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bordeaux blends
Mountain high, flavor deep. Chappellet: Bordeaux with altitude.
There are many arguments for mountain fruit. The Chappellets and their wines are among the most winning, as any one who has met Donn, Molly or Cyril on tasting visits to Florida.
Maybe because they have lived so long high above the Napa floor, 1200 feet up on Pritchard Hill, going their own, apparently happy way.
2007 Chappellet Mt. Cuvee (Napa) $21.99
It’s tough terroir that gives a classic full-five Bordeaux blend an extra twist - elegant, wines with great intensity and greater complexity and depth according to B-21’s Shawn Reynolds. Our California dreamer rates the 2007 Mountain Cuvee a 92 and calls it one of the states best buys. It’s 51% Cab, 46% Merlot, the rest Malbec, Cab Franc and the essential Petit Verdot, “This wine brims with complex and vivid, mouth-filling fruit flavors… plum, fig, and cherry cola with a lingering strawberry essence on the finish.”
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler
Not so mauvais: Bordeaux from the garage
2006 Mauvais Garcon/Bad Boy (Bordeaux Superieur) $19.99
The Ministry of Silly Names, would have turned away Mauvais Garcon at the border, except for the winking sheep. Plus, I tasted it. This is not simple happy-go-lucky juice. This is garagiste Bordeaux in grapes, terroir and style. It has strong structure, manageable tannins, deep flavors and lean elegance, not just plump fruit. A grown-up drink: It costs $19.99, a great value, and likes a bit of time and air to emerge in glory.
The “Bad Boy” of the label is not the guy in NAAST’s song but Jean Luc Thunevin, nicknamed by Robert Parker as the leader of the garagist movement in Bordeaux, the wine lovers who worked with tiny batches, from ugly-duckling property and big ideas.
Thunevin now owns Chateau Valandraud in St. Emilion and consults widely. The grapes here come from Fronsac and Entre-Deux-Mers.
Wine Spectator gives the latest Mauvais high marks (91). This has a wonderful nose of crushed blackberry, Christmas cake and dried dark fruits. Full-bodied, with intense berry and toasty oak character. Long and rich. Best after 2014.
Our resident bad-boy/Francophile, Rhett Beilleti recommends it as well. Mais oui.
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler