89- 92pts Spectator
From One Of Bordeaux's Greatest Vintages
Comes One Of The Greatest Values From The Vintage
Bordeaux vintage 2009 is the subject of almost unprecedented anticipation, ballyhoo and clamor to secure the vintage. The elegance, delicious fruit, layered textures with impressive structure, integrated tannins and long finishes that have massive kudos from Wine Spectator, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate and Decanter Magazine, among others, putting 2009 in the conversation with the modern classics such as 1945, 1961 and 1982. Parker comments on the vintage Sais it all, 2009 may turn out to be the finest vintage I have tasted in 32 years of covering Bordeaux.
Steven Spurrier of Decanter declares the vintage, "The Best Vintage Of My Lifetime". The problem with the vintage is that demand for the vintage from around the world is like nothing we have ever seen before. The great wines, the classifieds, from first trenche prices, doubled within a month of their release. These wines will start arriving Jan/Feb next year. What we have started seeing are some of the values from this great vintage starting to arrive and just in is one of these tremendous wines, the 2009 Chateau Patache d 'Aux. The wine is a Cru Bourgeois Superieur from the Medoc, the left bank of Bordeaux and is Cabernet based. This classification is just below the classifieds and what's great about a vintage like this is that you can find insane quality throughout all classifications. The Wine Spectator loved this wine scoring it 89-92 pts and declaring the wine the finest ever from this Chateau. The wine comes from vines averaging 35 years of age, grown on classic Medoc clay and chalky soils in Bagadan not far from the Gironde River and is aged for 12 months in French oak of which 20% are new. I tasted the wine last week and it is a true left bank Bordeaux of the highest caliber, excellent complexity, a core of tightly wound dark tarry fruit, superb structure and being from a great vintage, it has glorious fruit in its youth but it is build for the cellar and is worth laying down. This wine gives everybody the opportunity to experience the greatness of top vintage Bordeaux at a reasonable price. I still maintain that there is nothing quite like great Bordeaux from a top vintage. There is red wine and then there's Bordeaux. What is also important to note that Bordeaux of quality just keeps getting more expensive. This wine performed extremely well in 2009 and I noticed that the price of the 2010 in Euros was nearly double that of 2009. This wine is ready for delivery!

Tasting Notes: Mineral, berry and the Patache d’Aux has a refined bouquet with blackberry, wild hedegrow, sous-bois and cedar with great definition: elegant and poised. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy tannins on the entry. Good depth but tight and broody on the finish. Good potential, black licorice aromas follow through to a full body, with super silky tannins and a long finish. Lovely wine. Best ever from here? Score range: 89-92 –JS