Synopsis, Our Opinion: A CAPTIVATING Bordeaux that was an EXCELLENT value and a SUPER weekday red.
Producer/Winery: André Chatenoud; Chateau de Bellevue; Lussac, France.
Grape Variety: Bordeaux Blend – 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc.
Geographic Appellation: Lussac Saint Émilion; Bordeaux, France.
Vintage: 2004
Price: $25.20 (with a 10% mixed case discount)
Purchased From: The Caviste Wine Shop; Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Paired With: Roast beef with Madeira sauce, baked potato, roasted cauliflower and dark chocolate for dessert.
Tasting:
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Opened, filtered and decanted one hour before drinking. Opaque, dark purple color with a lighter reddish color rim. Mellow blackberry, cherry and hardwood sawdust aromas with wisps of bread yeast. Cottony (or unusually soft), medium body mouth-feel; plum and blackberry flavors that are mixed with STRONG dusty minerals. A long finish that’s dominated by well structured tannins and mineral profile. WOW, an unusual Bordeaux…quite delicate, loaded with fruit taste, abundant fine grained tannins and a persistent limey mineral in the background. GREAT with the beef and Madeira sauce, GREAT sipping without food after the dinner and GREAT with the dark chocolate. It’s also noteworthy to say it changed enormously from the first sip to the last… when we started drinking we NEVER would have said it was Bordeaux wine, after the last sip we both said it was a wonderful soft Bordeaux blend. Traditional Bordeaux drinkers might not like this because it wasn’t powerful, but in the end it changed so dramatically we would describe it as a CAPTIVATING Bordeaux that was an EXCELLENT value and a SUPER weekday red.
Note: there was an extra label on the bottle that said to “carefully decant” this wine. We decanted using a coffee filter and based on the sludge we removed, we STRONGLY recommend a filtered decanting.
Photo from Kermit Lynch.
Alcohol Content: 13%
Closure: Natural cork.
UPC Code: 7 61503 34351 5
Imported by: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant; Berkeley, California.