SHOT Magazine

And the wine indeed!

2010.07.17

カテゴリー: Bordeaux, Wine

A recent welcome comment to the blog asked an interesting question regarding my Bordeaux adventures.
To quote, they asked ” and the wine…” which is a fair enough comment. Bordeaux is of course internationally reknown for their (mainly) red wines. Those of you who know me also know that I drink mainly white wines and so for me Bordeaux and the chateaux that we visited was a wonderful adventure into new, drinking territory.

It was of course fantastic. Shot magazine had a unique opportunity to visit some top chateaux and to chat with their owner/managers or chief wine makers. Naturally these wonderful people were extremely generous with their time and offered us tastings of their new vintages (2009 they say is possibly the vintage of the century). They also kindly opened classic vintages to illustrate the longevity and character of Bordeaux wines.

Put simply they were all magnificent. It made me wish that I had a more sophisticated palate to really appreciate the magnificent wines we tried. However as one of the wine makers said “we all have to start somewhere” and I suppose the likes of Chateau Margaux (we tasted 1996 Premier Grand Cru and 2009 Pavillion Rouge) , Chateaux Lafite Rothschild (Lafite Rothschild 1994 and 1995), Chateau Rauzan Segla (2006 and 2009), Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte (2007 Grand Vin de Grave and 2007 Grand Cru Classe de Grave) Chateau Canon (Grand Vin 1998) Chateau La Cabanne (2007 and a 1971 Pomerol!) are a good place to start my Red education.

Naturally, I thought I’d buy a couple bottles from each Chateau. As an Australian, cellar door sales are normal to me. But of course this being France and Bordeaux at that, the only way to buy these precious drops is through a negotiant or big city wine shop. It’s probably a good thing too as I had not quite got my head around the figures i.e. the cost of these devine drops. Surfice it to say I’ll be working a little bit longer to be able to afford to quaff these on a daily basis. But of course there are plenty of reasonably priced Bordeaux wines about and they’ll be on my list for tasting this year.

By the way, I did get to taste two delicious white wines from Bordeaux. The first was a Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte sauvignon blanc blended very nicely with a touch (5%) of sauvignon gris. For me, it was perfection.
Equally as good was the Chateau Margaux Pavillion Blanc 2009. This young wine was easy drinking and had a delicious perfume that hit exactly the right note with me.

So for the wine? I hope that answers your question.