by dichotomies: World-famous and much misunderstood, the region is synonymous with elite châteaux—yet the majority of its wineries are smaller affairs and virtual unknowns. The latter group produces some good bottles at value prices, but wine shoppers tend to overlook them because they don’t think in terms of value when it comes to Bordeaux.
Jeff Zacharia, president of Zachys Wine & Liquor, told me he sells a lot of Bordeaux, but not much in the value-price range I’d called to discuss. Wine drinkers turn to other regions for wines in this range, noted Mr. Zacharia, and up to now I’ve been no exception. In my search for good-value wines, I’ve bypassed Bordeaux for other regions of France, like the Loire and Rhône valleys, and other countries, like Italy, Spain and Portugal.
But recently I decided to take another look. After all, the quality of Bordeaux wines has never been higher, and there have never been more good vintages on the shelves at once. Of the 17 Bordeaux wines I purchased, I’d rate 14 as good to very good. Only one was priced above my self-imposed $25 limit.
Two wines in my tasting are imported by Guillaume Touton, a Bordeaux native who has heralded the region’s wines for nearly four decades via his New York-based import/distribution company, Monsieur Touton Selection, Ltd. He’s noted an upsurge in quality over the past couple decades. “With all the advancements in technology and winemaking, it’s almost impossible to make a mediocre wine [in Bordeaux],” he said. And an increase in quality hasn’t necessarily meant an increase in prices.
There are well over 5,000 châteaux in Bordeaux, and outside the famous names and well-known commercial brands, they can be hard to figure out. The names of the places where they’re produced—Côtes de Castillon, Canon-Fronsac, Côtes de Bourg, Blaye-Côtes de Bordeaux—are unfamiliar to most Americans. No wonder quite a few of the cheap Bordeaux I found had stickers with point scores and wine-competition gold medals on the bottles: Sellers know they need some marketing.
foodandwine
Bordeaux isn't even that unusual nor ''hidden'', or whatever you wanna say.
thanks for this news
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