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October 3, 2000
I had the Georges de Latour Private Reserve this past weekend (09/30/00) with a spendid leg of lamb prepared masterfully by Sue Bremmer for Uncle Charlie's birthday. The nose was cassis, and berries. I thought, early, that I detected herbs and a little lavender but when I tried again later, they weren't there. In the mouth, the wine is rich with broad layered flavors of cassis, toasted oak with vanilla, slight asian spices that may change to faint floral nuances. The wine is medium bodied with softer tannins and not as much structure as I had hoped but enough to make the wine stand up and back up the fruit. I would say the wine would be at it's best for the next couple of years and then mellow from there, losing it's fruit and tannins more rapidly as time goes by. While enjoyable, this wine is not one of BV best efforts with the Pivate Reserve. I look back at the '80, '82, '87, '92 as wines that might have eclipsed this one. I would give this wine a strong 90 or 91 due to the lesser aging potential. I'll finish with saying that I enjoyed it and feel that it is right at the level of quality for a lot of wines in the price range.
"Beaucoup de vin!!!"
ch
