The Other Side of Bordeaux

BY NEAL MARTIN | SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

Let us turn away from those gilded towers of Grand Cru Classés and cult Right Bank wines that have become the preserve of the wealthy, and direct our attention toward what you might term “affordable” and/or “alternative” Bordeaux. There is no disguising the fact that this writer is fortunate to drink and write about Bordeaux at its higher echelons. But like most people, I can ill afford the equivalent of a family holiday for a case of wine at en primeur, and too many price tags defy rationality. I am just as interested in wines at the lower end of the pyramid that frequently offer the high end of the quality-to-price ratio. For that very reason I have reported on the new release of Cru Bourgeois over the last decade. This classification is undergoing a radical change, and so there is no formal tasting this year. It is something that I will miss, though I hope to report on some back vintages if time permits. So this article on “the other side of Bordeaux” is based on two tastings that I attended, organized by UK importer Vine Trail and Bordeaux consultant Olivier Dauga.

Olivier Dauga and his partner-in-crime Cathy Socasau following our tasting in July 2019.

My annual tasting with larger-than-life consultant Olivier Dauga is one that I always look forward to. His portfolio tends toward less fashionable appellations and less familiar properties. This time around, most of the wines focus upon the 2018 vintage, nearly all bottled after one year rather than the usual two. These are wines that are made ready for market, hence the generally shorter or more immediate drinking windows. They lie at the affordable and occasionally “bargain” end of the spectrum. Dauga told me that he is now using less SO2, and in some cases, none at all. I include several releases from his “Wild Selection” range (now in its second year of organic conversion), matured in 500-liter barrels that include Damy and Vicard in Cognac, with a special selection of fine wood grain to impart finer tannins that render them more approachable. These wines might be inexpensive, but they still receive care and attention.

One observation I made during this tasting is how well many of the pure Malbecs tasted, based on examples from Château Marzin and Relais de la Poste. It’s a small sample selection and yet I couldn’t help feeling that this grape variety was better suited to the season’s hot summer than the thin-skinned Merlots. Once upon a time, Malbec was much more widely planted in Bordeaux, and not looked down upon by the Bordelais, as it tends to be today. With global warming impacting ripeness levels, perhaps we will see a resurgence of Malbec in the same way that Cabernet Franc has become more popular over the last decade. (Global warming is not the only major challenge on the horizon, and I will broach that at the end of this article.)