Chateau Trotanoy, Pomerol 2008

This is very muscular for the vintage, with blueberries, minerals, flowers and stones. Full bodied and powerful with beautiful rich tannins and a long, long finish. So much going on. Let it go for five or six years.

The 2008 Trotanoy is a ferociously backward Pomerol that did not engage at Farr’s horizontal. Another bottle served over lunch that had undergone a long decanting was far more representative. It has a gorgeous bouquet with raspberry and menthol, a little dark chocolate and cedar. The palate is medium-bodied with ample freshness and vigor although it clearly demands a long aeration to really click into fifth gear. This is a multi-dimensional Trotanoy that probably needs another couple of years in bottle. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners’ 10-Year On tasting.

Full, deep red-ruby. Brown spices, milk chocolate and minerals complicate intense dark berry, black fig and plum aromas. Sweet, lush and broad on entry but with firm acidity giving the wine a light touch, then multilayered and opulent in the middle, with unctuous dark fruit, coffee and earth flavors. Finishes ripely tannic, smooth and powerful. This extremely impressive Trotanoy is quite accessible already but has the stuffing to age well and improve for another 20+ years. Super wine.

Very dark red. Complex aromas of violet, blackcurrant, chocolate, smoke and minerals. Brooding and deep, with concentrated flavors of Black Mission fig, minerals and game framed by a powerful spine of acids and tannins. Magically mouthcoating and very persistent, with huge but polished tannins giving this wine a classic iron-fist-in-a-velvet-glove impression. An outstanding Trotanoy: Jean-Claude Berrouet told me it's Moueix's best wine of the year, along with Petrus, and I couldn't agree more.