Lower-End Bordeaux Rises to the Occasion

FOR many would-be Bordeaux drinkers, the highly praised 2009 vintage was the watershed: the point at which they could take no more. Prices rose so high on the critical enthusiasm and international demand that, no matter how good the vintage was, many Americans turned their backs on the year and on Bordeaux.

Of course, they were simply joining multitudes who had already bid adieu to Bordeaux. Many younger wine lovers paid it no mind in the first place.

These disdainful attitudes are acutely painful to earlier generations of American wine drinkers who, like me, were essentially weaned on Bordeaux as they came of age in the 1980s and before. Bordeaux’s central importance historically and its role as a beacon, raising the level of quality in wines around the world, cannot be so easily dismissed.

But that is precisely what’s happened. Bordeaux, in the eyes of many wine lovers, is now a region of brand names, wielded by status-seeking point chasers like so many luxury cars or watches. Where so many wine lovers detect a purity of purpose in Burgundy, the Rhône Valley, the Loire and numerous other regions, in Bordeaux they see only a quest for filthy lucre.

Clearly, a measure of truth supports that attitude. Demand from Asia and other regions relatively new to wine has more than offset whatever drop Bordeaux has seen in the American market. While the Bordeaux trade may pay lip service to attracting a new generation of American customers or bemoan the high price of its wines, it seems content to make its profits. In its public image, Bordeaux far more often connotes the absentee owner and commerce rather than viticulture and love of wine.

Yet much of the emotional reaction against Bordeaux ignores these critical components: the wines, the people who make the wines, the land and the centuries of history that waft up so invitingly and instructively from each glass.

Bordeaux is one of the world’s greatest wines. In terms of complexity, longevity, soulful sense of place and sheer refreshment, Bordeaux remains not merely a great example but a benchmark. It even, like Burgundy, has its independent vignerons.

Surprisingly, it even has its less expensive side. That’s right, and from the pricey 2009 vintage, as well. This is not to say that top-ranked Bordeaux will be accessible for less-than-outrageous prices. Even a wine like Léoville-Barton, an excellent St.-Julien whose proprietor, Anthony Barton, has long tried to hold the line on prices, won’t be found (the 2009s, at least) for less than $120 or so.

Nonetheless, good, moderately priced Bordeaux is out there, wines that convey if not the grandeur of the region’s best wines at least a sense of what’s so good about them. In fact, 2009 is a great vintage to explore Bordeaux’s less expensive side. It was a year of rich, supple wines that are accessible when young, yet the wines have the freshness and vitality that makes good Bordeaux such a superb partner with food.

To get a sense of what’s available in the realm of moderately priced Bordeaux, the wine panel recently tasted 20 bottles of the 2009 vintage, all $50 or less. The wines came from the well-drained, gravelly soils of the Médoc and Graves, classic left bank Bordeaux from the areas west of the Gironde and Garonne rivers, where cabernet sauvignon is king. For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Hristo Zisovski, beverage director at Ai Fiori, Osteria Morini and Nicoletta, and Greg Majors, beverage director at Craft.

By $50 or less, I actually mean $20 to $50. No, this is not cheap, though it’s fair to say you will rarely if ever see good wines under $20 from most top regions, whether Burgundy, Barolo, Napa Valley or Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Yes, you can find Bordeaux for as low as $10, but in that range you run the risk of buying mass-produced commodity wines, or wines made from indifferent terroirs. While those wines are no doubt palatable, it’s far easier in the $20 to $50 range to find wines representative of Bordeaux’s best qualities.

As with wines from any region, we found a variety of styles. Some were lush, dense and concentrated. Others showed more finesse and refinement. We especially liked wines that showed good acidity, which helps keep wines fresh and refreshing. We were looking for good structure in the wines, too, the skeleton of tannins and acidity that transports the flesh of flavors through the mouth and helps wine age.

