My best wine purchase of the year has been not a bottle but a book: Inside Bordeaux, by Jane Anson. I went to college before the explosion in textbook prices, so this might be the most expensive book I have ever bought – equivalent in price to a bottle of Chateau Lascombes 2015 – but it has provided a great deal of geeky pleasure (perhaps even more pleasure, certainly more immediate pleasure, than the 2015 Lascombes would have) and a series of helpful shopping hints.
There are two important trends that the books documents in great detail. The first is that there has been, in the last two decades but perhaps at an accelerating rate, an enormous amount of investment in the region, in almost all the appellations. (It is harder to justify huge investments in wine production in the least prestigious appellations, like AOC Bordeaux, where there is effectively a cap on the price that can be charged for the wine.). There are new plantings, often based on a more scientific understanding of soil types, there is investment in vineyard management, with a widespread adoption of organic and even biodynamic practices, and there have been huge investments in upgrades of cellars and winemaking facilities. At the top end of the Bordeaux hierarchy, this level of investment is not necessarily new, but at all other levels it has driven a great improvement in the quality of the wines on offer. Prices have been rising, but nowhere near as sharply as the quality has been rising.
The second trend belies the area’s reputation for hidebound traditionalism, to the extent that the reputation had survived an earlier shift to a taste for riper, oakier wines. Bordeaux is as susceptible to changes in fashion as any other wine region. The change that has been underway for the last 10-15 years is a change toward an emphasis on structure and aromatics in the wines, at the risk of a green quality, and away from the emphasis on richness, at the risk of a cloying quality. This means that there has been a wholesale move toward earlier harvesting, and away from new oak, and in general toward a less interventionist approach to winemaking. Obviously, the best wines will satisfy the drinkers who value structure and the drinkers who value intensity, but there are now lots of less expensive wines that offer great balance.
The book doesn’t rate the chateaux and the wines, but Anson isn’t shy about pointing to the producers that she particularly likes. (She is admirably polite about the producers that produce wines less to her taste.) Since January, when I bought the book, we have been buying and drinking inexpensivish bottles of Bordeaux, based on the Anson recommendations, in search of quality and value. We have found a lot of both. Here’s a list of what we’ve tried, categorized as 1) definitely buy more; 2) maybe buy more; and 3) don’t buy more:
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Chateau Joanin Becot (Castillon), Chateau Capbern (St. Estephe), Chateau Puygueraud (Francs), Chateau La Garde (Pessac-Leognan), Chateau d’Aiguilhe (Castillon);
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Clos Floridene (Graves), Chateau de France (Pessac-Leognan), Chateau Montpezat Cuvee Compostelle (Castillon), Chateau de Francs Les Cerisiers (Francs), Chateau Ampelia (Castillon), Chateau Rouget (Pomerol);
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Chateau Haut-Segottes (St. Emilion), Chateau la Dauphine (Fronsac), Chateau Moulin Haut Villars (Fronsac), Chateau Moulin St. Georges (St. Emilion), Chateau Beausejour Duffau-Lagarrosse (St. Emilion), Chateau Lilian Ladouys (St. Estephe).