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A recent single-bottle purchase from BBR.

Lovely colour, still very opaque but showing some early maturity on the rim. Nice farmyard nose. Medium weight, quite well developed and approachable for it age. Great balance with no harsh tannins on show. Good length and very smooth and elegant from beginning to end.

This is going to go very nicely with the sirloin steak that is currently resting in the kitchen.

I am likely to buy more of this.

I tried a '96 of the Cantemerle last winter. It was ok, but I really wondered why this is a Cinquieme Cru. There are better Cru Bourgeois wines around.

I think Derek likes Bordeaux more than Port.

My evidence? He enjoys writing tasting notes for Bordeaux; for Port he finds it a chore.

Or maybe by the time he's figured out what the Port in his hand tastes of, it's too late to commit anything to writing.

Reading my last post I would like to state that there was no offence intended. I just wonder why Cantemerle is listed among the Grand Crus but not say Sociando-Mallet.

AW77 wrote:Reading my last post I would like to state that there was no offence intended. I just wonder why Cantemerle is listed among the Grand Crus but not say Sociando-Mallet.

Nobody here would take offence André. We know what you meant, and you communicated it aptly!

djewesbury wrote:

AW77 wrote:Reading my last post I would like to state that there was no offence intended. I just wonder why Cantemerle is listed among the Grand Crus but not say Sociando-Mallet.

Nobody here would take offence André. We know what you meant, and you communicated it aptly!

I'm glad to hear this. We Germans tend to be rude sometimes...

No offence taken, I knew exactly what you meant.

But isn't that argument about 200 years old? If the same type of classification had been applied to Port at the time when it was to Bordeaux we would today have Royal Oporto as a First Growth and Graham's as a Cru Bourgeois

I like Cantemerle, never had the 2000 but no reason to think it is anything other than standard. Elegant wines like Cantemerle seldom thrive in harder years like 96. They do however get gentler with quite a lot of time in the bottle, the class shows better with age. IMHO.

Sociando Mallet is such a good wine, but not subtle and light. Which is what claret should be.