What a shitty few weeks this is turning into, with no prospect of immediate improvement. This is the first of a few posts of odd bottles I’m drinking. Taking the opportunity to raid the cellar, flatten the curve of ennui, self-isolate some good bottles and boost the mood.
1999 Latour-Martillac Blanc
In my opinion, the spectrum of quality in Sauvignon Blanc is more compressed than for other varieties. At the top you may have say Vatan, Haut-Brion Blanc and at the bottom you may have various Sauvignon Blancs of dismal aspiration and industrial quantity. But in between, the difference between say, Francoise Cotat, Didier Dagueneau, this wine and Laville Haut-Brion is not that large.
This 1999 is drinking sensationally. The colour is bright yellow, almost luminous, the nose full of sharp apples, energy, fresh minty oak and excellent structure. It is fading a little on the finish, but it’s done its job superbly. Tough sell these days as the market for White Bordeaux is sadly not that huge. Why is this? I was thinking of Dagueneau when I had this, whose wines range from thrilling to deeply average. A very overrated producer now but one whose wines sell inexplicably like loo-roll in a health scare.
2018 St-Joseph Lou Taissou
This is a wine of great quality, but on the first night it was too young and showing mostly exuberant fruit – on the second night it had much more savoury character, white pepper and Northern Rhone brio – a quite luxurious wine. From younger vines, so perhaps lacking some of the intensity that one might get elsewhere, but devastatingly stylish.