Bordeaux and the Millennial Wine Market

In the lead-up to my September trip to Bordeaux, I posted a brief note on Bordeaux wines' place in the United States. Throughout my stay in France, that question would pop into my head at various times and continues to do so on a regular basis.

I am fascinated by the stratification of the wine market in this country, how we have so many different levels of consumer spread across age, gender, education level, and income level. Overlaying my experiences in Bordeaux with this broad demographic map, I began to see where the wines could easily fit or conversely, not fit at all.


Often I would think more about the Millennial demographic because it's where I reside, and during my years in wine retail sales, I was always interested in the buying habits of my fellow 20-somethings. We're a fickle bunch, and even within our ranks there are multiple levels or layers of wine consumers. As all of this slowly percolated through my brain, the question became "where do Bordeaux wines fit in the Millennial market and what can the Bordelais do to capture our attention?".

To answer it, several things must be established first. We must accept that Bordeaux wines have a place here in on our tables (and in our glasses). We must also accept that there is a Millennial wine market. Current data puts the Millennials' purchasing power at over 170 billion dollars. Of course not all of that is spent on wine purchases, but we (sic) do make up (with over 80 million members) the second largest wine buying group in the country.

How can the wine producers of Bordeaux tap further into the Millennial market? Marketing of course works,  provided it's tailored to what we respond to. Packaging the wine in ways that appeal to us is also very important, perhaps more important for Millennials than any other generation. Understanding the preferred flavor profile my generation has will also help efforts to tap into our wallets. The increasing use of social media to generate conversations has been shown to enhance brand awareness and even drive a percentage of sales among Millennials.

Marketing:
Marketing to Millennials is slowly being shown as somewhat straightforward, especially for luxury goods and lifestyle image. We respect authenticity and a great story. Heritage is important to us, but we're loathe to be told to respect or admire something "just because it's old". We like being told what's new and hot, provided we are the ones who initiate that conversation. A Millennial wine buyer will respect the tradition and heritage of a region like Bordeaux provided that it's explained to him or her in a casual manner, where authenticity is stressed over things like price or exclusivity.

Packaging:

Multiple times throughout my time in Bordeaux, someone in our group pointed out how much the labels from producer to producer looked pretty much the same. To someone (like a Millennial) unversed in Old World wine labels, it gets confusing. If every label is white or some shade thereof, says "Chateau XYZ", then has a picture of the house on it, followed by the recognizable words "Bordeaux" or "Bordeaux Superieur", what's a person to do, especially one who has very little experience with the region (or the Old World labeling system in general)? Taking a page from New World producers and putting the grape varieties on labels has helped break down barriers. What's needed is a move towards more attention-grabbing labels though. To the right is a picture of a label at Chateau Feret-Lambert that I love. The color is eye catching and it's easy to read the writing. It sure doesn't hurt that the wine was wonderful too, a great introduction to Bordeaux Superieur.



Flavor Profile:
Often forgotten is that there is a large group of Millennials that have a different flavor preference than the Baby Boomers or Generation X. Yes, that's a generalization, but for now we will use it. Sometimes we're referred to as the "Juice Box Generation", that grew up drinking sweet fruit-based juices and nowadays tend to hold onto the sweet wine preferences a bit longer than previous generations. As such, wines with fruitier, sweeter flavor profiles can be more successful than wines with more acid and/or tannin. Yes, this Millennial is disappointed by that, but facts are facts. I'm not suggesting the Bordelais leave residual sugar in their wines, but considering working towards softer, fruitier reds might help turn Millennials on to Bordeaux. This can be relatively easy to accomplish too, with the creation of second labels or sub-brands. Before you crucify me, remember, almost all Millennials will graduate from those wines into more traditional reds (and whites).

Social Media:
It's no secret that the use of social media spans demographics, but how social media is used and how it influences buying habits are the core point I'm making. Within the Millennial market, use of social media as a purchasing aid is growing. Currently there is an incredibly limited presence among Bordeaux producers, whom instead rely on organizations (@PlanetBordeaux among others) to generate and drive conversations. This has to change, though there are some logistical hurdles. For one, the time difference can prevent instant replies (something more important on Twitter than Facebook). The culture in Bordeaux isn't one that promotes the most cutting edge marketing and outreach technologies. That may change though, given the younger generations' ascendance to control of the wine trade. These are just two issues though, and shouldn't be taken as a complete breakdown of social media in Bordeaux.

That's a 1959 Chateau Recougne. OLD!

