Tongham Taster's Wine Tasting Course Week 2 – Bordeaux Right Bank

The pretty town of St Emillion



The 12 month on-line course to help you learn about French wines - Top tips on how to get value when buying them - Reasonably priced up-to-date recommendations of what to buy and try in the UK - Bringing you the best of Tongham Village Hall wine tastings.

Introduction

This week we cover the Right Bank reds of the Bordeaux region.
  

Locality

 Bordeaux is near the Gironde estuary where two rivers, the Dordogne and the Garonne, join. The left bank of the Gironde and Garonne is the most famous part of the Bordeaux region that we will be covering next week. The right bank of the Dordogne and Gironde also contains some famous names such as St Emillion and Pomerol. In between the Dordogne and Garonne rivers is the area known as “Entre-Deux-Mers” or literally between two seas; this area is well known for cheap whites but nowdays also produces some good reds that we will be covering this week as they fit in well with the right bank wines. Very often the right bank wines are known as “Libournais” after the nearby town of Libourne.


Varietals

Like last week’s generic appellations, the right bank red wines are Merlot dominated but many also contain a significant amount of Cabernet Franc and a little Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Wines

Although, I tend to regard most of the Bordeaux generic wines as somewhat safe and unexciting, there are some good value gems as well as expensive stars on the right bank. Lets start with the good value gems – The Cotes of Bordeaux. These wines are well worth trying, particularly if you get one recommended to you and are normally much better value than other Bordeaux wines. These appellations include:



• Cotes de Blaye

• Premieres Cotes de Blaye
• Cotes de Bourg
• Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux
• Bordeaux Cotes de Francs
• Cotes de Castillon

Grand Cru Classe St Emilion



Perhaps, the best known wine on the right bank is St Emillion. These are quite variable due to the different soils but can be excellent. The better wines are labeled Grand Cru, the best wines Grand Cru Classes and the very best Premiere Grand Cru. It should also be mentioned here, the St Emilion contains the wines of the garagistes – the micro-wineries who produce expensive boutique wines. I once spent €60 on a bottle and it was very good concentrated wine but this price is normally outside of my budget. The village of St Emilion itself is beautiful and well worth visiting. As well as the wine of St Emillion there are the wines of its satellites:

• Lussac-St-Emillion
• Montagne-St-Emillion
• Puisseguin-St-Emillion
• St Georges-St-Emillion

These wines are very variable but I have a soft spot for St Georges-St Emillion as I had a bottle on the night I got engaged to Jane (following a bottle of Champagne on the Pont Neuf in Paris). At the other extreme is the Roc de Lussac sold by Sainsbury’s which I don’t like at all.

Next to St Emillion is Pomerol which is a smaller appellation and has some very expensive wines such as Chateau Petrus and Chateau Le Pin. Pomerol can be very good but some better value can be obtained from Lalande-Pomerol. Other value wines from the right bank can be had from Fronsac. Other appellations you might see on red wine bottles includes Graves de Vayres, which is not to be confused with the left bank Graves, and Ste-Foy Bordeaux.

Taste
So what should we expect from these right bank Bordeaux reds? Being Merlot dominated you can get the flavours of plum and black cherry. Sometimes they are balanced with Cabernet Franc and its classic tobacco and raspberry flavours, or sometimes Cabernet Sauvignon with its blackcurrant flavours. Unlike the generic appellations, these wines are usually oaked. Eleve en fut de chene indicates oak on the bottle. Many of the wines improve with age and expensive ones should not be drunk too young. Unlike the left bank wines the wines of St Emilion and other right bank wines have a softness that many find appealing and are more approachable when young.

Top Tips
So to this week’s top tip is to look out for value wines from Cote de Bourg, Premieres Cotes de Blaye and Cotes de Castillon.

Homework
So your homework this week is to buy and try one of the following wines:

Majestic – Chateau St Colombe 2004 Cotes de Castillon, about £10 or £7 if you buy two bottles
or if you don’t want to buy 6 bottles, Co-op – Chateau L’Estang 2007 Cotes de Castillon, about £9,
or if you want to splash out Morrisons – Chateau Cardinal Villemaurine 2002 St Emillion Grand Cru, about £11,

Now which St Emilion do I like best?

or Waitrose – Seigneurs d’Alguilhe 2006 Cotes de Castillon, about £11,
or if on a budget, Tesco – Finest St Emillion 2008, about £8

If trying the younger wines, pour into a jug before serving to aerate the wine a little.

Food pairings
Like most French wines these Right Bank reds are good with food. This week, why not try them with roast beef or some lamb chops or perhaps an escalope of veal.

Coming Soon
This is part two of a year long introduction to French wines. Next week we will do the Left Bank red wines of Medoc and Graves, with yet more homework!
Go back to our January 1st entry for basic generic red Bordeaux.