GETS BETTER WITH AGE | February 28th 2008

At a tasting of Graves wines, Bruce Palling considers the region's smoky, tarry, tobacco-infused flavours. This autumnal taste only becomes apparent once the wine is around 15 years old. Start buying whatever you can from 2005 ...

Recently an exhibition was held of the "Treasures of Tutankhamen" at London's now revived Millennium Dome, the white-elephant homage to the 21st century, on the banks of the Thames. Emblazoned on all of the publicity material is the iconic gold mask of the boy king, which seems a sensible decision, as that is the only universally recognisable image from the tomb. It comes as a bit of a surprise, then, to discover that this is the one major item, along with his mummified corpse, that is not on display at this otherwise thrilling exhibition.

I suppose this is a rather lazy way of labouring the point that a recent tasting of the leading Graves wines in London was also in this Hamlet-without- the-Prince mould. The two acknowledged superstars of Graves--Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion--were not part of the package. To be fair, the organisers (Decanter Magazine) made no claims to include these two and La Mission was present at the last big tasting Decanter held (which I wrote about). On balance, on this occasion, I approve of this approach, as those two wines are on such a higher level of excellence that it would be unfair to the remaining 15 or so classified Grave wines to be compared with them.

Although most people still think of all the top wines here as Graves, thanks to the gravelly soil, they are in fact now known as Pessac-Léognan, following a decision by the leading chateaux to define themselves more for marketing purposes by their location within the generic region known as Graves. All 15 classified growths are from Pessac-Léognan, which nudges right against the southern suburbs of Bordeaux. There has been considerable concern at the suburbs encroaching on these wines, but so far the only culprit has been Haut-Brion itself, which last year merged the small but perfectly formed La Tour Haut-Brion into its immediate neighbour, La Mission Haut Brion.

Like most wine lovers, I started off being mildly intrigued by Graves but never gave them a huge amount of consideration. The predominant style of the reds is a smoky, tarry, tobacco-infused combination of aromas, which I call tarbacco. It is generally assumed that this particular taste appeals more the older you get--I hate to confirm folk wisdom, but at least in my own case this has turned out to be true.

I don't know of any other region in the world that provides these haunting, autumnal tastes, which are only truly apparent when the wine is 15 or so years old. One of the most memorable wines I ever tasted was a bottle of Pape-Clément '61 with Stephen Browett of Farr Vintners, in the late 1990s. Like many great wines, it simply couldn't stop improving in the glass. There were then a handful of bottles available in Switzerland for £100 each, but stupidly I failed to purchase them--it is virtually impossible to find anything like this today. I later found a bottle in a restaurant in Worcestershire for £145 and drank it to celebrate some milestone in a DotBomb company that I had founded, but sadly it didn't have the purity or definition of the earlier bottle. 

The other good thing about Graves is that it produces the greatest dry white wines in all of Bordeaux, which can live for decades. The masterclass at the Decanter event presented four white Graves from the fabulous 2005 vintage and eight reds from the equally renowned 2000 vintage. Apart from the two superstars mentioned above, the only other wine to be missing was Laville Haut Brion, one of the best whites, but this is also owned by La Mission.   

To add to the confusion, some of the 15 classified wines are rewarded solely for their whites but not for their reds and vice versa, while others win the accolade for both, such as Domaine de Chevalier. The top whites are Haut Brion Blanc, Laville Haut Brion, Domaine de Chevalier Blanc and Fieuzal Blanc. The only Haut Brion Blanc I ever tasted was the 1989 at a lunch with the proprietor, Prince Robert of Luxembourg, and I can confirm that it was one of the most profound wines I have ever tasted. 

All of the proprietors or cellar masters turned up too, with the exception of Domaine de Chevalier, which was ably represented by Véronique Sanders of Haut Bailly. We started with the white first--I was immediately attracted to the Bouscaut, perhaps because it was not as grand as the others and so appeared to be more mature. The nose was quite lacy and full of citrus flavours, while the actual taste was of acidic apricots. All of these wines are a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, with the former giving off the exotic aromas and the latter providing structure and backbone.

The Carbonnieux appeared to be quite closed up and difficult to interpret, but I imagine in three to five years it will be more approachable. The neighbouring Couhins and Couhins-Lurton also seemed quite unready but full of real potential. One of the organisers made the mistake of asking Madame Sanders how long she thought it would take for these wines to be at their optimum. "Well, I know I shouldn't tell this story, but my grandfather always said: ‘If you walk into a house and are greeted by a beautiful 20 year-old girl on a bed, are you going to say to her that you would rather wait 20 years in case she improves?'"

The next batch for tasting were all reds from the 2000 vintage, which was universally successful in Bordeaux. Of these eight wines, none were actually ready to drink--with the possible exception of the Pape-Clément and Smith Haut Lafitte, which are both made in more modern styles with higher fruit extraction than the others. The Domaine de Chevalier, (whose 2003 I frequently rave about), was thick and mouth-puckeringly tannic and won't be ready to drink for at least another five years. Haut Bailly, which has had something of a comeback in recent vintages, had a hint of tar on the nose. Though it is still quite harsh and tannic, it will definitely be worth getting to know in five years time. Ditto for the de Fieuzal, but it had less intensity so should be approachable by the end of the decade. The only other wine that might be drinkable now was the Olivier, which was elegant and almost ready, with a tendency to caress the palate.

It should be remembered that this really isn't the best way to taste wine as the only food complement we had were dry biscuits and bottled water, rather than pink salt marsh lamb or a rare Grouse. All it offers is an instant snapshot, whereas if you open a bottle and consume it over two hours or so, you will get a far more valid picture of where it is coming from and where it is going. That is why one can always pick holes in the conclusions of even great wine tasters if they are simply going from bottle to bottle at a tasting event.

Another tiny Chateau, which was not displayed because it isn't classified, is Les Carmes Haut Brion, which produces less than 2,000 cases annually. It has a high proportion of Cabernet Franc, which gives it an interesting edge. As well as purchasing these 2000 reds, I would be tempted to get hold of the two second wines of La Mission and Haut Brion for 2005--La Chapelle de la Mission Haut Brion and Bahans Haut Brion. They cost around £300 and £400 a case respectively, as opposed to 15 times that for the actual "first" wines. No matter where you are on the globe, just look at Wine-Searcher.com for a comprehensive list of all the best offers for these and any other wines you may fancy.

So far I have only had the La Chapelle '05 but even now, it was a gorgeous effort, with that telltale power and soaring intensity of all the '05s I have tasted. For the moment at least, I expect they will be more fun than the more sober 2000s, and they will eventually surpass them in long-term quality.

(Bruce Palling spent 30 years as a foreign correspondent in Asia and Africa, including a posting as the first South Asia correspondent of The Independent. He lives now in London, where he writes about food, wine and travel, and is working on a history of regime change.)