I want my generation to experience Bordeaux wines and feel the way I do about them. The region, steeped in history and authenticity, produces some outstanding wines at great prices. The price range runs from around $5 for a generic, mass-produced Bordeaux to $2,000 for a First Growth. Within this huge area lie so many great wines that should be tasted and enjoyed, especially by Millennials. We have reason to pay attention to Bordeaux, and plenty of reasons to respect the heritage of the vines. It is my hope that producers in Bordeaux continue to expand their efforts at actively targeting the Millennial generation.

What are some other ways Bordeaux producers can target the Millennial market, educate us, and create loyalty?






For the numbers I sourced in this blog, I used this article from Millennier, this slide show on Millennial buying habits, and this slide show about expert opinions on Millennials.

Beau Carufel

2005 Chateau Fontblanche: High Quality and Low Price

It's no secret that Bordeaux is home to many of the world's most expensive wines. The coveted "Grand Cru Classe" wines can cost over $1,000 a bottle. Though they receive most of the attention when it comes to Bordeaux wines, the "Classified Growths" make up a very small (10% or less) amount of the total production from the area. Just within the greater Bordeaux AOC, more wine is produced than from the entire state of California!

Bordeaux's "other side", that is, wines not made by Chateaux classified in the 1855 Official Wine Classification, is chock full of incredible values and hidden gems. The point of all my rambling is to point out yet another example of why you should be looking for Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superieur wines to put in your regular rotation.

Take the 2005 Chateau Fontblanche Bordeaux, imported here into Oregon by Mitchell Wines and available for around $15, assuming there's any left. I picked it up at The Friendly Vine, in Forest Grove, because I saw it was from an amazing vintage and priced very nicely.

Sometimes, one desires Bordeaux. Every human on earth gets cravings, mine show up for wine. One night it will be a Bordeaux, the next night I'm scouring my collection looking for an Oregon pinot blanc.

For around $15 this wine seriously over-delivers, as proof I present my note from cellartracker.com:
"Decanted for a couple of hours before tasting. A lot of dark cherry and cassis on the nose, along with some herb and soil aromas. Smells pretty good for a $12 bottle of wine. The palate is (to me) pure Bordeaux, with lots of tannin creating a structure for flavors of black cherry and blackberry, cassis, dried herb, and black pepper. There's a definite smoky, savory note too, and if it were a bit more developed I'd like this wine even more. There's a bit of volatile acidity here that can be distracting at times, but again, for $12 this is a very tasty Bordeaux. Drink within the next 2-4 years."

If I were still in the business of rating wines, I'd give this a B+ (87 points), as it drinks better than almost every domestic wine in the same price point that I can remember having.

One of the things I love about Bordeaux wines, be they from the right or left bank of the, is that they can have this amazing sense of soul. If you do some digging, it's easy to find wines like this, where the quality level is excellent for the price, and the wine is actually interesting.

I offer this advice to those of you just starting to explore Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superieur: look in the $9-19 price range and seek out wines made primarily with merlot, as they'll be more accessible right now. This 2005 Chateau Fontblanche was 80% merlot with equal parts cabernet sauvignon and malbec making up the difference. Also, don't be afraid of Bordeaux wines with some age on them! Often times even the merlot-based wines are tannic beasts when young, but with time the tannins mellow and the flavors integrate into a delicious palette of flavors.

Stay tuned for more observations on Bordeaux and the wines of Bordeaux, inspired by my September trip to the region as a guest of Planet Bordeaux.

Were I to see this wine for sale again somewhere, I'd stock up. It's that good.

Beau Carufel

Back From Bordeaux

I returned from Bordeaux on Friday, September 28th. Two days later, I started this article in the hopes of quickly putting together some thoughts from my trip. Unfortunately, the more I attempted to distill everything that happened into a concise account, the more a stray idea or remembered thought would intrude, filling valuable space in the story.

That said, I feel like I now have a better idea of what this post will be about. Prior to leaving, I posted a brief note, Bordeaux Bound, explaining some goals for this trip. I'm happy to report that the goals were fulfilled, and bringing the stories to you over the next several months is going to be a lot of fun. Right now however, I'd like to present some broader ideas that have germinated as a result of my time there.

Everywhere I looked in Bordeaux, there was and is history that stretches back hundreds, sometimes a thousand years. Simply assuming that the Grand Cru Classe producers have all the history is an error, for I visited and stayed at multiple Chateaux that were older than the United States. Growing wine grapes is Bordeaux, put simply. A thought occurred to me during the drive between wineries; that if the land wasn't right for grapes, no one would be growing them. For all the up and coming regions across the world and all the compelling wines from those regions, places like Bordeaux are where the inspiration originated.

