The Wine's the Thing
Mitch Kornfeld
3/7

King Cab, Part II -- Bordeaux

No discussion of Cabernet Sauvignon would be complete without talking about Bordeaux. Bordeaux is a large subject. There have even been entire books devoted to it (I even read one once), so I am not going to try to be comprehensive. I'll try to keep the focus on Cabernet Sauvignon, and to places within Bordeaux where it is grown, but of necessity, tangents will sneak in. I have to mention prices, for one example, but I'll try not to wander too far afield.

Bordeaux is located in the southwestern part of France, not far from the Bay of Biscay (read Atlantic Ocean), and not too far from Spain. For our purposes -- discussing high quality red wines -- we can divide Bordeaux into two parts, east and west, sometimes referred to as "West Bank" and "East Bank." (A river runs through it.) Cabernet Sauvignon predominates on the West Bank, while Merlot holds the most prominent place on the East Bank. Another name for the West Bank is "the Médoc." The terms are virtually interchangeable. 

The Médoc has several sub-regions (in French the word is commune, the closest word in American English is probably township), where the best wines based on Cabernet Sauvignon are made. Traveling from North to South the most important are: St. Estèphe, Pauillac, St. Julien, Margaux, Pessac-Léognan, and Graves. (Graves, pronounced "Grahv," is just the French word for gravel. This of course refers to the soil and has nothing to do with the dearly departed.) The first four sub-regions were (and are) home to the lion's share of the properties that were included in the famous Bordeaux Classification of 1855. While not written in stone, the 1855 classification is still with us and is still referred to all the time. When you hear the term "Classified growth" or "Classified Bordeaux," this is what they are talking about. There were only sixty-one properties, Chateaux as they are known in Bordeaux, in the 1855 classification. All the other Chateaux in the Medoc didn't make the cut. 

The wines and their respective Chateaux were ranked in order of quality, and placed into categories, numbered one to five, referred to as Growths. The best wines are the First Growths, then the Second Growths, etc. When they made this classification it was a wine judging event but they also took into account the prices the Chateaux historically received for their wines. It was presumed that the property that commanded the highest prices for its wines had the best wine. Price was important in Bordeaux in 1855 and it's important in Bordeaux now.

Since 1855 there has been only one change made in the classification. It occurred in 1973 when Chateau Mouton-Rothschild was elevated from Second Growth (albeit first of the Seconds) to First Growth status. Although the official classification basically never changes, various writers and critics have from time to time offered their opinions as to what the classification should be if it was done now. They move some Chateaux up a level, some down a level, and rarely up or down two levels. Most of the Chateaux stay right where they've always been.

Besides relying on the classification, or on one of its proposed revisions, there is the tried and true traditional method of ascertaining the quality of Bordeaux (other than tasting them all, which would be prohibitively expensive) and that is price. With classified Bordeaux you get what you pay for. Sure, there are going to be exceptions, you are going to find proprietors who will charge what their neighbors do, even if the quality of their wines doesn't warrant it, but they can only get away with that for just so long. In the rarefied and pricey precincts they inhabit the critics will very quickly point out whose wines are not up to the highest standards, though the same critics are slow to come right out and say that a wine is overpriced.

Since I was speaking of price, just in case you haven't been watching, and I admit that sometimes my eyes glaze over because I know I won't be buying any anytime soon, the First Growths (Chateaux Latour, Margaux, Haut Brion, Lafite-Rothschild, and Mouton-Rothschild), are initially released at $150 to $200 per bottle, and go nowhere but up from there. The Second Growths are generally in the $50 to $100 range, led by the so-called "Super Seconds," Chateaux Léoville-Las-Cases, Pichon Longueville, Pichon-Lalande, Ducru-Beaucaillou, Cos d'Estournel, and Montrose, that come out at around $100 per bottle. The Third through Fifth Growths tend to be a bit less, in the $25 to $50 range, though some perennial overachievers such as Chateau Palmer, a Third Growth, and Chateau Lynch-Bages, a Fifth Growth, sell at Second Growth prices.

What you get for these lofty prices are real Cabernet Sauvignon based Bordeaux. They are long-lived, have great complexity, deep flavors, and a rare combination of power and finesse that makes them much sought after. For an example, one of the best wines I ever had was a 1970 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild. It had an extra level of complexity that you just don't find even in most top of the line wines. I had held onto it for eighteen years and the fact that I was drinking an, at least, $200 bottle, that I purchased for $14.95, probably made it taste even better. Never underestimate those psychological factors. It happened to be a special occasion too. (I graduated from college at the top of my class.) That was in June of 1994 and the '70 Mouton was in tip-top condition at twenty-three and a half years old, and could have aged even further.

