Tag Archives: white Bordeaux

Expensive wine 107: L’Enclos de Carbonnieux Blanc 2020

L'Enclos de Carbonnieux Blanc label
L’Enclos de Carbonnieux Blanc 2020/$23-$30

When it’s worth paying more than $10 for white Bordeaux

One of the most difficult parts of this job is not letting my prejudices and preconceptions about wines and wine styles that I don’t like get in the way of an honest assessment of what I taste. I do a decent job of that for merlot, but not as good for rose (or, as one tasting note for a $30 French pink said, “No, this isn’t three times better than the Bieler.”)

Hence, my biggest problem with this wine is that I was hamstrung by the idea that white Bordeaux doesn’t need to cost more than $10 (save for Chateau d’Yquem, of course). Which, if I had allowed that attitude to get in the way, would have meant I missed a fine wine.

Because the L’Enclos de Carbonnieux Blanc 2020 ($26, purchased, 13%) is a fine wine and well worth drinking: “Classic white Bordeaux — green, flinty, a bit of richness from the semillon,” said my tasting notes.

So, yes, it’s probably twice as good as the $10 or $12 white blends from that region in France that I drink all the time. It’s certainly more complex; there’s a lot more going on than the one-note citrus that so many $10 and $12 and even $15 white Bordeaux opt for these days. That means some herbal notes, as well as an almost chalky minerality.

It’s also worth noting that this is the second label from a top white Bordeaux producer, Chateau Carbonnieux, whose wines run around $50. Which, in the way wine works today, makes the L’Enclos a value.

Highly recommended; break out the poulet roti, or, if you’re feeling Hemingway-esque, chilled oysters.

Imported by Misa Imports

Wine of the week: Les Hauts de Lagarde Blanc 2020

Les Hauts de Lagarde Blanc
Les Hauts de Lagarde Blanc 202o/$12-$15

The Les Hauts de Lagarde Blanc is French white Bordeaux that is both affordable and tastes like a French white Bordeaux

Call it serendipity or luck or whatever. But in the midst of the pandemic and the tariff and limited availability and sky-high prices for French wine just because, I somehow found the Les Hauts de Lagarde Blanc. Which, depending on where you live, could cost as little as $12.

Which, frankly, means it’s time to buy a case.

I paid a little more for the Les Hauts de Lagarde Blanc 2020 ($14, purchased, 12%), but it was still worth it. If nothing else, how often do we find quality white Bordeaux that hasn’t been Chateau Bonnet-ed – jacked up in price until it’s worth more than it’s worth?

The Lagarde Blanc is still quite young, so the 40 percent semillon in the blend (with 60 percent sauvignon blanc) hasn’t quite fleshed out the mouthfeel. Hence, there’s probably a little more citrus (almost grapefruit?) than there will be later in the year. Plus, it’s not as stony as it could be.

But it’s fresh and delicious and well-made and affordable, all things that have been in short supply for wines at this price – and especially from France – for much too long.

Highly recommended. Chill this and drink it on its own, or pair it with grilled chicken marinated in garlic, herbs, and lemon juice. ( (And, for those of you who nag me about this, there’s a rumor it’s at some Total Wines in some parts of the country).

Imported by Natural Merchants

 

2020 Cheap Wine of the Year: Le Coeur de la Reine Gamay 2017

Le Coeur de la ReineLe Coeur de la Reine Gamay, a French red, is the blog’s third annual Cheap Wine of the Year

One of the charges leveled against cheap wine is that it’s bland and boring. Yes, Winking Owl is bland and boring. But to assume that all cheap wine tastes like Winking Owl is silly and more than a little snooty. So, for those of you who don’t believe in cheap wine quality — but especially for those of us who do — we have the Le Coeur de la Reine Gamay 2017, the blog’s third annual cheap wine of the year.

How much Le Coeur de la Reine ($10, purchased, 13%) did I drink last year? At least a case. It was especially helpful in washing out the aftereffects of all those $18 fake oak “there’s a lot of winemaking going on here” samples that I have to spit through to do this job.

