LeDomduVin: 2000 Château l'Evangile Pomerol Bordeaux France

2000 Château l'Evangile Pomerol Bordeaux France

Suggested retail price HK$2300-HK$2500 or $295-$320

(brought by a customer)

Light, medium, slightly brownish colour with bright autumn red reflects. The nose is delicate and aromatic, without being too intense, yet distinguished aromas of earth, dirt, and ripe dark fruit mingle with notes of cigar, tobacco leaf, liquorice, and some cedar wood and leather caress the nostrils at first sniff. The palate is lighter than I expected for a Pomerol in that particular vintage, yet it is bright, racy, well-balanced, and feminine. It showed a bit of age already, nothing much but noticeable to the amateurs. 

Although pretty good overall, the texture and structure were also a bit thin (in my opinion). It may come from the age of the wine and the vintage quality too, but it may also be due to how the wine was kept (storage condition, temperature, humidity, etc.). However, despite being good and very expressive in many ways, it was still a bit light for my taste for a Pomerol. That said, 2000 is a good but not a great vintage in Pomerol, which also explains the lack of concentration and weight. 

This particular bottle could have lasted for another 5-8 years, but not more than that. I should taste another bottle to define whether it was just an odd bottle or if it is a general pattern for this wine in this particular vintage.

Go to the winery website for more info: www.lafite.com/eng/Bordeaux-Estates/Chateau-L-Evangile

Cheers! Santé! 

Enjoy,

LeDomduVin (a.k.a. Dominique Noël)

Apparté: 

L'Evangile remains one of my favourite Pomerol, which always excels by its consistency and elegance vintage after vintage, but I think that my favourite will always be Vieux Chateau Certan, which has never disappointed me in the last 15 years. 

I can already hear some of you say, "..., And what about Le Pin and Petrus?" Well, I opened, tasted, and poured countless amounts of these 2 stellar wines in various vintages over the last 20 years. They were very good, that is true too. Yet, in bad or lesser vintages, they were not great, but they still commanded incredibly high prices (like most top-tear Bordeaux right and left), and I think they are a bit overrated. 

During a few "En Primeur" tastings I did over the last 2 decades, I had the chance to taste Le Pin at the barrel in the semi-underground basement of that ugly and indistinct mid-80s squarish concrete house in the middle of the vines flanked with one Pine tree up front (hence the name ... that's right, you can have an old shack lost in the vines or a vulgar garage and still call yourself a "Château" in Bordeaux). 

The wine was great for sure; it was a good vintage too, but except due to the price of the land and the international recognition thanks to Robert Parker Jr. and the extremely low availability (only 25 barrels produced max in that basement, which represent about 7,500 bottles from a 2 hectares vineyard), but, I think that Vieux Chateau Certan, also managed by one of the Thienpont family, is a better value for money, which has nothing to envy Le Pin (or Petrus for that matter) in terms of complexity, length, and richness. But I will further describe and enhance it in another post dedicated to VCC...

Thank you for reading my post.  

Dom 

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