Consider this: I heard multiple stories of sons and daughters returning to Bordeaux from careers across France just to pick up the familial tradition of winegrowing. Successful individuals (and their nuclear families) would leave places like Paris to return, living in the country, farming, and coaxing wine grapes from the land. Such is the people's connection to the land and their heritage.

Bordeaux wines, of the ones we tasted, all met a minimum baseline for quality. The quality of every wine was at the very least, acceptable for the price. This was encouraging, and while perhaps a nod to our curated list of places to visit, reassured me that the Bordelais do have their act together when it comes to quality control and proper winemaking technique.

To become a more important part of the American Wine Conversation, there must be a seismic change in how the wines are packaged. Good packaging can help tell a story, and in our image-obsessed culture, becomes as important as the story. As the Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superieur producers learn this, then implement changes, their wines will do better in our market.

Sommeliers who proudly proclaim that they do not carry and Bordeaux wines are doing their guests and themselves a disservice. I tasted multiple wines that would do wonderfully well as glass-pours at high-quality steakhouses across America. Diners today are seeking and expect greater choices than ever when they look at a menu, there is no reason good quality Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superieur wines shouldn't be on wine lists across the country.

White Bordeaux wines offer a welcome respite for those weary of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, Oregon Pinot Gris (blasphemy?!), and California god-knows-what. Producers of white Bordeaux had done the smart thing with prices too, keeping them in line with the aforementioned wines from other regions. Even after some oak-aging, many of the Bordeaux Blanc retained a freshness both aromatically and on the palate. They're worth seeking out!

Before I bore you further, I'll end this first-of-many Bordeaux posts with the idea that Bordeaux wines deserve a spot in our cellars and on our tables. Most of these wines are more than just a beverage, they're a communication medium, but you have to take a moment to listen.

This trip was sponsored by Planet Bordeaux and facilitated by Balzac Communications.

Beau Carufel

Domaine de Cantemerle Bordeaux Superieur, Buy It.

At long last, I come to the end of the Planet Bordeaux series of wines. I've chronicled the wines in the following posts:
2008 Chateau Pey La Tour
2006 Chateau Lestrille
2006 Costes Du Chateau Feret-Lambert
2009 Chateau La Freynelle Bordeaux Rosé


This, the final post, covers perhaps the best of the bunch, a 2005 Domaine de Cantemerle Bordeaux Superieur. 2005 was considered a superb year, much like 2003, 2009, 2010..Get the picture? Usually when I hear that the vintage has been declared "vintage of the century" by the critics, I roll my eyes. After all, isn't there supposedly only one, not five or more in the span of 15 years? I know and am comfortable with the fact that I'll most likely never taste or own any of the First Growths from these years, so these proclamations have no real effect on me. What does matter to my palate is that Bordeaux taste like Bordeaux, not some trumped up, high alcohol, bastardized attempt at making wines that taste like they're grown off of Highway 29. Let Bordeaux wines be expressive of Bordeaux, call me a minimalist!

Anyways, ranting aside, I was happy to "discover" this bottle of Bordeaux in my stash, seemingly forgotten during the inevitable movement of bottles between the wine fridge and my mouth. I then decided to open it up and see if this 2005 lived up to the momentous declarations of Suckling and Parker.

Well, it sure comes close. This is not a 98 point Pomerol, and nor should it be. Rather, it's classified a Bordeaux Superier, which often means exceptional quality at unexceptional prices. If I had to make a guess at the price, I'd say around $20 or so. At the end of this blog I'll find out the real price then we can compare.

Let's take a look at what I have in my glass then. The Cantemerle is dark in my glass, darker than a lot of Bordeaux I've had before.  I'm reminded of a Cabernet from Napa Valley because the color veers towards purple instead of dark garnet. The wine is a blend of the five varietals allowed in Bordeaux. Merlot, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, malbec and petit verdot all in one bottle.

Right away I can smell the Bordeaux here, it comes across as a dusty, herbaceous note with a bit of funk. Glorious! Beautiful notes of tobacco, spice, cocoa, and cassis too. One of those wines that you want to keep smelling because each whiff is a discovery. The aromas are subtle, nothing screams up out of the glass to beat  at your nostrils with a rubber hose. In essence, the Cantemerle has class.

