Talk-A-Vino

I recently mentioned that I started to write a series of posts for The Art Of Life Magazine. Currently, the series is covering Best Hidden Secrets of the Wine World, and last post was dedicated to the second labels. As the whole notion of the second labels was originated in France, of course my intent was to talk about one of the “second label” wines from Bordeaux.

I decided to go with Chateau Leoville Las Cases Clos Du Marquis, which is a second label of Chateau Leoville Las Cases Grand Vin de Leoville. 2005 was available ( and it was a great year), and I ordered (online) the Clos du Marquis for about $50 – of course I would be glad to go with second label of Chateau Latour, but that would ring about $500, which was definitely not budgeted for this exercise.

So I got the wine, it was the right year, and it was Chateau Leoville, so I tasted it for the post. Then I started working on the post, and of course I wanted to mention both first and the second label. This time I used the full name of the wine, Chateau Leoville Poyferre, and when I failed to find it as a second label, I finally understood that something is off! Well, it was a rare case of “off” to my benefit. Actually Chateau Leoville Poyferre which I got instead of Clos De Marquis is a first label (second label for this wine is called Château Moulin Riche), never mind the fact that it costs twice as much as Clos De Marquis was. I ended up getting another, real second label wine for The Art Of life Post, as talking about this wine would not help the goal of the article (La Croix de Beaucaillou was also not bad, as you can read for yourself in that post).

As everything in life has two sides, tasting this wine was also good and bad. The good part was in the fact that this wine, 2005 Chateau Leoville Poyferre from Saint Julien in Medoc, was outstanding. To describe it in the few words, it is muscles and power in a perfect balance. Perfect balance of dark fruit, spices, eucalyptus, tannins and acidity, however all in need of time. This wine needs another 10-12 years to really shine. Don’t get me wrong – it is perfectly enjoyable now – but it begs you to give it time to evolve. I would put drinkability to 9.

Where is the bad part, you ask? The bad part is that at $100 a bottle, it was truly an accidental experience – this is outside of my wine budget, so I will have to hope for another lucky mistake (yeah, fat chance). Oh well, I’m glad I had this experience and I was able to share it with you. Until the next time – cheers!