I lost my mind after tasting this bottle: Having nearly tasted through the entire 2015 Bordeaux spectrum, today’s extraordinarily complex, elegant, best-in-class bottle quietly demolishes Classified Growths and Premier Grand Crus costing hundreds. I’m not the only one on our team who had their breath stolen away, either: My colleague Mark Osburn was certifiably stunned, calling Vieux Taillefer’s 2015 his favorite red, from any region, this year. He even felt compelled to take it to his blind-tasting group, which is filled with Bordeaux junkies—one of whom is a die-hard, finger-on-the-pulse Bordeaux collector. And although some of the blue-chip bottles in attendance were a 1978 Pichon Lalande, 2002 Haut Brion, and 2009 Lynch Bages, Mark said everyone’s noses were glued to the glass during Vieux Taillefer’s turn.
When it came time for the big reveal, it wasn’t $400+ First Growth Château Haut Brion in the lead, but Vieux Taillefer—unanimously. That’s right: An obscure, 200-case production Saint-Émilion Grand Cru single-handedly stole the show. The first words out of the hardcore collector’s mouth? “I’ll buy two cases.” But, with just 10 cases left in America, we had to cap that request at six bottles. If that’s still not a strong enough endorsement, I’ll end it by saying that this groundbreaking Bordeaux is coming to you at a world-best price. Take a look online if you feel so inclined, but I assure you this $79 price tag is unbeatable by a hefty margin, and will never again be seen in this range. Take up to six bottles now, and then read on to discover how Taillefer felled the powerful titans. It truly is our rarest and greatest blue-chip Bordeaux value yet!
We imagine Vieux Taillefer has flown so stealthily under the radar because they max out at 300 cases on the absolute best years, with the average more along the lines of 200 (only a quarter of that hits American soils). Or, it could be that owners/couple Catherine and Philippe Cohen purchased the property just 14 years ago. Perhaps a combination of both. But, once you consider the significant star power associated with this bottle, their obscurity makes absolutely zero sense: Catherine Cohen learned under legendary Pétrus winemaker Jean-Claude Berrouet and went on to produce a string of vintages for La Fleur-Pétrus in the late 1990s/early 2000s.
As the story goes, it was Jean-Claude Berrouet who pointed the Cohens in the direction of Vieux Taillefer. While she was in her second year studying enology, Catherine landed an internship with Berrouet at Château Pétrus. That impressive stint eventually led to her being named winemaker at nearby La Fleur Pétrus, where she made the wines from 1995-2001. When Berrouet learned that the previous owner of Vieux Taillefer was retiring, he saw an opportunity for his talented protégé, and she and Philippe ran with it. With their minuscule 4.8 hectares, they’ve brought what’s been described as a “Burgundian” sensibility to Bordeaux, devoting most of their energy to organic farming and to bottling their wines by soil type, rather than using the traditional “first” and “second” wine model.
As Bordeaux lovers are aware, the Saint-Émilion appellation has one of the region’s greatest concentrations of limestone soils, and within the five hectares of vines at Vieux Taillefer, which sits right on the bank of the Dordogne River a few kilometers southeast of Libourne, the Cohens see pockets of nearly pure limestone interspersed with a more typical Bordeaux gravel/clay mixture. The property, blessed with carefully tended old vines, is planted predominantly to Merlot, with some Cabernet Franc and an interesting assortment of white varieties (the Vieux Taillefer Blanc is well-worth seeking out). Working 100% organically, the Cohens produce two reds, which they view as discrete expressions of their terroir rather than as two tiers in a hierarchy: Today’s wine hails from a single, 90-year-old Merlot vineyard planted on pure limestone, while their Pavillon de Taillefer is a cuvée (blend) sourced from four different plots rooted in clay and gravel.
They take pride in doing everything naturally and by hand, employing very little new oak in their cuvées—this wine spent about 18 months in just 20% new barrels—and striving to make what they call “terroir wines.” Taste this 2015 and tell me they haven’t hit the nail squarely on the head: This is an impossibly pure, highly aromatic wine that contains some of the most alluringly youthful Bordeaux aromas I’ve ever smelled. It shows the more perfumed, plush side of Merlot as well as a more linear, tensile structure than some of the blacker-fruited, riper styles found elsewhere in Saint-Émilion (and especially neighboring Pomerol). Like Pétrus, this is 100% Merlot, but one would have an extremely hard time making that call. Just like a Classified Growth or one of the four Premier Grand Crus of Saint-Émilion, each sip is loaded with pedigree, class, and sublime structure that refuses to quit.
It is medium-plus bodied with tannins that are as fine and soft as cashmere, yet there is such energy and balance to the wine, it’s easy to see it aging for 10, 20, 25 more years. However, you should definitely enjoy a bottle now, giving it a minimum 60-minute decant and serving around 60 degrees in Bordeaux stems. It’s loaded with pristine, subtly ripe black, blue, and red fruits; fortified with crushed graphite, gravel, and mineral savor; and radiating with warm baking spice, licorice, fresh herbs, purple/red flowers. Layer after layer envelops the palate, seemingly evolving with each and every sip. This is a show-stopping, game-changing Bordeaux that should be closely watched over the coming years and decades. I can’t stress this enough: do not miss Vieux Taillefer. If you ask me, they are the future.