The Le Coeur is a French red made with gamay in the Loire, so don’t be surprised that you haven’t heard of it. If gamay is known at all, it’s for wine from Beaujolais; it’s not even the most common red grape from the Loire. That’s cabernet franc, which is hardly well known itself. Nevertheless, this wine does everything a $10 wine is supposed to do – and then some.

There is lots of tart berry fruit, a suggestion of baking spice, and an amazing freshness that  many $15 wines made with gamay don’t bother with. And it is a food wine in the most wonderful bistro sense, in that it will go with almost anything you have for dinner, whether fried catfish, steak frites, or a Brussels sprout Caesar salad.

A tip of the WC’s fedora to Emily Peterson at Valkyrie Selections, the wine’s importer. She promptly returned emails and answered all my questions, which doesn’t happen much these days. Hence, I can report the wine is available in 26 states and the District of Columbia. That includes most big states except California, and even there it is on Wine.com’s website. Also, the current vintage is 2018, but there is still plenty of 2017 on shelves.

Finally, Peterson reports the importer and producer are trying to hold the line on the price despite the tariff, and it shouldn’t go up more than a dollar or two. Meanwhile, she is urging wine drinkers who think a new, proposed 100 percent tariff is foolish to leave a comment with the feds. Go to www.regulations.gov, enter docket number “USTR-2019-0003” and click search. Then, click “comment now” and leave your comments/concerns. Comments are open until Jan. 13.

More Cheap Wine of the Year:
• 2019 Cheap Wine of the Year: Château La Gravière Blanc 2017
• 2018 Cheap Wine of the Year: Bieler Pere et Fils Rose 2016

Wine of the week: Calvet Blanc Reserve 2018

The Calvet Blanc white Bordeaux is fresh, modern, and a very fair value

A long time ago, in a wine world far, far away, most quality wine shops sold cheap and enjoyable white Bordeaux. You could even find it in supermarkets. The reason that it was so inexpensive and plentiful is that French producers made too much of it, even for a wine drinking country like France.

The difference between then and today? Premiumization. There is still too much white Bordeaux in the world, but since it’s less expensive, we see less of it. Because the wine business has to sell us $15 wine that’s much less interesting.

So when the Wine Curmudgeon finds something like the Calvet Blanc ($11, purchased, 11.5%), he buys it. It’s more modern in style than white Bordeaux from the old days, made entirely of sauvingon blanc (so no semillon, which was quite common then).

The Calvet Blanc is a little more New Zealand in style than I like, with more grapefruit than the subtler lemon and lime. And there isn’t a lot of the traditional minerality. But it’s not simple or dull, the grapefruit isn’t over the top, there’s a little grassyness to add interest, and the finish is long, clean, and stony. In all, the wine is more than drinkable and a very fair value.

Imported by Calvet USA

Wine of the week: Chateau La Graviere Blanc 2018

The new vintage of the 2019 Cheap Wine of the Year shows the Chateau La Graviere Blanc at its $10 best

What does the Chateau La Graviere Blanc, the 2019 Cheap Wine of the Year, do for an encore? Produce another interesting, value-driven wine in the new vintage.

The Chateau La Graviere Blanc ($10, purchased, 13%), a French white blend from Bordeaux, has been one of the joys of my wine drinking over the past couple of years. It has remained high-quality $10 wine at a time when too much of the wine world cares more about adding sugar and raising prices.

The 2018 version of the Chateau La Graviere Blanc is richer and heavier than the 2017, thanks to the semillon blended with the sauvignon blanc. But know that neither is a bad thing; it shows off the wine’s terroir and reminds us that vintage differences can make a wine more interesting.

Look for some citrus and an almost California aroma of grassiness. There is lots of minerality, which is what a white Bordeaux should have, and the fullness in the mouth moves toward a long and clean finish. This is a food wine, but you can also chill and sip it when you want a glass of after work.

Highly recommended, and it will return to the $10 Hall of Fame in 2020.

