Decline and Fall of Brigitte Barde-Haut

O

Oswaldo Costa

Oswaldo Costa
Back in his Saladin days, this Jihadist had a soft spot for 97 Barde-Haut, a fruity, flavorful, lower alcohol concoction that shut down hard circa 2001/2 (it reopened recently, but I only have one left). Chasing after paradise lost, I began to stock up on a few of the subsequent vintages, choosing to ignore the change of ownership that spelled doom to the earlier style.

1998 Chateau Barde-Haut Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 12.5%
Oak, deep cherry, and cedar aromas. Delicious fruit, good density, fine acid/sweet balance, resolved tannins, civilized alcohol. Drinking well, with years ahead of it. Only quibble is too much oak.

2001 Chateau Barde-Haut Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 13.5%
Not shut down, but gobs of oak, jammy stewed fruit, and faint cedar. Good mouth density, astringent tannins, alcohol slightly salient, marred by charred fruit flavor and an acidity that, while adequate, tastes separate. Disjointed, and not particularly tasty. Could be too young to drink, but is more likely the victim of point-chasing new ownership.
 
Oh, man.

Oswaldo, you really brought it back for me. I used to love me some Barde Haut from the late 90's. I used to enthusiastically sell tons of it. Like I would get excited when I sold a bottle.

Whoooooooooooah, Nelly. Times they have a changed. I had completely and totally forgotten about Barde Haut.

Man alive.

I feel like Lyle Fass reliving early Parker Board posts or something. This is strange.
 
originally posted by Yixin:
What is the point of these notes?

Do you think your tastes have changed?
Click to expand...

I have an overhang of bottles from my previous taste. I can't sell them down here, so I occasionally open them in the hope of finding residual pleasure. I put them up "for the record" and easy consultation, even when the wines don't interest yer average disorderly (though it feels vindicating if they can send Levi back in time in a way that seems almost madeleinish).
 
I wonder why they sold the estate. Did the wines in the old style not sell, or only sell to a dwindling clientele, thus necessitating a sale due to financial distress? If so then a change may have been necessary for survival of the wine. It's sad that the world of wine sometimes comes to that, but in the end the bottles have to be sold.

Of course it may just have been one of those napoleonic code, split the profits sales, in which case...
 
Starting with the 2000 vintage they belonged to Sylviane Garcin-Cathiard, who owns Clos lglise in Pomerol and Haut-Bergey, so I think it was simply a case of smaller fish being eaten by bigger fish. But perhaps the wines were indeed not selling enough, being more delicate than the trends were requiring.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by Yixin:
What is the point of these notes?

Do you think your tastes have changed?
Click to expand...

I have an overhang of bottles from my previous taste. I can't sell them down here, so I occasionally open them in the hope of finding residual pleasure. I put them up "for the record" and easy consultation, even when the wines don't interest yer average disorderly (though it feels vindicating if they can send Levi back in time in a way that seems almost madeleinish).
Click to expand...

We've got some of those remnants from our pointy days residing in the cellar (and Winebid has some issues with our state of residence), including I believe some Barde-Haut from the mid-'90s. I now know what I'm bringing to any future get-together with you...

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
All right! We can wear prosthetic pointy ears.
Click to expand...

I'm 96 points, on this (prosthetically speaking).

Just think of what wines would come out of the woodwork if we had a True Confessions jeeb of all the pointy skeleton-bottles in our collective closets. Frightening thought. There probably wouldn't be a drain big enough.
 
originally posted by David M. Bueker:
I wonder why they sold the estate. Did the wines in the old style not sell, or only sell to a dwindling clientele, thus necessitating a sale due to financial distress? If so then a change may have been necessary for survival of the wine.
Click to expand...

though i know it wasn't your intention, something in your reasoning reminded me of this.

fb.
 
That was disturbing to get reacquainted with. Suddenly, the kind of internecine mauling taking place around here lately seems rather, well, tame.
 
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