What I Tasted on My Spring Break - SPEC's Liquors

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Bouard’s wine is particularly elegant. Quality here is very high due to meticulous attention to detail and great professionalism and pride.
He translates that care and style to Lalande de Pomerol with three wines from the La Fleur St. Georges. The original wine from the chateau is called Ch. La Fleur St. Georges.
When walking the vineyard after he purchased LA Fleur St. Georges, Bouard noticed a natural break where the soil changed. He harvested and fermented the two sides of
the break separately and realized he had two distinct terroirs yielding two distinct wines that were each better unblended with the other. He sells the more classic wine as
Ch. Lafleur St. Georges and the richer wine as Ch. La Fleur de Bouard. He has further made a luxury cuvee selection of the La Fleur de Bouard section that he calls Le Plus
de Ch. La Fleur de Bouard. Each is unique and different and the latter two get a great deal of attention as the new wave of Lalande de Pomerol and even favorable mention
versus more expensive wines from Pomerol. I think the basic La Fleur St. Georges is a great value and offers the sort of balanced,
non-showy wine I want for regular drinking with meals.
The always dapper Count Niepperg owns Canon La Gaffeliere, Clos de l’Oratoire, and La Mondotte in St. Emilion and Ch. d’Aiguilhe in Cotes de Castillon and Clos
Marsalette in Pessac Leognan. In addition to his ownership and the care and attention to detail and striving for excellence that comes with that, all five properties share the
facts that they are all over 60% Merlot and that they are made by Stefan Derenoncourt. There may be no one in St. Emilion with a more deft hand with Merlot than
Derenoncourt. The wines are made with Burgundian punch down (pigeage) technique in Burgundian (wide, shallow, open-topped) tanks. They are barrel aged but generally
not racked; instead they are gently oxygenated using microbiolage. The result is rich but balanced wines that retain their primary fruit flavors and demonstrate an almost
Burgundian level of terroir character in the finished wine.
Madame Claude La Barre, a former partner in Ch. Cheval Blanc, owns Ch. Laplagnotte Bellevue in St. Emilion. She brings that high level pursuit of excellence and the
expectation of quality with her. For several years now, Ch. Laplagnotte Bellevue is my favorite sub-$30 wine from St. Emilion. The familiar themes of elegance and balance
are there in a wine that shows fine red fruit flavors accented by hints of terroir, tobacco, and, in ripe vintages, cedar. This is always a pleasure to drink. Older vintages have
proven to age well with good development to repay the time invested keeping the wine in the cellar.
Jean Gazaniol, the owner of Ch. Parenchere, may be the straightest shooter I’ve met in the wine business. He tells it the way he sees it and doesn’t worry about the politics.
Although located in a relative backwater of Bordeaux in an obscure, right bank area well below St. Emilion, Ch. Parenchere is blessed with fine terroir which allows
Cabernet Sauvignon to ripen in an area where it normally doesn’t. And Gazaniol lavishes the same care and technique found at classified growths on the left bank on the
production of his estate. Three wines are made: a delightful rose labeled Ch. Parenchere Clairet, the flagship red wine of the estate labeled Ch. Parenchere, and an old vine
cuvee labeled Ch. Parenchere Cuvee Raphael Gazanoil. These excellent everyday-priced Bordeaux values are not offered as futures.
Ch. Puygueraud in the Cotes de Francs (which abuts the Cotes de Castillon which abuts St. Emilion) is the home of the Thienpont family who also own Ch. le Pin and
Vieux Ch. Certan. Puygueraud is an every-day priced red based on Merlot with some Cabernet Franc and Malbec typically in the blend. This charming wine is fruit driven
with a rich texture. It is a consistent favorite in the range of lower priced Bordeaux. The chateau also makes a special cuvee called Georges Cuvee de Ch. Puygueraud which
is built around old vine Malbec. It is a dusty, rich, spicy cuvee with plenty of fruit and a bit more terroir character.
drinking the wines from all these properties
both great and small. Even if I could afford to
drink nothing but the great growths of the
Medoc, I wouldn’t. There is so much good wine
out there in every price range with a huge range
of flavors and styles, it would be a shame to limit
myself to any few. I’d almost feel as if I had been
cut-off from old friends because I’ve gotten to
know all these chateaux and their wines very
well over the years. —Bear Dalton