2010 La Muse

Three mini-verticals of recent vintages of the Verite wines with Pierre Seillan in March made it abundantly clear, once again, that this is one of the most consistently extraordinary sets of Bordeaux blends made in the New World.Seillan bottles late (the 2011 was finished in January of this year), but noted that the wines spend the last ten months of their elevage in tank.Prior to that, they are aged for about 15 months in all-new French oak barrels made by Jackson Family Wines with wood from 15 different forests.This approach routinely yields wines with well-integrated oak and outstanding retention of primary fruit.Seillan considers 2011 to be a great year ("terroir is No. 1") but believes that the 2010s will reach peak drinkability later.His 2012s had been racked into tank about three weeks before my tasting.

This is a beautiful set of wines from Pierre Seillan and Verité. There are three main wines at Verité; La Muse is a Merlot-based wine, while Cabernet Sauvignon plays the leading role in La Joie. Le Desir is a Cabernet Franc/Merlot blend that typically includes smaller amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon and/or Merlot. The 2010s, which I have always adored here, appear to have shut down a bit in bottle, most likely because of the high acidity of the year. Seillan has done a terrific job with the 2011s, which qualitatively are very much in line with previous vintages. The 2011s are of course a bit more floral and savory than is often the case here, but that is just the style of the year. Incredibly, whereas yields for most wineries are way down in 2011 and up in 2012, at Verité production levels are essentially the same across the vintages for La Joie and Le Desir, and only down about 10% for La Muse. As always, these are intense wines built on texture, richness and volume.

I tasted a wide range of wines with Pierre Seillan during my most recent visit to Verite. The 2010s were still in tank awaiting imminent bottling. For that reason, the wines were a little closed down relative to how they showed last year. The 2011 and 2010 harvests both started on September 26, but the 2010 harvest ended in mid-October, while the 2011s were picked all the way to the end of the month. Seillan describes 2011 as an earlier drinking vintage next to 2010, although given the way these wines age, I would not be surprised if the 2011s develop nicely in bottle. Seillan told me he performed aggressive leaf pulling two weeks before the harvest in order to get the fruit ripe. I also tasted all the 2002s and 2003s, and was particularly impressed with the 2002s, all wines that have held up well.

Pierre Seillan thinks of himself as a master blender and vigneron, an intriguing combination. Seillan sources fruit from a wide number of vineyards in the Kendall-Jackson empire. He employs the same approach to cooperage, mixing and matching barrels from various coopers to come up with the perfect combination of component wines. It works. All of the Verite wines are aged in 100% new oak but Seillan keeps the time in oak moderate, such that these wines hardly ever show signs of oakiness, even when they are young. Seillan's goal is to make wines that improve in bottle and that are capable of lasting 30 years. The 2009s and 2010s are both exceptional vintages. I have a slight preference for the 2010s, a vintage with more aromatic and flavor delineation, firmer tannin and more long-term potential, all results of a season with large diurnal shifts. The 2009s are the product of vintage with much more even ripening. They will offer terrific early appeal, but also have more than enough stuffing to age well for years. I also tasted the 2010 Tannat, a new wine in its first vintage. The last bottle of the morning was the 1998 La Muse, a wine from a very challenging year that is still youthful and full of life. I have little doubt these 2009s and 2010s will prove to be superior wines. My only hope is that Verite and Kendall-Jackson will keep prices for these wines reasonable.