containing each of Kracher’s six Trockenbeerenauslese wines from the exceptional 2020 vintage, including the spectacular Grande Cuvée itself.

Unique selling point: A rare and beautiful gift. This is the best way to appreciate the sheer diversity of Kracher’s Trockenbeerenauslese wines in a single vintage and, indeed, the only way to acquire all of these wines other than the Grande Cuvée itself.

Yours for: This is covetable, most definitely, but it is also reasonably affordable for what it is and for the quality of the wines themselves. Due to the tiny level of the production, this is also a very rare item. The price is €510, duty and tax paid, directly from the estate’s online shop.

Tasting notes: Kracher Trockenbeerenauslese Zweigelt No. 1 2020 (Burgenland; 100% Zweigelt; 152,8 g/l of residual sugar; total acidity of 6.8 g/l; 10.5% alcohol). Only available as part of the Kracher 2020 collection case. Another brilliant wine from Kracher in this vintage. This is so incredibly pure, focused and precise. It’s like the scent of slightly buttered peaches gently wilting and caramelising under a warm grill. But there’s also an almost perfect capturing of peach skin itself – one can almost sense the hairs and feel their texture in your mouth. And we have too not the crème below nor the burnt sugar above, but the point where the caramelised sugar touches the crème brulée below. Exquisite and a wine that really needs to be tasted to be understood. Unctuous, incredibly savoury and fabulously fresh. 94+.

Kracher Trockenbeerenauslese Traminer No. 2 2020 (Burgenland; 100% Traminer; 180.5 g/l of residual sugar; total acidity of 7.8 g/l; 11 % alcohol). Only available as part of the Kracher 2020 collection case. Gloriously pure and incredibly fragrant once again. But here there’s more obvious botrytis character, bringing subtle hints of truffle and accentuating the salinity. We also have peanut brittle, lemon zest, pink grapefruit pith, poire Belle Hélène and, as ever with Kracher TBA it seems, the purist and most finely detailed and pixilated impression of a perfectly ripe fruit – here the pear, though on re-tasting I also find melon charantais. Wonderful. Richer and much more viscous than cuvée no. 1 but with the same captivating energy and vivacity. 95.

Kracher TBA No. 3 Scheurebe 2020 (Burgenland; 100% Scheurebe; 209 g/l of residual sugar; total acidity of 8.9 g/l; 10.5% alcohol). Only available as part of the Kracher 2020 collection case. Ginger. Ginger ale. Confit ginger. Japanese toasted rice too. The saline note feels more iron-enriched here. Peanut brittle. White melon, confit white currant and gooseberry. Incredibly rich and yet so luminous, with a rice pudding creaminess. Possibly more monotone than some of the others, but I love that ’50 shades of ginger’ thing that really reminds me of Doisy Ducroca. Very saline, almost a hint of the athlete’s locker room! A little exotic note of fresh pineapple, passion fruit and dragon fruit. Marginally less searing in its freshness that the others, but with a lot of aging potential. 95.

Kracher Trockenbeerenauslese Grande Cuvée No. 4 2020 (Burgenland; 60% Welschriesling; 40% Chardonnay; 210 g/l of residual sugar; total acidity of 7.6 g/l; 10% alcohol). Tasted with Gerhard Kracher at the offices of his Bordeaux courtier. This is the principle release on La Place, with the other cuvées only available as part of the 2020 collection case. And it contains, this year, all of the Chardonnay – there is no monocépage Chardonnay TBA in this vintage. Tutankhamun gold in the glass. More closed on the nose initially than the 2019, tasted alongside, but so amazingly pure. Candlewax. Saffron. Pineapple. Pears rather than apricots this year, confit melon. A little ginger. A touch of spice – above all, cinnamon. Crème brulée and burnt sugar. Peanut brittle. Apple pie with the pie crust. Assorted citrus notes. Lime. This is just fabulously pure, incredibly crystalline and energetic and intensely saline. Sapid and fresh as ever. This seems to pick its fruit each year – here we have the pixilated picture perfect rendition of white pear! More herbal and saline on the finish, with that fabulous and distinctly ‘Kracher’ mineral character. A brilliantly exciting wine and a revelation. 98+.

Kracher Trockenbeerenauslese Rosenmuskateller No. 5 2020 (Burgenland; 100% Rosenmuskateller; 252.5 g/l of residual sugar; total acidity of 8.5 g/l; 9% alcohol). Only available as part of the Kracher 2020 collection case. Rather different than the others on the nose, with a much more dried fruit character – we find figs, raisins, dried apricots, currants, a little baked and fresh plum and assorted sweet spices, but also candied rose petals, Turkish delight, patchouli, camomile tea and a touch of frangipane. This is incredibly dense, viscous and oily on the palate but with a remarkable energy, freshness and vibrancy that is the signature of all of these Kracher wines. The tension that creates is all the more startling because of the sheer density and concentration of the wine. Spectacular. 96.

