Good Grape Wine Company

April 21 2006

Salir français sont-ils avec nous?

Are the French messing with us?

Anybody besides me kind of skeptical about all of the talk out of France the last week or so about how the 2005 vintage might be the perfect Bordeaux vintage?

Jancis Robinson said as much explicitly in this article from the Financial Times.  

Every year at the barrel tastings the hype begins, but this time 2005 is being compared to what was the vintage of the century in 1982.   

I’m not much of a French wine drinker--at all.  Personal preference, I guess. I prefer U.S. and Italian wines as a sort of quasi-rejection of the pomposity that the French bring to the wine market. 

But, what has really raised my cynicism about this vintage is that just a few short months ago--January to be exact, there were news reports of vintners taking to the street in France and French officials were promising to plan a new strategy to ensure the market preservation of French wines--literally, in January, they were talking crisis!

Now, it seems that there may be a scarcity of premiere French wine because of how good the vintage is. 

I hope we don’t have a situation of groupthink here, and it’s hard not to believe that folks may not be commenting with their hearts and not their heads--or barrel tasting in that regard.  The confluence of circumstance is very peculiar.

Parker has weighed in exclaiming:

2005 will not be over-hyped....it is thatspecial....the wines are unlike any I have tasted in 28 years of doing theseMarch tastings.

And, as Moses came down from the mountain, so it is.

Since I don’t drink much French wine, I decided to do a sampling of the Bonny Doon Domain des Blagueurs--a French style Syrah and Red Bicyclette from Gallo--an imported Vin de Pays French Syrah table wine. 

Both were nice, but for different reasons.  The Red Bicyclette was a nice, drinkable wine--above average for a consumer wine, even.

Red Bicyclette Winemaker notes had this to say, 

Our2003 Red Bicyclette™ Syrah is grown in the Minervois and Maury appellationslocated in the Central and South Eastern parts of the Languedoc. The vineyardsin this area benefit from both the warmth of the Mediterranean sun as well asthe cooler temperatures characteristic of the hills found in this region. Thisfavorable climate lengthens the grape maturation process yielding evenlyripened, highly concentrated, full-flavored grapes. The 2003 harvest producedsyrah grapes characterized by deep berry fruit flavors, spicy aromas, maturetannins, and dark purple-to-black color.

The Bonny Doon Domaine des Balgueurs, however, was exceptional--especially after getting some air for about an hour--complex and deep.  Hands down, I would definitely pick this wine up again.  And, in a head to head taste-off the Bonny Doon is the unquestioned winner. 

Notes from Randall Graham at Bonny Doon:

Perhaps the greatest Blagueurs to date and, if I may claim immodestly, unquestionablythe steal of the century. While I remain a great lover of the wines of southernFrance – their earthiness, which is their moral center, their balance, their sense ofproportion all draw me in, whereas the brazen fruit bombosity of New World efforts,far too much rouge, liner and lipstick is a definite turn-off – there is “earthiness”from the earth [good] and “earthiness” from a critter called brettanomyces [more
challenging]. Some of the earlier vintages of Blagueurs have perhaps more than awhiff of the horse they rode in on, but the ’03 is [knock bois] clean as a whistle.Very, very complete wine – fragrant, peppery, elegant and rich at the same time.

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