After suitable ooohing and aaahing, I'm ready to take some sips. The aromas match up well with the flavors I'm getting. Great drying tannins, some acidity on the finish and a very nice depth to the mid palate. I think the wine is hitting its stride right now and with a few hours in a decanter, will reward you with wonderful complexity and pleasing mouthfeel. In addition to the earth and herbs, there's a great vein of bittersweet chocolate and dried berry thing going on. This is why I love wine, the way flavors jump out and capture ones imagination!

What a great way to cap off the Planet Bordeaux series of wines, each one was wonderful and exceeded my expectations. They were all well made, very nicely priced, and a good foundation for someone looking to explore the Bordeaux region. After poking around a bit, I found the importer here in the United States, it's Lion Wines, so check them out and if you want this 2005, send them an email. I gave the 2005 Domaine de Cantemerle a B+ and a STRONG BUY recommendation. If you happen to see it online or at your favorite local wine shop, buy a couple of bottles. Oh and as far as the price goes, I found it on wine-searcher for about $19. So my prediction of $20 a bottle was almost dead on. I hope you're able to find this wine, it should be part of your collection.

This wine was sent as a sample for Planet Bordeaux via Balzac Communications.

Beau Carufel

2008 Chateau Pey La Tour, More Goodness from Planet Bordeaux

I've tasted almost all the samples that Planet Bordeaux sent out to me in February, as my scores indicate, they sent out winners. Charlie Sheen would be proud. The latest Bordeaux I sampled was the 2008 Chateau Pey La Tour, an entry-level from the lowest classification of Bordeaux wines. Recall that Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superieur are geographically the same, however to have the "Superieur" added, the wine must meet higher requirements than a basic Bordeaux.

As far as vintages go, the 2008 has not gotten huge press of say the 2005's or 2009's. Considered a tougher, more hands-on growing season, 2008's are starting to show up on your retailer's shelves. As is typical, the lower tier wines are first to market, followed over the course of the next 18 months by the progressively higher-cru Chateaux. Wine Spectator wrote a free report on the 2008 growing season, click here to read through it.

The 2008 Pey La Tour is 77% merlot, 14% cabernet sauvignon, 8% cabernet franc and 1% petite verdot. Out of this cuvee, the cabernet franc shows up in spades on the bouquet and the merlot dominates the palate. Bright berries, pepper and nice dark earth are all nicely integrated and waft out of the glass enticingly. Lots of powdered chocolate, earth and a fun mixed-berry preserve flavor combine nicely. I also got some plum and a touch of oak. The finish goes on impressively considering the wine's price.

Best to open and decant or use a Vinturi on this wine, I think I've recommended that for all the Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superieur I've reviewed so far. After a few hours of open time, the flavors mingle nicely, begging to be shared with a meal. French wines are almost always great for food, the 2008 Pey La Tour is no exception and I had a great meal of bacon-wrapped bratwurst, fingerling potatoes and sauteed spinach with the wine.

Another winner from Planet Bordeaux, and a winetastic value, to quote my friend Bill from Cuvee Corner. Around $13 per bottle and apparently widely distributed throughout the United States, Chateau Pey La Tour's little gem is well worth the price. I gave this a B and a BUY recommendation.

Some upcoming blogs will be featuring two wonderful wines from Soave, and coming up on April 2nd, a dessert wine tasting! That's got me all giddy inside, a lot of great people sent me some awesome samples to try with a variety of desserts. Stay tuned!

This wine was received as a press sample from Planet Bordeaux via Balzac.


Beau Carufel

TasteLive with Planet Bordeaux and the San Diego Wine Mafia

Planet Bordeaux sent me a bunch of wine late last month, which I've been sampling over the past few weeks. All the wines to date have been good to very good with none being over $20 a bottle. The next stage in their campaign was a virtual wine tasting using the TasteLive website, which took place this month. A group of bloggers were sent samples from the Bordeaux Superieur appellation along with instructions on how to participate. The San Diego Wine Mafia enthusiastically took part in the tasting, held as usual at our Secret Lair.

Tastelive allows the participants to tweet under one hash tag and see the tweets of a designated moderator all on one screen. When doing a live, online tasting, this is a convenient to interact with everyone while avoiding the clutter and disarray that a normal Twitter stream can usually bring. I was glad to be able to follow along with our session leader, Mike Wangbickler, and also see what my fellow bloggers were tasting in these exciting wines.

Here's what Joe aka Suburban Wino blogged about after the tasting, it's a good read. My friend Ed Thralls over at Wine Tonite also did a good writeup on the event, click here to check it out. And of course, my buddy Keith aka BrainWines posted up his succinct yet infinitely readable blog here, recapping what we tasted together that night.

