 |
Inexpensive Bordeaux from 2006 By Fredric Koeppel Feb. , 2008
2008
Friends, there are 5,000 to 6,000 properties and estates in
Bordeaux and most of them make wine from their vineyards; there's a world of
Bordeaux below the highest levels, and if the trickle-down theory is to be
believed, a great year like 2005 affects the lowly as well as the
august.
The wines under consideration on this page, while some do
require a few years aging, are for everyday drinking. They issue mainly from
small family-owned chateaux in the satellite or minor appellations and communes
nestled in the midst of the Big Names. You will find them different from
merlot and cabernet sauvignon-based wines made in California in these ways: 1.
They tend to be lean and muscular instead of opulent and blowsy; 2. They are
lively and vibrant with essential acid rather than being flabby; 3. They have
plenty of oak (too much in a couple of examples), but the oak is primarily
not new, so the effect is woodsy not toasty and spicy rather than flecked with
vanilla. 4. Even at this level and in this price-range, the wines display
considerable tannic structure and austerity, the factor that dictates some aging
to soften. Yet the wines offer many delights, not the least of which is that the
best of them feel like merlot and cabernet for grown-ups.
A word about prices: I quote here the prices given me when
I tasted these wines last week in Memphis. If you search on the Internet, you'll
find that the wines are available in many parts of the country for $5 or $10
less a bottle.
If I were assembling a case from these wines, here's what I
would select: Two bottles of Chateau de Callac Prestige Blanc 2006 (the only
wine on this page that's not from 2005), $25/bottle; two bottles Chateau Labory,
$19/ bottle; two bottles Chateau Haut Nadeau, $19/bottle two bottles Chateau
Haut Piquat, $26/bottle; two bottles Chateau Lyonnat, $30/bottle; one bottle
Chateau Boutisse, $40; one bottle Chateau Villefranche dessert wine, $43. That's
a total of $331 for a tidy little collection of Bordeaux, minus the 10 percent
case discount that most retailers give |
|
|
