Wine Review - 2003 Chateau Lacombe Noaillac - Medoc

When I started writing Anything Wine it was mostly wine reviews, then it was almost all about weekend tastings, then their was nothing, and now I am writing about everything. Being inspired by fellow Virginia blogger Sonadora over at Wannabewino (who posts about every bottle she and her husband drink) I am going to try and post my wine notes more frequently. I haven't even been keeping up with putting my notes into Cork'd which populates the list on the right side of the page. So here we go....

So lets start with a little background on Chateau Lacombe Noaillac.

Lacombe Noaillac is located in Jau-Dignac-Loirac north of the Médoc appellation not far from the Gironde estuary. The first vines at Chateau Lacombe Noaillac were planted in 1979 and now total acreage exceeds 30 hectares (about 90 acres). Vineyard plantings which correlate directly to the perecntage of grape make up in the wine are as follows - 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot, 5% Cabernet franc and 3% Petit Verdot.

Price - $16.95 from the Wine Cellar

Tasting Notes:

Nose - Boysenberry, suede, Rhubarb and Shitaki mushroom

Taste- Bright fruit in particular red raspberry with a nice finish of asparagus

Mouthfeel - Tannins still present, but not rough at all. Medium bodied - good weight in the mouth.

Finish - Surprising; I was expecting something decent but it was fairly lengthy lasting up to a minute.

This is a great value Bordeaux. This is the second time we have had this, the first being about 8 months ago. 2003 was a fairly hot vintage in Bordeaux. This led to really ripe fruit and in some cases more fruit forward style of wines. You would think this was the case with this wine as that is definitely comes out of the gate with really rich fruit flavors and aromas. But after about an hour of being open, the terroir of the gravelly soil definitely starts to come through and exhibit more old world characteristics.

Chateau Lacombe Noaillac is pretty widely distributed so check it out if you get a chance.