So without rambling on further, here are my tasting notes from the Planet Bordeaux Tastelive event of March 18th. All the wines were tasty, some more so than others, to me at least. I had a great time tweeting and tasting with my fellow bloggers and of course, my friends the San Diego Wine Mafia.

2006 Chateau La Gatte La Butte Bordeaux Superieur - 100% merlot. Smells like gravel mixed with crushed cherries..cool spice element as well. Classically tannic Bordeaux but brighter reds than I expected. Still tight after being open for three hours. Red currant and mineral texture on the palate but you gotta work for them. B- $14 SRP

2008 Chateau de Lugagnac Bordeaux Superieur - 50% merlot noir, 50% cabernet sauvignon. Nose like mixed berries and dark, rich earth. good complexity, vibrant flavors are very inviting. Soft, lush and positively hedonistic for a Bordeaux. Nothing out of place here at all. Ripeness and silky tannins with a touch of herb that prevents it from being too fruity. B $16 SRP

2008 Chateau de Terrefort-Quancard - 64% merlot, 36% cabernet sauvignon. Neat nose because I really have to tease out flavors, everything is more nuanced, nothing's screaming at you right out of the glass. Spices and red Mike 'n Ike are hiding a bit of wet cement funk. Great wine on the palate, full of silky tannins and ripe sour cherry flavors. Really enjoying it. B $14 SRP

2007 Chateau de Parenchere Cuvee Raphael Bordeaux Superieur - 60% cabernet sauvignon, 40% merlot. Beautiful color, like red satin sheets gently waving in a breeze. Smells like forest floor and berry preserves sitting in a baseball glove. Very cool! Smooth and richly textured. Earth, red currants, blackberry fruit leathers, and cedar. Wonderful!! A- $15 SRP

2008 Chateau Penin Tradition - 90% merlot, 5% cabernet sauvignon, 5% cabernet franc. Spices and cherry like you'd expect, good depth, smokey even? Not much going on though, it's still super closed off to me. Second taste gives earthy notes like mushrooms mixed around with baking spice. There is some potential here though, after hours in a decanter. Then again, why decant a $14 bottle of wine? Contradictory elements in my mind, at least. B- $14 SRP

Each wine was well chosen and collectively they showed a nice range of styles from Bordeaux. These are all wines that are food friendly, fun ways to explore perhaps the most famous wine region on earth. Luckily (for me) all these wines are available in California but I would suggest using Wine-Searcher to seek out the stores that might be selling them in your respective areas. That or order online, you can always put together a mixed case. I like that Planet Bordeaux clearly has their act together from a consumer standpoint, showcasing some delicious wines that are not at all expensive.

Also, I must apologize for taking so much time to put this review together, I'd originally intended to have it up by the 23rd. Other bloggers were much more "on it" than I, but in the future I promise to do a better job.

All these wines were press samples presented by Balzac acting for Planet Bordeaux.

Beau Carufel

2006 Chateau Lestrille Bordeaux Superieur - Superieur Indeed!

Another absolute gem from the people at Planet Bordeaux. This red blend is from Bordeaux Superieur, an appellation in the Bordeaux region of France. I know it may sound confusing but think of it this way, the geographic area of Bordeaux is the same as Bordeaux Superieur. The differences start with the age of the vines, and also includes the length of aging a wine receives and it's minimum alcohol content. Therefore it is safe to assume that if you see a label that says Bordeaux Superieur AOC, you're getting a more refined, ambitious wine. For a more detailed explanation, click here to visit the Bordeaux AOC website. Another good discussion of differences is found at the Planet-Bordeaux website.

(img copyright Beau Carufel 2011)

Great color, like a dark ruby with that quintessentially aged-wine look. Bordeaux can start dark, as evidenced in the Chateau Feret-Lambert that I tasted last week. The 2006 Chateau Lestrille on the other hand, has lost the almost purple color and moved towards something...searching for the word..classier! Merlot followed by cabernet sauvignon make up this blend, or at least that is what I was able to find out. There could of course be three other varietals mixed in.

I got whiffs of tobacco and leather, cassis and sweet black cherry. Ripe but restrained, lovely finish. Silky smooth tannins tell me this is drinking at its peak. Everything is so nicely integrated especially considering the price. Sure, this won't compare to a 2005 Chateau Leoville-Las Cases but let's be realistic. We're tasting inexpensive wines from Bordeaux that end up delivering in spades, more so than the typical $11 wine from California.

