Bordeaux wines can be a rich man’s game. You pay a pile of dough for the “first growths” which if you are made of money go ahead. Are some of these wines in the $1,000 range worth it or is the purchaser a billionaire thinking the more you pay the higher the quality?
Part of the fun of chasing the Bordeaux’s in the $20 and under range is the hope you can find a winner. A steal so what is in your mouth is as “good” as what the spacemen billionaires swill and swallow and eventually piss out!
We start with a 2108 Château Haut Claribes for $17 that even a poor Amazon employee can afford. Just because you take the bus to work instead of rocketing around like Uncle Jeff doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a well-made wine. Black cherry in colour verging towards purple. On the nose creamy and lush with black cherry, blueberries and some milk chocolate. You can feel the tannins on this one but they are on the gentle side. On the palate the lush and plush Merlot simply can’t rocket my palate like Branson/Bezos. A respectable wine for sure but a brilliant steal? No. The hunt continues.
A rather high alcohol content of 15% for a Bordeaux red. If I recall Trumpian tariffs on European wine kicked in at wines less than 15%. Juice up your wine and avoid punitive tariffs?
(Château Haut Claribes 2018 Bordeaux Supérieur, Domaines Fontana, Gensac, France, $17, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 21404, 15%, 750mL, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 90/100).
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