Amazing Wines from St. Estephe - Bordeaux Wine Tour Part 2

Chateau Lafon-Rochet

While in Bordeaux, we visited an interesting museum that has only been open since 2016. The Cité du Vin is part museum, part propaganda for the wine industry, part science world, and part wine bar.

For €20, we had access to the main exhibit which was the story of wine. There was a lot here - history, geography, different countries that make wine, different wine makers, advertising in wine, the aromas in wine - it was a very comprehensive exhibit that was interactive.

Enjoying a glass atop the Cité du Vin

The best part, however, was reminiscent of the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, We were given a special ticket at the beginning of our visit. At the top of the building, that ticket was good for one wine from a selection of many around the world. After we made our choice, we enjoyed our glass while we looked out over Bordeaux. Of course, I had picked a wine from Bordeaux...

Our second stop on our wine tour was Chateau Lafon-Rochet. I was looking quite forward to this as I bought a bottle of their 2015 wine at the Bordeaux release last year (and it currently resides in my cellar).

Chateau Lafon Rochet is in St. Estephe (Big brother Steven, when studying for my WSET). The wines here characteristically have a higher percentage of Cab Sauv and are higher in tannins that most other Bordeaux wines. I really enjoy them, even when they are young.

Our excellent guide, Bogdan, drove up to the chateau and we got out and met our winery guide, Mathilde. She spoke English well but had a wonderful French accent that was a pleasure to listen to.

After introductions, we talked about the grapes in the vineyard (just 45 hectares - not huge for Bordeaux) and about the different owners. The current owners, the Tesseron family, apparently did not think that it was that easy to see the winery from the road so they painted the chateau yellow - it is very easy to see from the road now! In fact, the labels on the wines are all bright yellow as well.

While stomping through the grounds, we were fortunate enough to meet the owner, Basile Tesseron. He was a very approachable man and took time to chat with us for a couple of minutes.

In the winery, we saw something that was not uncommon in some of the places we visited - concrete fermenters.

At home, in the Okanagan, most wineries use stainless steel to ferment their wines. In Bordeaux, we saw stainless steel but also those giant oak fermenters and, in Chateau Lafon Rochet, big concrete fermenters. They were popular many years ago and then fell out of favour but are becoming popular once again as a choice for fermenting at least part of the juice.

As you can see, stainless steel is also used in this chateau. This vat is 68 hectolitres which is 6800 litres and the wine, Les Pelerins, is the name of their second label.

They had quite the nifty computer terminal which showed all of the temperatures for all of the fermenters. There are alarms and other safeguards if there is a problem with the temperature at any point.

Mathilde was also able to use the screen to show us the different grapes planted in the different parts of the vineyard. Mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, followed by Merlot, with some Petit Verdot and just a soupçon of Cab Franc.

The barrel rooms may all look pretty similar, but I love them all. The smell and the feel of these areas are so distinct and enjoyable.

As with most of the wineries, they choose several different barrel makers from different regions of France to make slightly different barrels of wine which are carefully blended before bottling.

Ageing in this big barrel imparts less spicy oak flavour and tannins. The wineries are always trying out new things. We had the added benefit of being able to do a barrel tasting at Lafon Rochet! I find this fascinating as the wine is still very young and, while not ready to drink, you get an indication of where it is going. This wine will likely be an excellent vintage as there was definite fruit flavours as well as strong tannins.

If you ever get a chance to do a barrel tasting, I would strongly suggest that you go ahead. It really helps give you an understanding of the whole wine making process.

This clay amphora is another experiment that the winery is working on. I'm not sure why I was so surprised that even the most successful wineries of the world were busy trying to make their wines better.

After another excellent tour, Mathilde took us into the tasting room where we had three tastings - one of their second label, Les Pelerins, and a vertical of two of their first label, a 1997 and a 2008.

The first wine we had was their second label, Les Pelerins de Lafon-Rochet ($35). This was a 2015, the same year as the first label I bought last year. My first impression was - this is just their second label? Ooh la la!

There was a lot of fresh, black fruit on the nose and on the palate including black currant, plum, blackberry and blueberry. There were some oak flavours like tobacco, coffee and other spices. There were also wonderful ageing flavours like mushroom and leather. This wine had high alcohol, medium tannins, and a medium finish. It is suggested that you decant this wine an hour before serving.

This wine had definite fruit flavours that were quite tasty. It was not an overly complex wine or a wine that had astringent tannins. This was definitely the second label but that was fine - I enjoyed it and feel that it was one to drink now. Overall, I would rate this as Very Good.

I enjoyed this one so much that I decided to purchase one, considering I already have a first label at home.

The second wine was a bit of a treat - a wine from all the way back to 1997! The 1997 Chateau Lafon-Rochet ($164) is probably a drink now kind of wine although it could possibly spend a couple more years in the cellar. Mathilde said that this wine was a difficult vintage - it was a big challenge to get the grapes successfully off the vines - but they did it.

This wine had aromas and tastes of  cassis, black cherries,. plum, blueberry, and just a hint of jam.  There were oaky notes of cedar and tobacco and tertiary flavours of mushroom, forest floor, leather, and smoke. This was a complex and rich wine and was settling down nicely in terms of tannins thanks to 22 years in the bottle. A nice long finish helps give this wine a rating of Outstanding.

The final wine was a 2008 Chateau Lafon-Rochet ($60). This year was good in Bordeaux and this wine is a classic vintage that could be cellared for a while longer.

This was a good wine - not quite as tasty as the 1997, but still good. This wine was spicy  - along with black fruits like black currant and blackberry, there were tastes of cedar and pepper that really made themselves known. This highly tannic wine also had a bit of salinity which was a bit unusual. I would rate this wine as Very Good.

As I noted in my last entry about my guided trip, when I studied the four areas of Bordeaux (St. Estephe, Paulliac, St. Julien, and Margaux) I used the analogy of the three brothers (big, tough Steven, strong Paul, relaxed Julien) and their sister (soft and velvety Marg). While Lafon-Rochet wines did have some definite tannins, they were not overly extracted or too strong.

Maybe I don't have to wait until 2030 to have that first label from 2015?