Bordeaux For Now…And Later

When is a $750 bottle of wine a bargain? In the case of 2005 Bordeaux, that would be when you can get almost three bottles of the 2005 Château Mouton Rothschild (suggested retail price $750) for the price of one bottle of the 2005 Château Latour, which costs just about $2,000 for a single, 750 milliliter bottle.

If you have been reading the wine media in the past year or so, you know that 2005 is the latest Vintage Of The Century. And when you have the opportunity to get your hands on one of the greatest wines made in your lifetime, you get insanity—prices truly out of touch with reality.

Now, I’ve got no beef with Bordeaux’s big boys—the famed first growths Lafite, Haut-Brion, Margaux, Latour and Mouton. In fact, two of my seminal wine drinking experiences involved a 1982 Lafite and a 1990 Latour. But I’m not going to (and to be honest I can’t) spend two grand for a bottle of wine.

Does that mean us Bordeaux lovers are left in the cold, dank dungeons of the wine world, left to drink only Mongolian Sand Wine? Heck, no! They make a ton of wine in Bordeaux. More than 150 million gallons of wine earned the Bordeaux label in 2007, but only a small fraction of that lake came from the high-priced, first-growth houses.

Ironically, the wines you hear about the most are the least affordable, least accessible Lafite Rothschilds of the world. It’s crazy, but it makes sense to me. There are a dozen or more magazines dedicated to the sexy, fast, luxuriously expensive Corvette, but not as many publications on the K Car. Who wants to hear about the ordinary, right?

But the ordinary is what we drink and should know more about. So I put together 23 bottles of 2005 Bordeaux with the only criteria that they were under $30 retail. This is less than what a half-ounce sip of the ’05 Latour would cost. Try to get your mind around that.

What I found backed up the advice I’ve always given when talking about prestigious wine regions, such as Bordeaux and Burgundy. Buy the celebrated labels only in off vintages. Even in the worst of years, the top dogs usually can be counted on produce great wine, but at greatly reduced—perhaps even affordable—prices. In those once-in-a-century vintages (even though they come about every five to 10 years), go for the lesser-known houses when everyone is making great wine.

Take for instance Les Fiefs de Lagrange. It is always at the head of the pack when it comes to Bordeaux quality and value. This recent tasting provided no surprises as the Les Fiefs de Lagrange served up a bevy of berry fruit, dry herbs, spices and dark chocolate flavors. Château de Chantegrive is also another reliable go-to Bordeaux in any year and reaches higher heights in the best vintages.

This time around, the ’05 value Bordeaux that piqued my attention was Château Aney. If they charged five times its $24 price tag, no one would notice and would hardly complain as it displays classic Bordeaux qualities, but has a flair and complexity about it that would have you mistake it for something with a more distinguished pedigree.

But there are a couple compelling reasons beyond just price to consider buying more anonymous Bordeaux.

* GUILT-FREE VINOCIDE. When you buy a marquee wine from a classic vintage, most people want to enjoy at its peak, which can be 20 years after purchase or longer. One of my most remarkable memories of that 1990 Latour when I had it in 2007 was that it tasted youthfully vibrant and perhaps a bit immature at 17 years old. I’m all for delayed gratification, but wine collecting is a patient man’s game…a very patient man’s game.

Less-known wines can benefit from aging, too, especially in exceptional vintages. Generally, however, they peak a whole lot sooner than the ones from the upper echelon. And let’s be honest, if you are going to kill any wine before its prime, it’s less painful to do when it costs the price of a couple album downloads, rather than the price of a couple mortgage payments.

* WINE COLLECTING 101. When we had a nation full of nouveau riche, many of the newly moneyed had the impression that when they put in a $100,000 wine cellar in their McMansion , they simply filled it up with the all the celebrity wines their year-end bonuses could afford. That’s one way to do it.

The other, more preferred way, is to fill it slowly and carefully. Sure, pluck a couple expensive stars out of the wine universe and lay them down until they are ready. But in the mean time, be on the lookout for other wines that make you say, “Wow!” Buy a case or two of those wines and open one or two every year. This is the beauty of collecting wine. By repeatedly trying the same wine over time, you get to see and appreciate how wines develop (or don’t develop) as they age.

For example, if you buy a case of the 2005 Château Aney and pop the cork on two in 2009, you’ll be rewarded with velvety, balanced wines that will also establish a benchmark. Repeat in 2010, 2011 and so on. In 2115, your last two bottles will be a horse of a different color that still harkens back to the wine you enjoyed in 2009. To do the same with the likes of Château Latour is possible only for the most experienced, connected, wealthy collectors.

While you are collecting wine, you are not only building a cellar that reflects you and your tastes, you gain the opportunity to more thoroughly explore your predilections.

You see, wine collecting is about the search for the amazing and for self-examination. It is not the procurement of high-profile labels to impress the neighbors. Of course, it’s nice to bag a couple trophy wines—if you can afford them—to see what all the noise is about. Newbie collectors, who are honest with themselves, find out quickly that there’s often a little bit of of hype and quite a lot of hysteria mixed in with those limited edition, reserve, single-vineyard, $1,000 cult wines, regardless of where it comes from or the vintage.

It’s best to learn how to drive with the K Car before dad tosses you the keys to the ’69 Vette.

2005 Les Fiefs de Lagrange,
Saint-Julien, Bordeaux, France

• $29

• Two Thumbs Up

• Aromas of tea leaves, leather, dark chocolate and dark cherry. Nicely balanced and smooth with yummy flavors of black cherry, nutmeg, cinnamon and ripe raspberry.

2005 Château de Chantegrive, Graves, Bordeaux

• $25

• Two Thumbs Up

• Pleasant aromas of leather, chocolate, dry cherry and mocha. Bright and perky flavors of ripe raspberry and blackberry with sprinkling of mint. Pretty complex and should develop nicely over next three to five years.

2005 Château Aney, Haut-Médoc, Bordeaux, France

•$24

•Two Thumbs Way Up

•A wine with personality. It is rich and complex, but delivers its aromas of and flavors of black cherry, plums, raspberries, chocolate and smoky leather subtly and quietly. Delicious now, but should improve over the next 3 to 5 years.

2005 Château Clos Chaumont,
Premières Côtes de Bordeaux, France

• $22

•Two Thumbs Up

•Subtle but interesting aromas of smoke, chicory and mint with pleasant flavors of mocha, cola and cranberry. Seems made for a wide variety of foods.