Vertical 2007-2000 for Latour-Martillac, Kirwan, Beycehevelle and Guiraud

At the private flat of Sophie Schÿller-Thierry in Paris, four wines were presented for eight following years, 2000 up to 2007.

I will not give detailed analysis, but some remarks can be made.

It is very interesting to taste eight years in a row, as the personality of every wine becomes clearer and clearer. And, for my taste, the personality of the wine has a greater effect than the year.

The second impression is that the hierarchy of years is different for each wine. Kirwan has a very great 2003, which is not the same for Beychevelle, and Beychevelle has made a better 2000 (comparatively to its brothers) than Kirwan or Latour-Martillac.

Some other impressions :

–          2005 does not give the impression to be outrageously better than the other years

–          2006 is charming for my taste

–          2000 is far from being the millennium year as it was prophetised at its birth

–          2001 is a very great year (at least at this moment of its life)

–          The pleasure of these wines today has not much to do with the hierarchy of years given by the experts.

I drank only two wines of Guiraud : the 2007 and the 2001. They are strictly twins ! Two very great wines indeed.

Another impression is that these wines are living. Which means that they are not tasted at the same moment of their life. So, the ranking that I would make today is not the ranking that I would make in three years.

But if I had to make a choice to drink today, in general terms, for what they give today, I would drink the 2001, which please me, and the 2006 if I want to taste a wine in its youth.

I would not drink the 2000 which will probably make like the 1975 : when will they be drinkable ? I would surely put the 2003 and 2005 in the deepest corner of my cellar, and I would drink the 2002 and 2004, if I had the bad chance to have some in my cellar.

Of course it is my taste which is not a universal taste. But I must say that 2001 and 2006 pleased me in their actual form.

Just after that, to wait for my wife with whom I will have dinner, I went to the bar of hotel Crillon. The chief barman, Philippe Olivier, is a fan of Cognac. He showed me the Louis XIII Black Pearl Remy Martin which he will receive in magnum in a few days. He opened the bottle that he had to let me try. This is a real gift because I can imagine the price of a glass !

I drank it. Mamma Mia !!!

The purity of this cognac is exceptional. It will be impossible to get a bottle, as all must already been sold. But what a wonder ! fascinating exceptional cognac.

It was then time to meet my wife for a happy dinner.