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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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1983 lafleur Bordeaux Red

This starts off a little jammy with hints of raisin that develop into black currants. Full body with silky tannins and fresh acidity. It’s integrated yet ethereal.James Suckling | 97 JSThe 1983 Lafleur is the vintage that alerted me to the pedigree of this Pomerol growth back in 2004, so I have a sentimental attachment to it. A recent encounter served blind in Hong Kong confirms that the Lafleur ranks alongside the 1983 Cheval Blanc as the best Right Bank of the vintage. It is quite precocious and generous on the nose with sorbet-like red fruit tinged with peppermint and truffle oil. It has lost a little cohesion in recent years but offers more secondary scents of leather and sage. The palate has wondrous balance and poise: hints of iron infusing the supple red fruit with a complex and detailed finish. Well-stored bottles will continue giving immense pleasure. Tasted at a private dinner in Bordeaux.Vinous Media | 96 VMFull mature, yet still in far better condition than most 1983 Pomerols, Lafleur’s 1983 has a medium ruby color with considerable pink at the edge. A very exotic, almost kinky nose of Asian spice, licorice, truffle, and jammy kirsch is followed by a medium to full-bodied, plum, fleshy wine with sweet tannin, and low acidity in a very evolved style. Certainly among the very good vintages of Lafleur over the last 20 years, this is the most evolved and drinkable. Anticipated maturity: Now-2015. Last tasted, 8/02.Robert Parker | 92 RPPort-like. A monster. Extremely ripe, exaggerated style with loads of berry and earth character. Full-bodied and tannic. Still needs time; try after 1998.--The Bordeaux 50.Wine Spectator | 91 WSI used to adore the 1983 Château Lafleur, which is a wine that I owned quite a bit of at one time, but I drank my cache of the wine up in earlier days and I had not crossed paths with a bottle of this wine in more than a decade. Much like the 1982, the 1983 has gotten quite a bit more marked by notes of sur maturité on both the nose and palate as time has gone by, with the bouquet now defined by notes of prunes, fruitcake, chocolate, dried eucalyptus, cigarette ash and soil. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, powerful and very soil-driven in personality, with a firm core, still plenty of tannin and now a bit of uncovered alcohol starting to poke out on the long and chewy finish. This is not a great time to be drinking the 1983 Lafleur, which seems to have gone into a bit of a closed period, but the combination of overripe aromatics and flavors, as well as some backend heat, makes one seriously wonder about its long-term prospects. This wine has to be well over fourteen percent alcohol, and it has not aged with anywhere near the grace I would have imagined, given how superb it was in its relative youth. I have never seen wines in this style come back from the brink, but perhaps the ’83 Lafleur can prove the exception. (Drink between 2017 - 2040)John Gilman | 86-91+ JG

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