Château Valandraud 1999

Sweet coffee, mocha, leather, and black cherry and currant flavors dominate the pure, well-delineated, opulently textured, hedonistic 1999 Valandraud. It possesses definition, length, and a singular personality. Anticipated maturity: now-2015.

Sweet berry and floral aromas follow through to a full body, with very soft tannins and attractive, ripe fruit. Features a polished, caressing mouthfeel. This will improve with age, but no use in waiting. -- '89/'99 Bordeaux blind retrospective (2009). Drink now. 1,250 cases made.

The 1999 Valandraud has a surprisingly dark color and seems very youthful for its age. It is concentrated and heady, offering copious dark cherry and black currant fruit, a touch of camphor, crème de cassis and, later, a hint of Japanese nori. The medium-bodied palate presents a sweet core of ripe, rounded black fruit tinged with charcoal. Quite caressing in mouth, with moderate acidity, but missing the complexity that I was hoping for. Perhaps it will develop a little more personality with bottle age, as there is good substance here. Tasted December 2016.

Fully mature, there is still ample, round-textured, sweet cherry, red and dark plum, paired with truffle and cocoa in this medium-bodied wine to please the palate. But it's not a wine to keep for further development.

Dark ruby garnet, bright. Sweet, almost creamy bouquet: strawberry quark, stewed cherries, a spicy Irish moss note. On the palate, a peppery red-berry fruit component, balanced by a ripe blackberry touch. Flattering tannins, almost perfumed extract. Very approachable in its current fruit phase, suggesting it won’t shut down heavily and will therefore deliver great enjoyment at almost any stage of its evolution.

00: Barrel sample (18/20): 70% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, production: 15,000 bottles: intense, compote-like bouquet; lots of plum, black elderberry, blackberries – the fruit load is packed and very expansive. On the palate ripe, rich, soft and opulent, a sweet play of plum mixed with creaminess and elegance, lovely length. 03: Deep ruby with purple and lilac highlights. Rich bouquet scented of ripe cherries, cloves, gingerbread, raspberries and light caramel. Silky, juicy palate with incredible charm. Already a dream as a young wine, with plenty of nonchalance. (18/20). 04: Medium-dark garnet-purple. Intense blackcurrant bouquet, coffee notes, sour-cherry touch, still very fruity and hugely peppery on the attack. On the palate substantial, well-supported acidity, slightly mealy extract, very long-lasting. For a ’99 showing an almost unnatural concentration. 07: A concentrated blast from a double magnum at the Metzgete. Simply awesome and now mature for the first time! And another double magnum right away. This time for New Year’s, with pork tenderloin en croûte. Just at the beginning of its peak drinking window. 08: A magnum in Ticino with friends. And a risotto with the very first fresh porcini. There were three of us. But it tasted so good that we soon moved on to the equally sensational 1995 Saffredi. (18/20). 11: It shows full spiciness, lots of clove, smoke and aromas of dark-roasted Arabica coffee beans. Dense on the palate with a noble bitterness indicating sufficient extraction. (18/20). 12: Medium-dark garnet, purple rim. Brilliant bouquet, beautiful roasted notes, oriental spices, Burgundian Côte de Nuits accents, mocha and fine woods, graham bread and dried plums. The palate is simply brilliant, positioned above many other ’99s, full, dense and with lavish aromatics. A truly brilliant Valandraud! Belongs to the wines of the vintages! (18/20). 13: Saturated, very dark wine-red, little evolved. Mocha, black olive paste, black bread, even traces of pumpernickel. On the palate meaty, almost illogically concentrated for the vintage (I tasted a few lighter ’99 Grand Crus from the Médoc this week). On the palate meaty, grainy, showing a lot of concentration and also a very high extraction, still needs to digest its tannins a bit, there’s also a rather coarse grain from the wood. Nevertheless, the wine is gaining and will probably only reach its true peak in four years. (18/20). 16: Production volume: 15,000 bottles. Dark color, quite dense core, still some garnet reflections at the rim. Showing a ripe, wonderfully plum-and-chocolate bouquet, then herbal tones and aromas of fruit tea, raspberry seeds, overall multi-layered and fascinating. You could sniff this for a very long time! On the palate peppery, still youthful in impression and somehow carrying more tannin in the extract than would be normal for a 1999. I was thrilled by the nose’s perfume and the breed on the palate.

Silky, powerful bouquet, chocolate yogurt, blackberries, blueberries. Silkier, sweeter, softer palate with a firm, modern structure, sweet aromatics, opulent finish. 18/20 drink – 2026

Supple, refined, but without the intensity and energy of 1998, 2000 or 2001.

Complex bouquet with notes of blackcurrant, licorice, and violets, followed by inviting praline aromas. Lovely tension on the palate and a pleasant softness from the very attack. A delicious, indulgent wine, well supported by its acidic structure.

Logo on the cork: A in a circle (Amorim) Dark, intense, and developed color. Intense nose with ripe fruit and a smoky touch. The wine caresses the palate throughout the tasting, with brightness of flavor in the mid-palate. It finishes with medium length, with gentle tannins for the cru.