Kracher Trockenbeerenauslese Welschriesling No. 6 2020 (Burgenland; 100% Welschriesling; 304.7 g/l of residual sugar; total acidity of 8.4 g/l; 8.5% alcohol). Only available as part of the Kracher 2020 collection case. Tasted last of these and strikingly different from the others, with more red berry fruit on the nose – raspberry and confit wild strawberries – alongside the more familiar blood orange, buttered peaches, pink grapefruit and assorted citrus and confit citrus notes. Intensely saline already on the nose and incredibly so on the palate, which actually feels marginally less viscous than the Rosenmuskateller cuvée, despite the additional 50 grams per litre of residual sugar! The reason is the almost miraculous and breath-taking dynamism and sense of forward momentum over the palate that lures one into thinking this is, in a way, a lighter and more delicate wine than it is possible to be at over 300 grams per litre. So tense and lithe, so pure and crystalline, so refined. 97.

On the eleventh day of Christmas

The wine: Vérité Le Désir mixed case (one bottle each of the vintages 2013, 2015 and 2019).

Unique selling point: A rare mixed case of Le Désir from Vérité, released on La Place in September as the 2020 Véité release has been delayed. The wines, of course, come from the property with perfect provenance. With its high proportion of Cabernet Franc this is, for me at least, my habitual favourite of Vérité’s trilogy of great wines. Each of these three vintages, for me, comes close to perfection.

Yours for: £1215 for 3 bottles, in bond, from a variety of UK brokers and merchants.

Tasting notes: Vérité Le Désir 2012 (Sonoma County; 64% Cabernet Franc; 24% Merlot; 8% Cabernet Sauvignon; 4% Malbec; the winemaker is, of course, Pierre Seillan). Utterly beguiling and deeply sensuous as only Le Désir can be. Lovely cedary notes, lots of graphite and an incredibly fresh and vibrant Cabernet Franc florality. This seems so incredibly youthful. Grace, elegance and so much subtle disguise to its power. Just wonderful. Tender, taut and utterly brilliant. 100.

Vérité Le Désir 2015 (Sonoma County; 64% Cabernet Franc; 27% Merlot; 5% Cabernet Sauvignon; 4% Malbec; the winemaker is, of course, Pierre Seillan). Floral, yes, but less vibrantly so than either the 2012 or the 2019. This is also a little more taut and a little more closed – it’s calling for your decanter, your best glassware and a little of your patience! The Cabernet Franc is rather more leafy than immediately floral – though there is a subtle hint of rose petal – and that seems to accentuate and underscore the plump juicy dark berry notes. There’s a little wild lavender and rosemary too and, of course, a touch of cedar. On the palate this unfurls at a glacial pace and has the most sublime crystalline clarity and precision – a mirror pool of cool Cabernet excellence. As that implies, this is fantastically fresh and gorgeously understated. Decant or hold a little longer, a wine to venerate. 99.

Vérité Le Désir 2019 (Sonoma County; 83% Cabernet Franc; 8% Merlot; 4% Cabernet Sauvignon; 5% Malbec; the winemaker is, of course, Pierre Seillan). Wow. Just wow. This is divine and exactly how one imagines Le Désir in its youth. Cedar. Graphite. The perfect fresh florality that immediately tells you that this is Cabernet Franc from the finest of terroirs and in the hands of a craftsman. Poise, balance, harmony but also a wondrous sense of structural detail. It’s broad at first, but then the finest of fine-grained tannins tempt and tease the fruit, drawing it back to the spine and in the process unleashing waves of succulent freshness and more and more of those leafy floral Cabernet Franc elements. I’ve tasted this before and I really hope to taste it again. So tender, so taut, so utterly special – and with that disguised intensity that is the signature of this wine. 100.

On the twelfth day of Christmas

The wine: ULTIME Great Wines of the World collection case.

Format: a luxury exclusive wooden case of 6 bottles, containing one each of the following: Chateau d’Yquem 1990; Biondi Santi Riserva 1997; Chateau Lafite Rothschild 2000; Champagne Salon 2013; Penfolds Grange 2017; and Pingus 2018.

Unique selling point: As the marketing for this suggests, this is the first time ever that wines from these iconic properties have been assembled in a single case. Each wine has been sourced directly from the property and the older vintages recorked. Once again we have perfect prominence – until, that is, your true love puts it under the tree!

Yours for: Again, look away if you’re squeamish … a mere £5600 in bond for the 6-bottle case from Petersham Cellar in London.

Tasting notes: Sorry, I’ve not tasted these either … but I suspect that if your true love is already tempted my tasting notes would be unlikely to make the difference here!

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