The Bordeaux Report

(Part 1) I could care less about most of Bordeaux after 1996. This marked the year of the complete coup; reverse osmosis/micro bullage machines rolled into town like WW2 German tanks. They became the norm. Then there was that California style Bordeaux, narrowing the margin between the wines, moving a wine I sort of like (Bordeaux) too close to a wine I really didn't warm to, (Napa Cab/Merlot). Even if I could afford first and second growths, the wines don’t excite me the way, let's say, a Breton or Olivier Cousin Cab Franc do. Cheval Blanc? You've got to be kidding. And so it was silly, (almost as silly as me being a key note speaker at the wine bloggers conference at the Sebastiani winery dinner--was that someone's idea of a joke? ) for me to go on a fact finding mission into the Aquitaine’s right and left banks. But I did. Here's the premise. Fed up with Bordeaux? Fed up with the high prices? Should you give up on them totally? There do exist vignerons (even in Bordeaux) who are making real wine. If the kind of wine is your thing, my advice is just to abandon those $200 + wines and find comfort in the under $100 bottles from the unsung heroes of the region. A 2001 Micalet? Scarf it up. The brother’s Fèdieu are in Cussac between St. Julien and Margaux and too bad for them, only have an appellation of Haut Medoc, instead of their more prestigious neighbors. They are organic as of the 2005 vintage, yet, they never really farmed chemically as their dad couldn’t see the point of paying for chemicals. New oak is another story. the 2001 was before they had any toasty new oak barrels, which they bought in 2003 thanks to the insistence of their California importer, North Berkeley. The wine was really hard to approach. However, by 2005 some of the toast had worn off. For $35, not a bad bet. The most beautiful setting award goes to Chateau Grolet. Grolet, across the river in the Cote du Bourg.Unfortunately the owners Catherine and Jean -Luc Hubert forgot all about me, so I had the accountant who was there, call the son who was over at their other property, Chateau Peybonhomme to come and give me the cook's tour and tasting. It was a little less than satisfying, but yet the setting was picture perfect biodynamics in action. I almost could have been at the Loire at Nicolas Joly's or at Stefano Bellotti's Cascina degli Ulivi in Gavi. and this... (off to buy tomatoes)