ON THE NOSE:
Our first impression of this wine, with the appearance as well as the nose, is that it is very much like a Pinot Noir (Burgundy style): light colored, earthy, stinky, garbagey, old-world style (duh!). It’s amazing, though, how just five minutes in the air can change a wine, as in this case. Very soon it adds others aromas to the stink: cream, tar, green vegetables, green olives. A minute later one could even say it smells sweet, as well as earthy and stinky. It’s funny, though, how little actual fruit is evident here. Just a bit later obvious soy sauce emanates.
After an hour there is some fruit to behold on the nose, standard cherry, but fruit all the same. After even more time the tar/kerosene aroma is still obviously present and represents the flavor profile of this wine, with the vegetable and sweet and cream aspects, in that order.
ON THE PALATE:
In the mouth this wine is not shy with excellent acidity, a small but attractive little grip, but only a medium-short finish. The palate offers much of what is on the nose with some green beans and/or lima beans, green olives, rough hide leather on the tongue, and a dusty potato sack, and hay, like the taste in your mouth after sleeping in a hayloft. New-world fans can definitely stop reading right now; not to say that this is a bad wine (we won’t say that yet, if it all), just extremely old-world in its delivery and profile, with enough depth to make us continue sipping even though we should really wait another few hours for it to breathe.
Several hours later the cherry-fruit finally beckons to be noticed, as on the nose, but this wine will never have to worry about being labeled a fruitbomb, no sir, the old-world style predominates throughout, but in an OK way. The acidity that we liked earlier is actually hiding some depth of flavor, I suspect, but clean tobacco is now evident, though that is the only additional aroma we can swear is there. I wish the tannic structure were better established here, and it would be nice if the finish was … well … better, or at least more interesting, but what you get on the nose is what you feel on the attack and the same on the palate right through to the gullet. As the palate gets used to the harshness one can get acclimate to this wine, as I have, and this makes me think that perhaps this wine would best be enjoyed with a nice steak, or perhaps a simple meatloaf. As wine-first people, however, this effort fails to satisfy.
I grew up with French wines like this, so in some ways I feel right at home, but I have also had so many other wonderful, elegant red wines from France in this same price range that I simply cannot recommend this particular bottle to any reader (e.g the 2003 La Fleur de Bouard, or the 2003 Sansonnet Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, both we attained in the same price range, and both were far, far superior in all ways to this contender). It was a grocery store wine (I know I know I know … someday we will learn), but on sale appreciably, or at least it seemed so according to the “normal” price behind the “Kroger Plus Card Savings” sign hanging with an inviting reduction on its face. Nope, not a good deal at $18 either, and likely still more than what I could find it for online. We try to shop locally when we can, but the large-chain grocery stores hardly count as that anymore! In any case, $18 seemed a fair price to try this Lussac Saint-Emilion, an area that sometimes produces wonderful deals as compared to the Grand Crus of their south-western big brother, Saint Emilion proper. Here the $18 was not necessarily wasted, but not, ultimately, passionately spent either. Darcey likes this effort much less well than myself, but I won’t be writing my parents about it either. All in all it was a disappointment (“big-time,” says Darcey), and not a bottle we will ever wonder about again.
(Click here for an explanation of our ratings ...)
Our Rating: 85
Would we drink it again? 
No, although I would certainly try any and all other vintages from this Chateau.
Would we buy it again?
No. It's that simple; at least not this vintage.
