TN: 12 Lanessan [Haut Medoc] & a cork question

[AKR]

12 Lanessan [Haut Medoc] Rather surprisingly the Mrs. split a bottle of this with me, as this isn't usually her type of wine. It's an 'ok' Medoc, probably about the best the estate could have pulled off in a year that didn't favor the left bank, and there's a block of tannin still that I doubt will be balanced by fruit. It's on the medium bodied side, a touch of oak, and a cool lean style to it. I'd drink it now, giving it a B in the ledger, and personally would not repurchase. I actually poured the last glass or two down the drain, but that was more because we were leaving, and it wasn't worth driving back with that little amount.

This was a French tax stamped grey market import, and curiously, the cork seemed to be an agglomerated type. I don't recall that on other Lanessan vintages, so I don't know if that is something they have changed to recently (I think the last years I've had were either 2009 or 2010), or if this is was something for the (presumably earlier drinking) French market, and saving 25c or something on the cork mattered to the hypermarches. If anyone has opened/drank a regular US imported one - English labels, no tax stamp - I'd be curious to hear if the cork was the regular kind. I know a few producers like Plumpjack in Napa used to allow customers to specify the closure type, and others may choose certain types for whole regions, like OZ/NZ with screwcaps for their domestic sales etc. So its not totally out of the realm of possibility, but it seemed unusual to me, or maybe I'm just wrong about the cork (although I saved it to look at more closely)

[William P]

the cork seemed to be an agglomerated type.

Arv is this a DIAM cork. I read these are taint free. I also read that they are so snug that it does not allow for aging since air doesn't penetrate. I believe Jadot uses DIAM exclusively.

Bil

[AKR]

Actually I think that is what it must be! It was quite hard to extract with an Ah-So. And Lanessan/Diam seem to have a Facebook page of some kind, so perhaps they shifted to that closure form.

If so, this a good thing. I'm not overly TCA sensitive, but it really sucks to wait years for something to mature, and then find out its tainted. And Lanessan is generally an ageworthy estate worth the trouble to do that, for oneself, even if it won't 'pay off' in market appreciation.