2000 Chateau Talbot 4eme Cru Classe, Saint-Julien

This is a beautiful red now with plums, roses and blackberries on the nose and palate. Full body with wonderfully integrated tannins that caress your palate. So beautiful. Drink now.

This was a strong performance (better than my original notes suggested) by the 2000 Talbot. Close to full maturity, it exhibits a dense ruby/plum/purple color in addition to a subtle herbaceousness intermixed with smoked meats, black currants, licorice, cedar, and foresty notes. Rich and full-bodied with light tannins, and a slightly richer, more savory, broader, deeper style than I remember, it should drink well for 10-15 years.

The 2000 Talbot is served in one of 1,000 “Sylvain Dubuisson” bottles, whereby the bottle is housed in a vessel that filters the wine. Deep in colour, it has a Burgundian bouquet with pastille-like raspberry and cranberry fruit laced with tobacco and cedar. With time in the glass it becomes more floral in style. The palate is medium-bodied and softer in texture than other millennial Left Bank wines. Dorset plum intermingles with boysenberry with a touch of vanilla, though it feels quite backward on the finish (redeemed by appealing smoothness.) Good length here and fine potential. Tasted at the centenary Château Talbot vertical at the property.www.vinous.com

Bright ruby-red. Reticent aromas of black fruits, violet, bitter chocolate and licorice, plus a whiff of smoky oak. Dense, lush and sweet, but lively acids lift the flavors and contribute to the perfumed impression in the mouth. Finishes firmly tannic and fresh but sweet, with dusty tannins and lingering notes of leather and game. A second sample of roughly equal quality seemed less fleshy but offered lovely pliancy, and a flavor of bitter chocolate.

This has a solid core of plum cake, blackberry paste and warmed fig fruit flavors that are fully melded together, while sweet cedar and tobacco notes line the finish. Right where it should be now.--Blind 2000 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2015). JM

52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 41% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, 3% Cabernet Franc. Garnet with brick at the rim. Aromatically evolved with leather, tobacco and leafy notes but the fruit is still there alongside a hallmark smoky-flinty note. Palate juicy, fresh and digestible. Less overt weight but evolving nicely. Finish a little edgy but good drinking with food. (JL)