Bordeaux Ringers
What makes claret so immediately identifiable when you taste it blind, as we often do? Let me qualify that. I am talking about traditional Bordeaux, before the influence of what some call ‘Parkerisation’ that began in the 1980s. This was not through any fault of Parker the reviewer, who I am sure had no designs to remake the wines of Bordeaux (or anywhere else, presumably) to his ideal, he just reported on wines as he tasted them and more importantly, gave them numerical ratings that became the singe most effective marketing tool for wine merchants the world over. More points = more sales, = more requests to the producers to make wines that garnered more points…..and around it went.
What we were aiming at was to put forward our best shot at a wine that wasn’t Bordeaux, in the more classic sense, but that might be mistaken for such when tasted blind, and the event turned up some interesting conclusions. First, it is bloody hard to fool dedicated Bordeaux fans with anything else. Second, the ones that came closest to fooling you were perhaps the ones you’d have least thought of as doing so before they were tasted.
The dinner was arranged with everyone at a table bringing their ringer, and there was a lot of after dinner cross-table exchange of tastes so I was able to taste quite a few wines that evening. I found that it was a constructive experience that focussed my mind on exactly what specific qualities made a claret what it was for me, and introspection is always good for the soul. Here are the notes, but first a précis of the menu.
Albacore tuna with fennel salad, citrus vinaigrette
Quail stuffed with wild rice and chorizo, Madeira sauce
Braised short rib Cannelloni with Bordelaise sauce
Elk tenderloin, elk jerky, morel sauce
Some dessert or other.
The canapés were served with Roederer Estate NV, a pleasant bubbly with very good mousse, clean yeast and fruit nose, and high terminal acidity, overall a bit simple.
The fish course was accompanied by a white Bordeaux ringer, the 2005 De Lille Chaleur Blanc - a vanilla oak and tuna fish ( I swear!) nose, nice, crisp and juicy.
1997 Le Macchiole Paleo Rosso – a blend of 85% CS, 5% CF, 10% Sangiovese (I’d suggested that I bring a 1990 Lungarotti San Giorgio, which has similar make up, but that was rejected. I still think it would have been interesting….) The Paleo was dark, had a ripe sweet nose, was tannic and tight. It needs more time and was much more likely to be mistaken for an American cab than Bordeaux.
2000 Montes ‘M’ - this is the upwardly mobile Chilean Cab (at much too high a price I feel I can add, as I brought this one). 80% CS, 5% M, 10% CF, and 5% Petit Verdot. It showed a black olive nose medium body, good colour and was still young and tannic. A good cab blend, definitely. A claret - no.
1994 Stellenzicht Estate Wine – an entry from the Cape. Hard to find. Elegant and a nice stone and cocoa nose, smooth on palate, with a slightly high terminal acidity that was the only clue as to origin. Getting closer.
1994 Dunn Napa Cab – thank goodness it wasn’t the Howell! I have this, so was interested to taste it. a Rhone nose, a bit funky, from a wine still very dark with sweet rich fruit and enough rough tannins to make your tongue feel like it had been sandblasted. Another 10 years needed and it still won’t show even vaguely like claret!
1985 Mas Daumas Gassac – a very interesting choice and the closest shot yet. Sweet nose with a pine element, lots of acid and some tannin left. The I tasted another bottle of the same wine – resolved mature wine, medium colour, spicy nose, very faint astringency at the end, could possibly pas as a mature Bordeaux. This Languedoc-Roussillon wine, quite elemental and rustic in youth, had mellowed very nicely with age.
1985 Sassicaia – this one made me glad to be sitting at this table. One of my very favourite wines. Dark, ripe minty nose (the mint disappeared after a few minutes), mellow with great length and huge concentration combined with a complexity that saw a changing panoply of flavours that went on and on as long as I had it in my glass. Not going to fool you into thinking it was a claret, but nonetheless my wine of the night.
1990 Torres Mas La Plana – a good try – not much nose and what there was came fom the oak, even at this age. Soft middle, still slight tannins at the end, and low on fruit, it struck me as closer to an older 80s American wine than a caret.
2001 Errazuriz Chadwick – people will likely be familiar with the Don Maximiano cab (an inexpensive bargain), but may not have heard of this one. The Chadwick is a premium cab made with small French barriques from 100% cabernet. You get a broad sweet nose of blackberries and a similarly sweet entry, after which the wine swiftly closes down with tannin. This one should give the guys in Napa some worries, but a claret it is not.
1994 Dominus – a good call by whoever brought this as I have always found Dominus to be about the closest American wine to the French style. Big sweet deep intense nose you could luxuriate in for minutes, forgetting to taste the wine. When you did, you found a well balanced beautifully melded wine getting into prime time. I suppose this could fool you, especially if you put it next to something like the 1990 Montrose….
1985 Stag Leap Wine Cellars Cask 23 - slight mustiness, smooth and ready to drink with excellent length, a lovely mature Cal-cab, but again, no ringer for a claret.
1974 Mondavi Reserve – I think this wine is getting past it, certainly judging by the last time I tasted it several years ago. Quintessential Cal-cab, not even close to claret. Fruit definitely fading. If you want to drink an 80s reserve, opt for the 87.
2000 Dom. de Castel – I purposely left this one for last, a 60% merlot, 40% cab blend made in Israel in Judea. Believe it or not, this well made wine was the one that had the lest clues about being from anywhere BUT Bordeaux. It had good fruit in the nose, elegant and still a bit tannic, we figured it would pass for a Lynch Bages any day of the week. Brilliant effort and one to watch out for.
