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Red Bordeaux Blend Wines

Red Bordeaux Blend Wines

Red Bordeaux Blend Wines

Ah, Bordeaux. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that it is considered by many to be the wine capital of the world. From the 1855 Bordeaux Classification to the seemingly countless wine estates that have or would have earned their position in it, this city and the region surrounding it are a must-visit location for every passionate wine enthusiast. The standards of wine quality were defined here, so it is only logical that some of the best wines ever produced took their roots in this sacred soil.

Red Bordeaux wines are typically made of a delicate, precise grape blend. Some of the most impactful and influential grape varietals include Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot. Blends composed of these lovely grapes have a powerful, compelling structure and a gripping, deep, thick flavor (usually with notes of plums or blackcurrant) that intrigues the mind just as much as it stimulates your senses. These wines are as nuanced as you could possibly ask for, with new subtle notes and thoughts you can pick up on with each subsequent glass. The deeper you drink, the more enlightening it is, and every true wine lover can attest to the spiritual experience that comes with one of these blends.

The wine estates of Bordeaux earn their spot on the top through almost inhuman dedication. A huge part of what makes their wines so consistent in quality is a refusal to follow the industrial, sacrilegious food processing trends we see everywhere around us. They allow the wines to express themselves using their own unique voice, and a tasting feels like a conversation as a result.

The sheer number of respectable estates and brands to recommend is staggering. For example, if you can get your hands on a bottle of 1989 Haut-Brion, what you will end up holding is an artifact, a pure expression of raw winemaking prowess. Every year is at least a solid year for a wine from Chateau Latour, and there are many, many more. If you can spare the time, visit Bordeaux one day, and immerse yourself in the world of masterful traditional winemaking.
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1998 cheval blanc Bordeaux Red

The 1998 Cheval Blanc, a blend of 65% Merlot and 35% Cabernet Franc, is deep garnet-brick in color and absolutely explodes with scents of exotic spices, incense, dried roses, cigar box and licorice, with a core of crème de cassis and dried cherries plus touches of black tea and dusty earth. Medium to full-bodied, it fills the mouth with rich, plushly textured fruit and then POW—it hits the mid-palate with an explosion of Chinese five spice and floral perfume sparks, leading to an epically long finish. This cannot fail to impress and can easily cellar for another 30 years or more.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 100 RPAnother perfect wine is the 1998 Chateau Cheval Blanc, which is the usual blend of 55/45 Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Possessing an utterly captivating bouquet of sweet red and black fruits, forest floor, spice and dried flowers, it packs plenty of muscle and depth on the palate, yet is also expansive, elegant and seamless, with no hard edges. Just singing, with everything you could want; complexity, richness, elegance, depth, and length, drink this sensational beauty any time over the coming two decades. I’m sure it will keep longer, but why in the world would you wait.Jeb Dunnuck | 100 JDThe reference chateau of the vintage, this wine is showing its class here and then some. It was the first year with Bernard Arnault and Albert Frère as owners, with Pierre Lurton coming onboard from his former role at Clos Fourtet. 10% press wine was used, whereas today they use no press wine in the grand vin. It was aged in 100% new oak. The 36ha of vines yielded 32hl/ha, closer to their average than the relatively abundant 1989). The holdings have since expanded to 39ha with the addition of 3ha from Tour du Pin Figeac. 67% of production went in to the grand vin, the rest into Petit Cheval. This is seductive and rich but with a purity and precision. There’s more Merlot in the blend than is typical because the clay soils produced the best quality grapes, and you can see its impact in the textural density - the proximity to Pomerol comes through. Drinking Window 2019 - 2036Decanter | 100 DECAromas of blueberry, sweet tobacco, leather and pipe tobacco turning to raisins and Christmas cake. What a wine. Full-bodied, with chewy tannins and a very well-integrated palate. Dark color. A big and powerful wine still. Blockbuster. Massive. Just a baby.—’88/’98 Bordeaux blind retrospective (2008). Best after 2013. 8,330 cases made, 1,600 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 98 WSAromas of rose petal and hints of fresh herbs such currant leaf. Tobacco, too. Medium body, very fine tannins and a balanced fruit. Extremely refined and polished. A beautiful harmony. So lovely now.James Suckling | 96 JSThe 1998 Cheval Blanc has been a lauded wine ever since release. I have often, quite controversially felt that it never quite matched its startling performances in its first ten years, though it remains and excellent wine. Now at 20-years old it offers opulent, high-toned scents of maraschino cherry, iodine, crème de cassis, dried blood and a subtle, almost Provençal herb-like scent courtesy of the Cabernet Franc. The palate is medium-bodied with fine grip, showy compared to other vintages of Cheval Blanc with sappy red fruit and a fine structured that lends this 1998 focus. Perhaps this bottle did not quite deliver the intensity on the finish that I was expecting, "jogging" instead of "sprinting" over the finish line. That said, it is a very impressive wine, even if personally I would not put it amongst the very best wines that Pierre Lurton has overseen. Tasted at Cheval Blanc.Vinous Media | 95+ VMNo written review provided. | 95 W&S

100
RP
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