1998 Pomerol horizontal notes, aka the ‘Fowl’ dinner (all courses were
bird based) from a Commanderie de Bordeaux event in Vancouver.
I tend to buy far less right bank than left, and more St. Emilion than
Pomerol, and I think this is a common tendency as Pomerols are both a
bit more arcane and a lot more expensive. That made this survey
tasting all the more interesting.
Gobillard Champagne N.V. – OK, but didn’t get in the way of the pre-
dinner chat.
With quail and sweetbreads with porcini mushrooms:
La Croix du *** – medium light colour, spicy plummy fruit in the nose,
medium tannins, quite decent length, pleasant wine drinking well now.
Clinet – dark wine with a briary pudding sort of nose, more tannin,
good fruit, still a little obscured by the tannins, but overall a very
good impression, needing more time to smooth out. Best of flight.
Certan de May – this one disappointed me. Colour much like the first
wine, but significant green in the nose, and a leaner fairly tannic
wine that doesn’t have the fruit to balance it. Narrows down on the
finish. Too bad.

With Pheasant with foie gras sauce, pancetta and pommes anna:
La Conseillante – excellent spiced nose with a hint of dill, good
colour, still carrying some soft tannin, good length, and a nice hit
of sweetness in the finish. Ready now. Delightful.
La Grave a Pomerol – darker wine, some dust in the nose, and dark
cherries. On palate, a mellow balanced wine with good concentration
and length, and an elegance that was welcome.
La Fleur Petrus – sweeter nose, with more dark cherry and vanilla.
Mellow balanced wine, also elegant with very good flavour
concentration and excellent length. Would love the chance to taste
this along side the 1995. No losers in this flight, but I’d call this
the best.

With roasted moulard duck breast served thinly sliced with cassis
sauce and braised turnips (which did an excellent job of lightening
what would have been a too concentrated sauce otherwise).
Gazin – good colour, ripe leathery nose (I usually look up others
notes after the tastings, just to see if there is any commonality with
what I experienced. Often there ios not, as the reviewers may have
sampled the wines 5 – 10 years before, but in this instance RP notes a
‘new saddle leather’ element in the noise that struck a chord. It is
still there and it is a great descriptor.) The nose was also nicely
perfumed with berry fruit. Good structure, still some softening
tannins, and decent length, except that it was blunt, not complex and
didn’t taper off smoothly, it rather chopped off abruptly. Don’t know
what further ageing will do for this.
Clos l’Eglise – this was a controversial wine. Albert Givton (quite
correctly) pointed out that this was an atypical wine influenced by
wine reviewers, possibly the CIA and possibly the military industrial
complex. Most of the rest of us were unrepentant and responded –“But
it is GOOD!” Lovely sweet fruit nose with cocoa, long sweet fruit in
the midpalate, not tannic, but I doubt there is any rush. Excellent
wine, but I agree about there being close to zero typicity while the
sybarite in me whispered ‘So what? Enjoy!’ It is an international but
very seductive style, and in my view accomplishes this without going
over the top in a new world way as Pavie, for instance, often does.
When we did the equivalent St. Emilion event last Fall, that wine
stood out and offended my sense of place it was so out of place.
Maybe I was weaker willed last night, but the Clos l’Eglise sucked me
in.
Lafleur – was interested to see if this wine would merit its hefty
price tag. I believe that there was bottle variation as some tables
rated this quite highly, while all at my table were more moderate in
our praise. Cocoa and fruit salad (I use that term because it was a
melange with no one note dominant) nose, really good concentration
level, but a tad edgy. Decent length, but not sure where iot is going
from here. Over all a bit disappointing.

With a very nice pear and blue cheese tart:
1983 Lafaurie Peyraguey – mid straw colour, pleasant lightly
botrycized nose of pear and apricot with a little honey, and some
underlying caramel, good concentration and good length. Holding well,
but won’t improve from here.