2012 Bordeaux – Château Talbot and Connétable Talbot
All has now gone a bit quiet as Bordeaux prepares for one of those funny weeks in May when there are so many holidays that it is tempting for them to ‘faire le pont’ at both ends of the week and not actually turn up at all. Also the Robert Parker scores are due out tonight, so those who have not yet ‘come out’ may be spending the afternoon in prayer.
If you want some weekend reading you can catch up with the 2012 campaign blog posts so far, or see our rather short lists of recommended wines:-
One of my favourite wines this year (with price/quality always in mind) was Talbot, which amongst some surprisingly lacklustre Saint Juliens (Lagrange, Beychevelle – actually not so surprising for the latter), really stood out. Annoyingly this is the first vintage since 1994 that I have not actually tasted Talbot at the Château, but both the second wine Connétable and Talbot itself stood out at both my tastings and David Porter’s. This is top Talbot.
Can all this be down to the Stéphan Dérenencourt effect? They only took him on as consulting oenologist last year, so whatever they are paying him, he is worth it!
You can reproach them for not reducing their price this year, but given that last year both Connetable and Talbot sold out from many Bordeaux négociants, sticking with the same level does have a certain logic. It’s worth it. Also available in any size you like – we tend to buy quite a lot of halves for later, but you may prefer to think mags and double-mags.
This look like proper sensible pricing from a slightly unfashionable but very reliable chateau. £30 a bottle for a 2012 versus £40 for 2002/3/4 or £50 for 2005 feels like very good value to me. A case please!