Wednesday 6 May 2015

Exploring The Forgotten Side Of Bordeaux - Chapter II

Yet another bottle of this mature Bordeaux. And this one performed even better.

La Tour Martillac has a long history and takes it name from a La Tour, remains from a fort built in Martillac in the 12th century.
Edouard Kressman, a wine merchant in Bordeaux, took an interest in the estate in the late 19th century due to its quality of its white wine. His son, Alfred, bought the estate in 1930. By then the estate had 12 ha of vines. 8 if them destined for the white wine.

The current label was introduced with the 1934 vintage, as I can vouch for, since I have a bottle of the 1939 vintage and it looks identical to the one below. That will be fun to taste!
The cepage varies from vintage to vintage but the bulk is, of course, Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon, with Muscadelle making up the remainder.

David Peppercorn describes La Tour Martillac as - "the white wines are classic Graves which develop complexity and originality with bottle age and can live and improve for many years with their solid base of Sémillon". This 1982 was surely proof of that.

More info here.

1982 Château La Tour Martillac
A fine, open nose, showing some maturity yet still with perky elements. Notes of dried peaches, linoleum, warm grass and yellow roses. Very good. A streak of white pepper emerges with air. A touch chunky, in a good way. Very nice. Holds well in the glass.
The taste is broad and mouth filling with notes of dried tropical fruits, crushed rocks, oilcloth and dried flowers. The finish is long, warm and satisfying. Some maturity. From time to time there is taste like licking a wet suit, interesting... Very, very good. No hurry to drink up.
91p   (tasted 2015/04)

Forgot to take a pic, so I reuse the previous one...

 

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