2011 Château Les Hauts de Plaisance Haut-Médoc
Where: Haut-Médoc, Bordeaux
Who: Chateau Les Hauts de Plaisance, part of Chateau Pontoise Cabarrus
What: 65% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon
Tastes like: Bigger body red, with mellow, well integrated tannin and chocolate notes. Slightly herbal/ green pepper on the nose (that’s CS for you.)
What to pair with: Red meat!
2011 was a solid but not spectacular year in Bordeaux. But in such vintages some people make extraordinarily good wine. Early this week the group of 24 Bordeaux lovers got together to try 14 reasonably priced wines from 2011 to see which was the best. We tasted the wines blind. Each person was asked to name his or her top four.
The group winner:
Ch. Les Hauts de Plaisance (literally the Heights of Pleasure) a second wine of Ch. Pontoise Cabarrus, classified as a Cru Bourgeois. It comes from Bordeaux's premium Haut Medoc region and is just across the border of St. Estephe, one of its four major communes.
With 2/3 Merlot and 1/3 cabernet; the wine drinks deliciously now, but it will age for two to three years.
The Tereygeol family makes it in much the same exacting way as they do Ch. Pontoise; l yields, rigorously grape selection at harvest, cool fermentation, a year's oak aging.
What's different? The vines are mostly only 10 to15 years old ( not. It is rounded and mixes soft fruit and crisp textures, the hallmark of good Bordeaux. It's a wine you can savor.
2011 Ch. Les Hauts De Plaisance (Haut Medoc); Color: very dark opaque ; Aroma: herbal, rather fullish with deep notes opaque, a sense of underlying richness; Mouth: firm & rounded forward and giving, clean, smooth textured, medium body, a strong sweet fruit note, very finely astringent on the finish.
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