Wine with Leslie: The art of choosing a great Bordeaux — including a supermarket red for just over a tenner
The Bordeaux vineyard - home to famous wines, prestigious chateaux and spectacular sunsets
I know, I’m supposed to be recommending zero alcohol wines to match Veganuary but I’m sorry, I couldn’t cope with it. All the supermarkets have offers on various zero-alcoholic wines such as Torres Mosaic range should you feel the need, I also recommend good King of Kefir.
January is the darkest month, so dark it is the only time of year the National Gallery is allowed to exhibit its Turner Watercolours, and those pale evanescent impressions of Mr Turner do somehow capture the mood of the quietest month so I will be making my annual pilgrimage.
Thinking about Turner I found myself wondering what wine he would have drunk. There is a note in the Tate in his handwriting that mentions a meal of bread, cheese, ale and gin, and he was famously a fan of snuff and rum — but I suspect he would also have been partial to Claret or red Bordeaux if offered.
Britain and Ireland have always been hugely important markets for Bordeaux and it is now one of the few wine regions making wines at 13%. Bordeaux is a marginal climate for wine with cool Atlantic breezes tempering the climate and plenty of rain in poor years. More than any other region you should pay attention to the vintage when buying Bordeaux, particularly if you are spending more than €30.
However, climate change has been kind to the region and there has been a run of good vintages over the last decade. The recent vintages to look for are 2015 and 2016, the former a little softer and riper. The 2019s are still too young but some 2018s are drinking well as are 2017s which are for earlier drinking anyway. The last difficult vintage was 2012, but even many of these are drinking beautifully (cf. Ch. Lannesan 2012 which is gorgeous - c. €28.95 at Vintry, and O’Donovans).
Bordeaux’s balance of fruit and structure makes it the perfect food wine in my view but the region is unusual in that all the wines made there benefit from some ageing, even wines from petit Château will benefit from up to three years in bottle, six or eight in a warm year.
Here are some affordable and very drinkable Bordeaux recommendations — plus a couple of good wines from your local Spar/Mace/Londis to save you having to go too far. Spar has a few good Bordeaux in stock and I mentioned their Ch. Du Bois Chantant (€14.95) a couple of weeks ago.
This is a bit of a winter warmer at a good price and you probably have a Spar or Mace nearby. The bunches are tied off on the vine and allowed to dehydrate and concentrate before being crushed so this is a sort of poor-man’s Amarone. Big fruity aromas with noticeable spice, ripe berry fruits on the palate and good weight and concentration. Perfect for an Indian takeaway or with a spicy pizza.
Mosaic Priorat, Spain — €13.39
I last mentioned this Priorat in 2019 when it was reduced to €15 so this is a proper special offer and a bit of inexpensive luxury for January. A typical blend of Cariñena and Garnacha plus a little Syrah: ripe blackberry fruit aromas, supple and fruity on the palate with more blackberry and ripe plums plus a dark earthy edge on the crunchy finish. The Rémy Ferbras Gigondas at €14.72 should also be worth trying.
Mitchell’s Claret 2018, Bordeaux — €15
It is a few years since I tried Mitchell’s Claret and it’s better than I remember. Claret simply means Bordeaux in case you didn’t know — the word is used more in Britain than here. This is a blend of 67% Merlot, 26% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Cabernet Franc packed with soft blackcurrant and plum fruits with a touch of spice — balanced and inviting.
Many of the historic Cru Bourgeois Château, such as Chasse-Spleen and Poujeaux, have long since left the Cru Bourgeois system and will cost you €60 or more but there are many great producers still using the classification which is updated annually. This is packed with classic Médoc aromas of cedar, spice and dark fruits, warm blackcurrant and blackberry fruits with good structure and lingering dark chocolate notes.
This is the second wine of Château Beaumont — one of the Médoc’s most affordable and reliable producers which has appeared here in the past. This is made from the younger vines but still tastes like Beaumont to me: dark chocolate and cedar aromas, reasonably concentrated, fruity and juicy with lots of blackcurrant, mocha and toasted oak flavours and some lightly spiky but integrated tannins for structure.
Lalande de Pomerol is rarely as interesting as its famous neighbour Pomerol but it is affordable — few Pomerols cost less than €60 nowadays. This is 80% Merlot with 10% each of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon. Bright dark fruits with a touch of cigar box and a hint of earth on the nose, soft Merlot juiciness and lightly crunchy red fruit complexity. Drinking perfectly but will age further.
Lineman Insulator Port Cask Barleywine, 14.8% ABV, 500ml — €11.99
Lineman keeps creating brilliant new beers. Besides this Barley Wine they also have a new pale ale called Fluid Dynamic (4.8%) which is packed with citrus and hop cleanness; and Big Calm Brown Ale (6%) has a caramel and chocolate flavoured maltiness. As usual the beers are unfiltered and unpasteurised.
The Insulator is a small batch bottle conditioned beer — there should be a few still around by the time you read this. This is one to sip or have with a meal I think given the 14.8% ABV. Sweet malt and roasted oranges on the nose, sweet grapefruit, coffee and dried orange peel on the palate. Fascinating.