After spending about an hour open and being passed through my Vinturi, the Ch. Lestrille was loaded with darker flavors. Ever chewed on your baseball glove as a kid? Check! How about gnawing for a brief moment on a cinnamon stick because you thought it tasted as awesome as it smelled? There in spades! Have you been fortunate to taste freshly made plum jelly? There's that here too! Were you one of those kids who ate some bittersweet chocolate and hadn't developed a taste for it yet? I found a strong vein of that nearly-raw cocoa running right through this wine. Wonderfully complex with some silky but firm tannins creating the wine's backbone.

No flavor overwhelmed another, the balance was impressive considering you can find this wine for about $11 on the internet. 2006 was by most accounts a good year and with a bit of bottle age, I think the Chateau Lestrille shows how wines from Bordeaux start to mature. In its youth I can imagine a tannic monster loaded with clove, cinnamon and leather..And not much else. Now, flavors calm down, integrate, and balance out. Utterly delightful Bordeaux, one I give a B+ and a hearty BUY recommendation to. I'd suggest pairing with roast beef, glazed pork and/or ham, and cured meats like salami or sopressata. If you think of any fun, interesting pairings, be sure to post them in the comments section!

This wine was recieved as a sample from Planet Bordeaux via Balzac Communications

Beau Carufel

Bordeaux Superieur, Hosted Tonight By Costes du Chateau Feret-Lambert

Planet Bordeaux strikes again! In my ongoing exploration of some not-so-incredibly-expensive wines made in the appellations of Bordeaux and Bordeaux-Superieur, tonight's choice is a 2006 Costes Du Chateau Feret-Lambert. This is a reasonably priced merlot/cabernet sauvignon blend from Chateau Costes.

For this and for most "Old World" wines, I deviate from my usual routine of opening a bottle about an hour before tasting, opting instead to open the wine about two hours prior to tasting. In my opinion, that extra hour can help immensely in letting the wine unfold, allowing me to perhaps sense some more subtle nuances that might be present.

So with this ritual complete, I was left sitting at my kitchen table with a glass of wine in hand and my laptop staring me in the face. Why not take a few sniffs, I reasoned. Oh wait the color! I wanted to mention that the color is very dark for a Bordeaux, it reminded me of young California merlot or even some of those classy Mendocino County zinfandels. Not the overbearing fruit bomb types, but the ones which express a sense of place, you know, terroir! Gotta love the fancy wine lingo..

Aromas can be tricky, as anyone who has smelled anything then tried to write about it will tell you. Right. My first few whiffs showed raspberries, red earth, hints of cedar, baking spices and a tickle of white pepper. The way the bouquet seemed to rush up out of the glass was impressive, and a testament to the complexity of the wine, relatively speaking. During the sniffy-sniff session (alliteration!) my mind was telling me the 2006 Feret-Lambert was probably about $20 a bottle, maybe a touch more. It wasn't until later that I found the "real" price by checking up on wine-searcher.com and the always-handy tech sheets that Balzac sent along with the samples.

Finally I get to taste the wine, as if the seemingly infinite swirls and sniffs were to suffice! Not so, a wine must be tasted to be fully explored. Grippy tannin, sour cherry, bittersweet chocolate and a kick of pepper right as the last traces of flavor leave your palate. While the flavors join together in a somewhat rustic manner, I did enjoy the complexity. That or perhaps I've been drinking some utter plonk from Bordeaux lately. No, this is more complex than the price would indicate, bringing a smile to my face.

The vintage is 2006, which seems to be heralded as a good year but is overshadowed by the critically-loved 2005 vintage. Five years is still a young wine for a Bordeaux, I'd love to taste this wine after five more years have passed, to see if it has improved at all. Right now though, this is a very food-friendly example of merlot-based Bordeaux. That finish, oh so French! It seems to gently fade away, like the last strains of music after the old vacuum tube radio is turned off.

My critics hat back on, I can easily recommend the 2006 Costes du Chateau Feret-Lambert with a BUY recommendation and a B-. Given that the wine can be found for about $15 at Bevmo.com, I think that's a steal. The folks at Planet Bordeaux have done well to feature this wine as an expression of something fun and accessible from the region. If you're a big fan of French wines, I recommend picking up a bottle or two to share at a dinner party, help your fellow wine loving friends learn a bit about Bordeaux Superieur.

This wine was provided as a media sample by Balzac Communications for Planet Bordeaux.

Beau Carufel