Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Château Larmande St Emilion Grand Cru Classé 2005

Château Larmande St Emilion Grand Cru Classé 2005

Tasted with a mid-week dinner of leftover grilled steak, baked potato, green beans, sweet corn and brussel sprouts. Tasted from a 375 ml half bottle. At eleven years of age, I sense this is approaching the end of its prime drinking window as the fruits seem to have given way slightly to the emergence of the non-fruit flavors based on earlier tasting notes from three and five years ago.  Knowing the small format half bottle will age less gracefully that full size or larger bottles makes me wonder if that affected this tasting - will find out when I open a standard format bottle of this label.

Château Larmande lies north of the town of St. Emilion, close to Soutard and Cadet-Piola. It consists of 25 hectares of vineyards planted with Merlot (65%), Cabernet Franc (25%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (10%). In 1991 Larmande was sold to the French insurance conglomerate, La Mondiale.

Dark garnet colored, medium bodied, aromatic blackberry and black cherry fruits accented by tones of tar, smoke, earthy leather, hints of cedar, spice and whisper of mocha on a firm lingering tongue puckering tannin finish.

RM 89 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=351693 

http://www.chateau-soutard.com/chateau-larmande-.aspx