I'd been holding on to this bottle of 2002 Cuvee Particular Cahors for a few years, waiting to see where it would go. Lamartine is a great, old winery in the south western French appellation of Cahors. 2002 wasn't a very good year, but I had faith in them and this wine so I held on to it. Last week one of my friends stopped over to discuss some business and on a whim I decided to pop this open. It was gorgeous! Very dark fruit, very deliberate and focused wine, but with a smooth, refined texture that I'm sure the age helped with. Definitely a lot of currant and black raspberry fruit and still substantial tannins to this. The tannins were a serious primary component of the wine, but they were pretty polished and not overly aggressive. The balance was great and I'm very impressed that this came from such a maligned vintage. It just goes to show you that you shouldn't believe everything you read, particularly about wine. Great wine makers can make great wine even in off years. Not always, but you shouldn't ever just write a whole vintage off.
This was the last bottle I had. Oh well. I'll lay down some 2007.
That's right, Ned, torture me with a wine I can't get! I'll have to look for the current vintage and lay it down. I also wonder if 2002 wasn't as bad in the Southwest as it was in the south. I know the rain was horrendous in the Rhone area, but maybe further west it wasn't so bad. I've never had any luck with 2002 Rhones, even from good winemakers. And many in that area skipped the vintage, or declassified.
Posted by: Bob Rossi | 09/18/2011 at 05:39 AM
Well,....I actually have a case of the normal 2002 that I'm sitting on. And I've been building a vertical of the Particular. One of these days I'll pull them out for something cool!
Posted by: Ned | 09/18/2011 at 08:28 PM