It’s important to understand that tannic and structured are not synonyms. Wines that are simply tannic can flop in the mouth like a formless, astringent blob. Structured wines develop in the mouth, existing in the dimension of time as well as taste and texture. The flavors evolve and linger, well after you’ve swallowed.

Decades ago, the influential Bordeaux enologist Émile Peynaud urged producers to create secondary, cheaper labels for grapes of lesser quality, reserving their best grapes for their top wines. At the time, many producers were aghast at making less wine by diverting grapes to a second label, but now all of Bordeaux seems to have embraced the idea of second labels, and sometimes even third labels. Seven of our 20 wines were second labels.

I have mixed feelings about second labels. They can obviously be good, but emotionally I’d like to feel I’m getting the best a producer has to offer. Also, they’re not always great values as they trade off on their illustrious siblings. In fact, four of those seven didn’t make our top 10, but among those that did were two of our first four, including our No. 1 wine, La Croix de Beaucaillou St.-Julien, sibling of the excellent St.-Julien Ducru-Beaucaillou. This wine was lively and bright with inviting mineral and fruit flavors.

Our No. 4 bottle was Le Petit Haut Lafitte from Pessac-Léognan, one of Smith Haut Lafitte’s secondary labels, concentrated yet accessible and refreshing. The third on our list was our No. 8 bottle, Château Gruaud Larose’s Sarget de Gruaud Larose St.-Julien, firm yet silky with spicy flavors of red fruit.

Our best value, at $25, was Château Lusseau, a producer I’ve never had before. It comes from the less exalted end of Graves, but this structured, precise wine shows Lusseau (not to be confused with Lusseau of St.-Émilion) is a producer worth watching.

Even in an accessible year like 2009, good Bordeaux requires time before it shows its best. These lower-end 2009s may only need two or three years, or maybe five or seven for the more structured wines. You might bemoan the fact that they demand patience. Or you could be thankful that even moderately priced Bordeaux improve with age.

Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, $44, ***
La Croix de Beaucaillou St.-Julien 2009
Fresh, bright and lip-smacking with lingering flavors of plummy fruit and minerals. (Massanois Imports, Washington)

BEST VALUE
Château Lusseau, $25, ***
Graves 2009
Structured yet inviting with lively, pure flavors of red fruit and tobacco. (Franck’s Signature Wines/Saturn Wine Imports, Scarsdale, N.Y.)

Château Larrivet Haut-Brion, $45, ***
Pessac-Léognan 2009
Earthy, smoky and compelling, with aromas and flavors of herbs and red fruit. (Fruit of the Vines, Long Island City, N.Y.)

Château Smith Haut Lafitte, $50, ***
Le Petit Haut Lafitte Pessac-Léognan 2009
Concentrated fruit tinged with herbal flavors, dense yet accessible and refreshing. (Vintage Trading, N.Y.)

Château Poujeaux, $45, ** ½
Moulis 2009
Well-structured and fresh with complex aromas and a pleasing tannic grip. (Vintage Trading)

Château de Ste. Gemme, $20, ** ½
Haut-Médoc 2009
Light-bodied and balanced with aromas and flavors of red fruit, minerals and tobacco. (Upslope Vineyards, N.Y.)

Château Tronquoy-Lalande, $45, ** ½
St.-Estèphe 2009
Structured yet harmonious with pure, pleasing flavors of red fruits. (Frederick Wildman & Sons, N.Y.)

Château Gruaud Larose, $35, **
Sarget de Gruaud Larose St.-Julien 2009
Clear aromas of spicy red fruit, pleasantly firm and silky. (Frederick Wildman & Sons)

Château Meyney, $40, **
St.-Estèphe 2009
Rich and muscular with concentrated flavors of ripe fruit and oak. (Premier Wine Company, Richmond, Calif.)

Château Cantemerle, $50, **
Haut-Médoc 2009
Dense and well-knit with ripe red fruit and oak flavors. (Cynthia Hurley French Wines, West Newton, Mass.)