Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classe Tasting

 

I went to a Saint-Emilion trade tasting in Chicago this week.  L'Association de Grand Crus Classes Saint-Emilion is a trade group that certainly has some issues.  The guy that owned Angelus was found guilty in 2021 of participating in ranking the estates despite having conflict of interest in that he owned one of the properties that mysteriously was promoted.  Of course it only cost him a 40,000 euro fine, so that's a good trade-off for the market position of now selling Premier Grand Cru A wines.  Cheval Blanc and Ausone, the two best wines of the classification said "Ummmm, we're out" and abandoned the whole thing.  There are too many "Grand Cru" estates at 71.  There were 114 that submitted, so everybody gets a trophy if ya get what I mean.  Still... there's some exceptional wine being made there.

Saint Emilion hit their high water mark in the late 1990s.  This was the age when Robert Parker strode across Bordeaux like Godzilla and Michel Rolland had the magic recipe to get your estate a 94+ rating from Bob.  It was a Golden Age with Parker giving market moving high scores to anywhere Rolland brought his ripe grape/long maceration magic show to.  Then, as it always does, fashion changed...

When you talk to the winemakers from the region now, it's like when people my age talk about fashion choices they made in 1985.  "Yeah, a LOT of people were wearing acid wash jeans back then, but US?  We were never that into it, so we have always stuck with cool clothes like we are wearing now."  Yeah, but Pierre, isn't that a picture of you in acid washed jorts with an upturned collar on a violet Polo?  "No... That is not me."

I have a lot of trouble identifying Saint-Emilion wines blind.  To me they can vibe hot climate New World like Napa with ummm, "generous" new oak and soft smushy black fruit.  Then I miss the next one because I assume the region is all about ripeness and extraction and I get a red fruit/tannic muscle bound wine.  I really looked forward to tasting 22 of these estates at once and trying to get my arms around the region.  First, let me give you the macro overview...

To me, there are three main styles of Saint-Emilion right now.  

Highly extracted, big smushy fruit with LOTS of new oak.  Look, some wine geek types will look down on this style, but for me, it's a hedonistic style that I can really get behind in the right circumstance.  The winemakers that don't lean this direction can be very dismissive of these wines, pointing out they are difficult to drink with food.  Let's be honest... Most American spend two minutes inhaling their meals, so they could be drinking Mountain Dew as a pairing.  The wine is usually judged as a stand alone.  Does it taste good?  The bottom line with some of these is yes, like a Riserva Rioja, they taste rich and good.  I had a Chateau Badette 2016 and 2020 that had 80% new oak with plush rich fruit that fits this description, as well as a 100% new oak/18-24 month aged Chateau La Croizille that came in with 30% cabernet sauvignon that was a beast.

Foot off the accelerator, fashion changed and so did we.  Chateau Fonplegade seems to be making what MW exams think "Saint-Emilion" tastes like with dark red fruit (black cherry) from the ripe but not overripe merlot, structured medium grained tannins that have soft integration, elevated concentration and a lengthy 20+ second finish with secondary leather/earth complexity.  Chateau Grand Corbin-Despagne, a personal favorite of mine with a great track record, provides a striking fruit purity with focused structure that has enough flesh to remind you that these wines, even when young, should be pleasurable to drink.   

Fresh wines, earlier picked fruit, very dedicated farming.  There are a host of producers going their own direction, almost a throw back to the 90s "garagiste" movement, with small lots and focused ideas of what their expression of the region is.  Chateau Croix de Labrie is a small 5 hA estate with biodynamics, horse plowing, and a great story of little guys going into the big stuffy wine region.  8000 bottles a year of fresh almost crunchy fruit from northern facing slopes ticking a lot of the right boxes for the market right now.  Chateau Franc Mayne is focused on terroir and the fruit with 50% oak aging and 50% in vat/amphora.  Almost like a wine from the Loire but with more muscular fruit, this would be challenging to call as a Bordeaux blind due to the lack of oak on the palate.  Again, a different voice in a region that has suffered and benefitted from embracing "tradition".  

The bottom line to me was this was an impressive tasting.  The region offers up a variety of expressions pointing to strong winemaking voices but with a profile that fits together as a whole.  Most producers are leaning heavily into merlot as the key grape with 80% cepage in most cases.  But there are outliers like the complex savory wines from Chateau De Pressac trying to improve with each vintage using all 6 allowable grapes plated in 40 plots further subdivided into 60 micro vinifications some of which utilize stem inclusion like producers from Cornas.  You've got Chateau Yon-Figeac using almost 10% petit verdot for a deep bass quality to their high quality wines.  Chateau Fonroque is dogmatic in their biodynamic approach.  (I tasted these on cow horn preparation fill day!) Their 20% cabernet franc gives a green tobacco streak flashing through the midpalate.  Taken as a whole, this is a region of great interest for the consumer, especially considering the price points.  

As I walked out of the tasting I received a flash offer for the 2020 Ch Grand Corbin Despagne I had just tasted for $36.  Yes, please.  Look, there aren't many places on the planet where you can buy Bordeaux blend wines of this quality at that low a price.  The region has fallen out of fashion at moment, but when they zig, I zag.  I'm on board with Saint-Emilion.