You probably noticed that I used the term "Cabernet Sauvignon based." That's because a lot of blending goes on in Bordeaux. The wines from the northernmost parts of the Medoc tend to have a high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon, up to ninety percent for the heavy hitters, and are immediately recognizable as Cabernet Sauvignons. As you move south (not to mention east) the percentages of Cabernet Franc, and particularly of Merlot, increases. 

Cabernet Sauvignon is a tannic variety and the wines can be hard and unyielding in their youth. Merlot is blended in to soften them. Cabernet Franc also softens them and it adds more "aromatics," as they say. A "typical" Chateau in Pauillac might make a wine that in a typical vintage is a blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and 10% Cabernet Franc. The three varieties are always listed in this order with Cabernet Sauvignon first, followed by Merlot and Cabernet Franc. You'll see reviews that say things like, "A 65-25-10 blend that has hints of cherry, chocolate, coffee, and a woodsy taste of the earth, framed by a youthful cloak of tannin." When tasting you'll still be able to notice the fundamental character of these wines as Cabernet Sauvignon. 

There are two other red Bordeaux varieties, Malbec and Petit Verdot. These are used in small percentages such as one or two, and are sometimes dispensed with entirely. The Bordelais believe that blending makes a wine more complex, and what they are doing is trying to make the best wines possible. They are certainly successful at it, and they have certainly been copied. Worldwide there are less 100% Cabernet Sauvignons than there used to be.

I don't buy many classified Bordeaux because of their high prices, but there is another West Bank classification where I do find wines to purchase. The wines are called Cru Bourgeois. (Cru means Growth and Bourgeois in this sense means middle class.) The classification of the Cru Bourgeois was first done in 1932 and is only revised sporadically. The last time I know for certain that it was done was in 1977. The Cru Bourgeois classified wines come right below the 1855 Classification wines and are further broken down into three groups, Grand Crus Bourgeois Exceptionnel, Grand Crus Bourgeois, and "plain" Bourgeois. From the "GCBE's" try these Chateaux: Chasse-Spleen, Forcas Dupré, Forcas Hosten, Du Glana, Gloria, Marbuzet and Haut-Marbuzet, Meyney, Phélan-Segur, and Poujeaux. From the Grand Crus Bourgeois look for these Chateaux: Greysac, Les Ormes de Pez, Patache d'Aux, Potensac, La Rose Trintaudon, Sociando Mallet, and La Tour de By. These wines begin in the teens and go up to about thirty dollars a bottle though some of the overachievers such as Chateau Sociando Mallet can go much higher. Look for any remaining 1995's, a very good year, and 1996, which was a very good year in the Medoc. 1997 looks to be only average, and the just hitting the market 1998's are also only good-average in the Medoc (but they are going to be great in the East Bank).

There is an interesting trend in Bordeaux these days. There are new Chateaux, usually cobbled together from bits of old ones, that exist outside of the classifications. The best of them have small high quality outputs and they are known as garagistes, from "garage wine," meaning the quantities made are so small they could have been, or in some cases were, made in a garage. Incredibly their prices begin where the First Growths leave off. Chateau Le Pin (an East Bank wine) is the best known example and their 1998 is being released at $600 per bottle. Personally at those prices I'd be getting cases of Ravenswood, Rosenblum, and Ridge. What the garagistes do is to cut way back on yields so the vine has less work to do and the grapes that are produced are harvested at very high levels of ripeness, then they use 100% new French oak for aging. The resulting wines are blockbusters with great fruit and great concentration, and just happen to be the kind of wines that the big time wine critic Robert Parker likes. Nothing says success in a wine advertisement like "Robert Parker-99 Points." They could be accused of making something that they know Parker will like, but they must be doing something else right because they are charging and getting $200 to $600 per bottle. Someone buys them, and quickly too. When I read the descriptions of the wines with all of their up-front fruit I am reminded of California Cabernet Sauvignons. The California wineries have been accused of raising their prices right behind Bordeaux prices, but at least the highest priced California Cabernet Sauvignons are "only" half the price of the Bordeaux garage wines ($100 to $300). Next week I'll look at California Cabernet Sauvignons and particularly some of the more reasonably priced offerings.

© Mitch Kornfeld 2001 All rights reserved

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mitchk@unionsquarejournal.com

Previously by Mitch Kornfeld...

King Cab, Part I -- Some Basics (02/27/01)

For a Big Red, Think Petite (02/18/02)

Tannic Monsters from the ID (02/08/01)

New York Wine and Restaurant Deals (01/30/01)

Dad's Cardinal Zins and Other Clichés (01/20/01)

Some Basics for a Winter's Eve (01/12/01)

And if They're Spanish That's Fine (01/05/01)

Hello Carbon Dioxide (12/29/00)

Wines for Christmas (12/22/00)

Nouveau Beaujolais, Etc. (11/24/00)

Going to a Tasting 101 (12/01/00)