Steal this wine! No; not really. You should pay for it, of course; your retailer would appreciate that. But at the going price of $11—13 a bottle, it’s like stealing. You’ll definitely be getting your money’s worth and more at that price.
Although the stratospheric market in Bordeaux reds has declined the last couple of years---something about the economy and the big growths going to the booming Chinese markets---the U.S. has fortunately been enjoying a relative boom in the more affordable Bordeaux chateaux reds that flow through the store shelves.
Chateau Roustaing Réserve Vielles Vignes, 2009, Bordeaux is one of those: eminently affordable and pretty damned good at the same time. It’s from the Entre-Deux-Mers region (between the waters, connoting its location between the Dordogne and Garonne rivers below the city of Bordeaux), which apparently is not deemed sexy enough these days, since it is mostly known for inexpensive whites…which is dead wrong, by the way, as a goodly number of producers located here are currently producing some fine wines, both red and white, and electing to bottle them under the more humble and all-encompassing “Bordeaux” and “Bordeaux Supèrieur” appellations.
Ah, but their marketing failures can be your personal gain, for Chateau Roustaing does all you can ask a sturdy Bordeaux rouge to do, and it does it rather stylishly since it is ‘heavy-up’ with Cabernet Franc in the blend—a rarity, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot so dominant in this area---and therefore has notes of tobacco and leather and roasted herbs underneath the fairly ripe tart raspberry and blackberry fruits.
This is a well-crafted wine---translation: it avoids being overdosed in raw oak while maintaining the acidic structure needed for mid-term aging--- from mature 25 year old vines (hence the claim to Vielles Vignes) and should be perfectly enjoyable now or for the next several years, if wines last that long in your cellar; they rarely do in mine when they’re this tasty.
If you’re looking for a good holiday red, something sturdy enough to hold up to the rich fare on most tables for the season, this would be a good choice. Or you can gift it to people who don’t read reviews or notice prices---they’ll think you squandered more money on them than you really did. Maybe you’ll get a nice tidy inheritance out of it.