Highlights from Hart Davis Hart’s Annual Bordeaux Tasting

By David Loewe, Specialist, Sr. Consignment Operations Assoc.

One of the most exciting events of the year at HDH is our annual Bordeaux tasting and certainly the one I most look forward to. Each year’s theme is a hot topic of conversation beginning months ahead in the spring. Past years’ events have seen extensive verticals from top Châteaux like Lafite, Cheval Blanc, Léoville Las Cases, and Pichon-Comtesse, which offer deep dives and rare insights into the history and nuances of each house. Equally intriguing are tastings that home in on single vintages or present comparative tastings between two favorites. In the recent past, we’ve held tastings that focus on the famed 1982 vintage with a breadth of châteaux and comparative tastings between 2009 & 2010 as well as 1990 & 2000, each showcasing Bordeaux’s top houses. This year’s theme focused on the incredible 2000 vintage and its development, now 25 years post-harvest, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled!

As anticipated, the wines were showing extremely well, bracing and balanced. Of the First Growths, Margaux and Mouton stood out. The monolithic Mouton is not budging and won’t be for another couple decades. It’s a truly stunning wine with incredible heft, authoritatively balancing each component in perfect harmony. A true testament to Aristotle’s expression, “the whole is something beside the parts.” Margaux on the other hand leapt from the glass with effusive fruit and florals. Intense violet, crushed rose, and mixed berry notes matched the robust palate; but it was their interplay with subtle spice and characteristic stone and graphite that was most captivating. The finish was near endless but never restless, uncovering nuances of enchanting richness within its velvet opulence.

The Right Bank was showing equally stellar wines, and the 2000 Angélus would be top pick for opening now. It really has everything I look for in a brooding Bordeaux, highlighting deep earth, mushroom, and cigar box notes. Of course the top notes were in perfect balance, and the silky Angélus texture was on point. The Pétrus naturally stands in a class of its own, but here, the deeply intense dark truffle, meat, and minerality may have been overshadowed beside its more gregarious peers. Even 25 years on, the wine still seems quite tightly wound. I look forward to tasting it in another ten years, as I predict the muted violet and black cherry will blossom and allow this 100-point wine to really shine.

Château Palmer’s 2000 was perhaps the standout second (albeit classified a 3^rd Growth, who’s counting?!). Like Mouton, it displayed a singularly resolute profile, however Palmer’s focus was almost entirely floral bouquet, well-supported with rich spice and earthen underpinnings. Both nose and palate played in unison but with the force of a cathedral organ. The finish too ran for minutes through extraordinarily silky and well-integrated tannins. Other standouts included Montrose, Gruaud-Larose, and Léoville Las Cases.

One final mention must go to Château Figeac. Their 2000 is exceptionally rich and intense. Fans of Figeac will delight in the graphite and smokey minerality that serves to enhance its undeniable gaminess. The accompanying black cherry, olive, and cigar leaf notes round out a truly unique wine, one that I seek out vintage after vintage for what is guaranteed to be an adventure.

Grands vins of the 2000 vintage from the following Châteaux were poured: