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Bordeaux
A Consuming Passion
©
Michael Vaughan 2006
National Post
Weekly Wine & Spirits Columnist
Saturday,
September 30, 2006
LIVE
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Today's Vintages release features Bordeaux with 28 new listings. One of
my favourite quotes: "No, Agnes, a Bordeaux is not a house of
ill-repute" appears in George Bain's 1972 book Champagne is for
Breakfast. Perhaps it is a sign of the times, but of the 254 pages of text
in this book, you don't get out of France until page 200. French wines
were the centre of the universe, led by Bordeaux.
Even
scarier is the fact that almost 40 years has passed since I bought my
first1er Cru, 1962
Chateau Latour, in Sherbrooke, Quebec. It cost $6.90 a
bottle and I still have one left. In those days, the price ratio between
everyday Bordeaux and the best was 4:1 - today it can be 100:1! Indeed,
2005 Chateau Latour is currently listed in the LCBO's Bordeaux Futures
catalogue at $995 a bottle, representing a 144-fold increase over the
price of the 1962.
It's all enough to bring tears to my eyes. At these prices, it's au
revoir Premier Cru, bonjour Côtes de Blaye. Readers wishing to
explore early Bordeaux pricing, please click
here to check out LCBO's 1976 Listings
Catalogue. Of course, one has to keep in mind that it also
costs a lot more to make Bordeaux today. Moreover, there have been great
quality improvements. Even so, one still has to buy carefully. At the top
of the pyramid, the wines are usually sublime, alas at astronomic prices.
Moving down the quality pyramid, one can still find good mid-range value. The problem is knowing what to buy - see my recommendations below. The greatest problem is variability. Not only from one vineyard to the one next door, but also from one vintage to another. It costs just as much, even sometimes more, to make a so-so wine in a poor vintage as it does to make a fine wine in a great vintage. This means that Bordeaux ordinaire prices, at the lower end of the scale, have little or no room to swing up and down reflecting the quality of what is in the bottle.
Today, like elsewhere, there is a wine lake in Bordeaux and many growers are stuck with mediocre wines they can't sell. Ironically, they can't afford to increase quality by reducing yields because, with all the surplus wine, no one is prepared to pay more. It doesn't help matters that many mediocre Bordeaux litter the LCBO general list shelves barely clinging to life. Try one of these and you are not likely to want another.
A Reliable White
Thankfully,
there are exceptions. André Lurton, for instance, is now making excellent
Bordeaux with screwcap closures. His white Chateau
Bonnet 2004 Entre-Deux-Mers (83709) at $12.95
dry and well balanced with gently juicy, ripe melon flavours. Fresh,
versatile and great with seafood, it is at its peak of drinkability.
Red Bordeaux Destinations
Moving to reds, from the Vintages August 19th release is an André
Lurton destination red: the slightly spicy, well structured 2003
Chateau Coucheroy (944983) at $17.95. The solid,
lingering, ripe plum and dried cherry flavours would be perfect with a
steak or roast beef. Coucheroy comes from the Pessac-Leognan region, which
used to be part of the Graves district (until 1987) and is just south of
the city of Bordeaux.
In today's release, there are four, tasty, fruit-driven, well-priced
2003 reds worth buying. At $19.95, I like the faintly earthy, plummy,
dried cherry, cedar flavours of 2003
Château Peychaud 'Maisonneuve' (2246). This
Vieilles Vignes (old vines) effort from the Côtes de Bourg (north right
bank) is showing well and is ready to enjoy now.
For a few dollars more, try 2003
Château La Tour de By (580613) at $25.95. This
charming, plummy, Cru Bourgeois Médoc leans a bit on the light side and
finishes up with some slightly spicy, hints of licorice.
Bigger and surprisingly juicy is the extracty Château
du Courlat Cuvée Jean-Baptiste (2238), which is
very good value at only $26.95. This Lussac-Saint-Émilion blend of 90%
Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc has 14% alcohol. Look for lots of juicy,
plummy, ripe cherry flavours with a slightly cedary finish. Great today,
it should show well over the next 18 months.
Even bigger with an astonishing15% alcohol is 2003
Château Gigault 'Cuvée Viva' (579318) at
$29.95. The mouthfilling, juicy, ripe black cherry flavours are
complemented by a lingering, cedary finish. Verging on a New World style,
it's quite delicious and ready to enjoy today.
Finally, it may not come from the famous 2003 vintage, but 2001
Château St. Georges (960310) at $38.95 is a
force to be reckoned with. Complex and well structured, the ripe plum and
dried black cherry flavours still need a few years of aging to reach their
peak.
It has been called "one of the most influential wine books of all
time!" I am referring of course to the monumental Bordeaux and Its
Wines, which is now in its seventeenth edition. Since 1846, this classic
reference work on Bordeaux wines has guided wine connoisseurs,
professionals and vineyard investors through this complex region,
providing detailed information on every one of its 1,800 vineyards, more
than 14,500 wine brands and 200 wine merchants. In addition to various
maps, labels and illustrations, there is also information on the art of
selecting, drinking and storing Bordeaux. Updated in 2004, this 2336-page
opus is available on the Chapters-Indigo website for $181.82 vs. the
regular $289.99 list price. To see: click here.
Pick of the Week
Noble Rot: A Bordeaux Wine Revolution
How often do you put your hands on a wine book that you can't put down?
Check out Noble
Rot: A Bordeaux Wine Revolution by William
Echikson, an outspoken, knowledgeable and well-versed American
journalist who tells all. He tracks what has happened in Bordeaux since
1982, the year Parker made it famous. Learn how great Bordeaux is made,
why prices have gone sky high, the family feuds, the deep dark secrets,
the lawsuits and the players. Definitely controversial, it might well be
the best investment any existing or prospective lover of Bordeaux could
make. Regularly $21, it is available on the Chapters website at $15.96.
2001-2002-2003-2004-2005-2006
Tasting Note Database
Our
tasting note database from December 31, 2000 to September 2006, covers every
Vintages release product for the past 69 months. There are more than 13,000 notes in the database data. Just enter the name of the product,
supplier name or CSPC number. Or you can search by type of wine, country
of origin, even wine agent! Nothing could be easier. Also you can get information on the agent by clicking on the
agent’s name, as well as current LCBO store inventory by clicking on
"Check
LCBO Availability", which will automatically tell you the
number of bottles at LCBO as of last night.
To
use our Tasting
Notes Database: click
here
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2006
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Contact Michael Vaughan at
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