Amazing Bordeaux Deal: Only $11.98 Gets You This Double 90+ Pointer!
Amazing Bordeaux Deal: Only $11.98 Gets You This Double 90+ Pointer!
To all Wine Exchangers,
If I'm not mistaken, we here at the Exchange have written up Les Grands Marechaux for both e-mail offerings and the Stock Report more than any other Bordeaux estate. Begs the question that with over 10,000 estates in the Bordeaux area...why? With all the options out there, the reason is simple… this estate is the epitome of consistency year in and year out at a truly remarkable price.
After nearly two decades, I finally had the opportunity to go to Blaye and visit proprietor Christophe Reboul Salze at his home estate for a wonderful dinner with his family along with Oenologist extraordinaire Stephane Derenoncourt and Carmes Haut-Brion General Manager, Guillaume Pouthier. It was quite the drive but once there, the land spoke for itself. This is serious terroir of clay over limestone, similar to top soil types in St. Emilion, but it just so happens to not be in an area that receives a lot of attention. That’s a shame BUT, perhaps not so much as you can’t get this quality anywhere in the world for this kind of fare.
During dinner, Christophe blind tasted us on an older wine. We all guessed Right Bank, with the appellation selected Saint Emilion. We were all wrong as the wine was… 1998 Les Grands Marechaux, the first vintage Winex sold back in 2000. It was amazing!
As I drink this current 2014, which by the way was a James Suckling 91 and Antonio Galloni 90 pointer, it’s hard to figure how Christophe and Stephane Derenoncourt do it. How can you get this quality in the bottle such an insane price? For 2014, the wine is primarily Merlot fermented whole berry in temperature controlled, stainless steel tanks with a 30-day maceration. Yields are tiny at 24 hectoliters per hectare…that’s lower than most 100-point wines out there...with malolactic fermentation performed in French oak barrels then aged for 12 months. They can't be making money on this wine.
So, how’s the wine you ask? Wonderful deep purple color with a sweet nose of black raspberries, black currants, and cherry jam with crisp acidity, ripe tannins, and a long, broad, concentrated finish. Forward, juicy, and ready to fire up now.
Suckling said it had a, "...rich plum-cake nose with a dried cranberry note is very well reflected by the medium to full palate in which the powdery tannins and ripe flavors are already beautifully integrated. 91 points"
While Galloni noted, "The 2014 Les Grands Maréchaux is very pretty today, with more finesse in its tannins than it showed as a barrel sample. Bright red cherry, raspberry, white flowers and mint give the wine lovely aromatic lift and precision. 90 points."
Gang, thats the same score that Galloni gave to such big-time chateaux as Aromes de Pavie, Duhart Milon, Le Bon Pasteur, Carillon de l'Angelus and others, all at 3-10 times the price!
If you want a serious bottle of Bordeaux but don’t want to pay the price? You're reading the right email this morning!
Les Grands Marechaux Cotes de Blaye 2014
91 Points! The rich plum-cake nose with a dried cranberry note is very well reflected by the medium to full palate in which the powdery tannins and ripe flavors are already beautifully integrated. With more drive on the finish this would score even more highly. Drink it! James Suckling, February 15, 2017