Imported by Luneau USA

Ask the WC 20: White Bordeaux, crossing state lines, lower alcohol

white bordeauxThis edition of Ask the WC: Where to find affordable white Bordeaux, plus crossing state lines with illegal wine, and the lower alcohol trend

Because the customers always have questions, and the Wine Curmudgeon has answers in this irregular feature. You can Ask the Wine Curmudgeon a wine-related question by clicking here.

Hi, Wine Curmudgeon:
Can you help me find an affordable white Bordeaux? Recently had a $36 bottle of the white blend that was heavenly but out of my daily price range.
Looking for value

Dear Value:
Premiumization strikes again. Fortunately, there is still plenty of quality, cheap white Bordeaux — the white wine, often a blend of sauvingon blanc and semillion, from the Bordeaux region of France. Chateau Bonnet, which is one of the great cheap wines of all time, is mostly available nationally and should be less than $15. Whole Foods’ Château La Gravière Blanc was the 2019 cheap wine of the year. And you can always use the search box on the upper right hand side of the blog — type in white Bordeaux.

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Dear Wine Curmudgeon:
I’ve heard that it’s illegal to buy wine in one state and then bring it back into your state. Is that true, or just another urban myth?
Bootlegging wine

Dear Bootlegging:
Yes, it may be illegal, depending on the state where you buy the wine and the state that is its final destination. Because, of course, three-tier. It would require an attorney and a couple of thousands dollars worth of consultation to be more specific about the various states and their penalties. But know that if you’re driving with wine purchased in another state, and you’re stopped for speeding in your state, there’s a chance that your wine can be confiscated and you can be fined.

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Hello WC:
I heard a story on NPR that young people aren’t drinking as much as we used to drink. That can’t be true, can it? Young people always drink, don’t they? Isn’t that part of being young?
Aging Baby Boomer

Dear Aging:
Here’s how much of a trend people in the booze business think this is: I wrote two stories this summer, for different trade magazines, about young people drinking less alcohol. So, yes, there seems to be something to the idea that the youngest Gen Xers, the Millennials, and the oldest Gen Zs aren’t as enamored of getting drunk as the Baby Boomers were at that age. The experts I talked to cited any number of reasons, but one struck me. When I was 19, it was a rite of passage to drive drunk. Today, we have designated drivers. Hence, a significant culture change.

Photo: “Day 55 Hatch wine in Parksville” by terri_bateman is licensed under CC CC0 1.0 

More Ask the Wine Curmudgeon:
• Ask the WC 19: Supermarket wine, plastic wine bottls, corked wine
• Ask the WC 18: Sweet red wine, varietal character, wine fraud
• Ask the WC 17: Restaurant-only wines, local wine, rose prices

2019 Cheap Wine of the Year: Château La Gravière Blanc 2017

Château La Gravière BlancChâteau La Gravière Blanc, a French white blend, is the blog’s second annual Cheap Wine of the Year

It wasn’t easy, in the past year of drinking dangerously, to find a cheap wine to uphold the standards we’ve worked so hard to maintain over the past 11 years. Yes, there were plenty of $10 roses that were worthy, but cheap wine should be about more than rose. Fortunately, we have the Château La Gravière Blanc as the blog’s second annual Cheap Wine of the Year.

The Château La Gravière Blanc ($10, purchased, 12.5%) is a white French blend from the Bordeaux sub-region of Entre-Deux-Mers, which is mostly known for making truckloads of cheap wine that tastes like cheap wine. That’s the last thing the La Graviere is.

It combines traditional white Bordeaux style and terroir with modern winemaking; hence a delicious wine that is not simple or stupid. The wine features fresh lemon fruit as well as an almost California-style grassiness, but it also comes close to an old-fashioned white Bordeaux minerality. This used to be common in these kinds of wines, but it as rare these days as a Big Wine dry red that is actually dry. The difference may be more semillion in the blend than sauvignon blanc, so the wine isn’t another New Zealand knockoff.

Drink this chilled, either on its own or with chef-style salads, roast chicken, or grilled shrimp. This is the kind of wine you buy one bottle of and then go back for a case. Which is I did.

Imported by Luneau USA

More Cheap Wine of the Year:
• 2018 Cheap Wine of the Year: Bieler Pere et Fils Rose 2016