Ch. de la Colline 1999

I recently saw this Bergerac advertised by one of my favorite retailers. As it would involve some trouble to get my hands on, I thought I'd inquire of this group (Ian?) as to any impressions of the wine or the Chateau. I realize that, at the price charged, it's more of an everyday sort of wine

Hi Mark,

Mon, 15 Oct 2001 14:43:15 +0000, you asked:-

That's a good sign.

Well, I'm going to be a broken reed here. My reference book to wines of the South West is no help at all. They don't list them and I've never tasted their wines to my knowledge.

I think it's unlikely to be very exciting, I'm afraid. I don't imagine for one minute that I know all the best properties, but I suspect that this is a trading name from one of the co-ops. Can you get them to provide more details and I'll see what I can find out for you.

Hi Dominique,

le Tue, 16 Oct 2001 10:04:28 +0200, tu disais:-

Damn and blast!!! I HATE making a fool of myself. Thanks very much indeed, Dominique.

RIGHT!!! I've tried three times to try to find this estate and failed miserably. Actually, that's not true, because the last time, I got to the hamlet only to find that the house that looked the most likely in complete turmoil and shut up. They were having a swimming pool put in and had wisely abandoned the place to the builders. The other three houses in the hamlet were pretty well derelict.

Also explains why Strang didn't mention it, because Charles Martin (a charming young man, whom I met on a couple of occasions when Nick Ryman owned Jaubertie) only bought the place after the book came out. Actually, Bergerac as an area is in great ferment. The huge increase in Cru Classé prices in Bordeaux has given them a very real chance to fill a gap in the market for very good, but affordable Bordeaux Style wines.

OK. I've not tasted the wines yet obviously, but the word in the area is that he's well up amongst the other top luminaries of the region. So, Mark, I'd love it of you would get some and tell us what you think about it. I certainly will get there one of these days too.

Actually, I rather got the impression he was Australian, but that might have been an acquired accent.

I'm delighted for his sake that he's got an importer in the States.

OK, Ian! I'm sold, especially at the price of US$9.99 per bottle. Impressions to follow in due course.

Mark Lipton

As a matter of fact, I happened to have worked in that particular vintage at Ch. de la Colline. I consider this wine to be one of the best of the appelation, it can compete with Bordeaux wines that cost more than double. Try to find his best red and white: cuvee Carmine and Cuvee Calista.

Edwin Verburg The Netherlands

Edwin, Thanks for the information. Alas, it's only the regular cuvee which is being sold.

Mark Lipton

Hi Mark,

Did you get a chance to try it yet? Turns out I can

too. Interested to see if it's worth pursuing.

LOL!! Yes, I can get it 'locally' too

<g> OK, I may get to try it first! wine-searcher located it at the SF wine trading company (ex Mr. Liquor, the new name being much more upscale) www.sfwtc.com. they ship also, I believe. and they're about 1/2 mile from my house...

I wonder if this is a Lynch import. sfwtc carries a lot of his wines.

haven't been to solano, thanks for the tip. I'm kind of a newbie in the area.

<bg>. not often. to my chagrin the place turns out to be mostly an industrial wasteland. now, what does that say about yours truly?

anyway, I think 'my' airfreight company went bankrupt recently...

We tried the bottle in question on friday, served with grilled lamb chops and spinach salad. Normally we like to let bottles rest for at least a few days, but in this case it didn't get more than a few hours upright before opening. Didn't take careful notes, but here are the impressions.

An open, bright nose, color medium purple. Big and tannic in the mouth, but without enough structure for long aging. Probably a large % tannat, if I judged the roughness right. Good blackberry and chocolate on the back palate, decent length, touch of south-west grassiness. Stood better on its own than with the meal, even though it should have been flattered. Not much spice or complexity in the mouth.

In france it would probably be a fair enough buy at 30-40 FF. So US$10 is reasonable. I think it needs a couple of years to achieve good balance.

All in all a useful wine, that I will probably buy and try again in 2-3 years. Still, it drinks well enough to be served in the near term.

BTW, the importer isn't Lynch, although I already recycled the bottle and can't remember just who is was...

Hi Emery,

Mon, 22 Oct 2001 00:48:01 -0700, you said:-

young then - which is what I'd expect. Very young in fact.

Not quite. Bergeracs share the same cepage with Bordeaux, so I'd expect it to be a Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend, with probably a preponderance of Cab, from your description.

Err.... or maybe a majority of Merlot ())

That's a characteristic I have some difficulty with, in fact, and the less of that showing, the more I like a wine.

Very young, then. Actually, '99 was a very tricky year (as was 2000) with cold early summer, drought in September and so on.

If it's his 'bottom end' wine, I'd expect it to be at around 25FF.

Well, that's encouraging.

Thanks for these notes. Emery