Great Wine Made Simple - Andrea Immer [60]
Here they are, matched with the main grape in each:
Look at the district or town name printed on the label beneath the château name. Is it on in the left-bank list? If so, Cabernet dominates most likely, so the wine will be fuller-bodied and have more tannin. If it is a right-bank village where Merlot holds sway, the wine will be medium- to full-bodied, with softer tannins. It follows that Graves, commonly a balanced blend of the two, falls between them in terms of body and tannin.
The Châteaus of Bordeaux
Although I rarely hear wine professionals present Bordeaux so simply, the fact is that we all use exactly this logic to swiftly assess the style of selections we do not know, as well as to categorize the famous wines. By “famous wine,” I mean the ones whose quality reputation contributed to Bordeaux’s world-class status. They are called “château” wines, and you might have heard of some of the legendary ones, such as Château Latour, Château Mouton-Rothschild, Château Lafite-Rothschild, Château Haut-Brion, and Château Margaux. Thomas Jefferson was a fan of the latter two.
Why “château”? It is, in Bordeaux, the traditional name of a wine estate—a vineyard (or several) with winemaking facilities attached. The “château” thereon may be modest or grand (check the label—the grand ones are often pictured). Because each is a single wine estate, and châteaus may not boost their production by buying grapes from other vineyards, supply is limited. As such, château wines rarely come at everyday prices, and the most famous names are some of the highest-priced bottles in the entire wine world.
That is it for understanding famous Bordeaux wines. It may seem simplistic, but this is exactly how the pros deal with Bordeaux, because the alternative is tasting and memorizing the individual château names and styles—all seven thousand of them. This approach makes far better sense, and it’s quite accurate. If you like Bordeaux, you will certainly memorize your favorite château names as time goes on, just as you would memorize the winery names of Merlots and Cabernets that you like from other regions.
Some château wine labels include the term cru classé or grand cru classé, which translates in English as “classifed growth” or classified estate. This means the estate has been given a quality ranking, which many buyers find useful. For reference, I include lists of these famous rankings in Appendix A. The left bank list, called the “1855 Classification” because it was drawn up by wine merchants in that year, is very well known. It ranks the sixty-one most famous left-bank (Médoc) châteaus in classes, from first to fifth—referred to as “first growth,” “second growth,” and so on (Château Haut-Brion, from Graves, was included because of its quality reputation). The Graves list is an official classification of just the top estates from that area, written in 1953. Finally, the right-bank list only includes St. Émilion châteaus, which were classified in 1955, and are periodically reviewed, most recently in 1996. Since Pomerol châteaus have never been classified, I include a list of trade favorites.
THE MINOR LEAGUE You’ve just picked up a “château wine” for less than twenty-dollars—where does it fit in?
You have discovered Bordeaux’s “farm league.” Not all of Bordeaux’s many châteaus make the major leagues (the very top rankings), often because they are located outside of the very best growing areas. Still, for devotees of the Bordeaux style, they make very worthy and affordable choices. In the trade, they are often called petit châteaus, and some are included in an officially ranked group called cru Bourgeois (croo Buh-JHWAH). Here are some of my favorites:
Château Larose-Trintaudon (Lah-ROSE Trent-oh-DOAN)
Château Greysac (GRAY-sack)
Château La