Beautiful Bordeaux

Tis the season for Bordeaux, the beautifully complex wine that collectors vie to get a single bottleof. In fact, a bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite became the most expensive wine ever in 1985 when it sold for $210,000 at Christie’s.

The reason for this? Bordeaux completely embraces the concept of terroir: the idea that wines taste of their place. You can taste history in every single bottle of Bordeaux.

The weather is vital in Bordeaux, because these wines taste like their place and it’s that soil and weather that makes the ultimate grape. Each year, the Bordeaux region prays for serious sunshine, a little bit of rain, no hail whatsoever, and a dry harvest. In the fall, grapes are picked, sorted and fermented, vinifying grape varieties and plots separately and then blending carefully, so that the result is a whole greater than the sum of it’s parts. (image source: Suntory)

2008 is the year to buy the better estates’ “second wines” – made from fruit not selected for the chateau’s reserve wines, because all the fruit was just so good. It’s hard to make bad wine with good grapes, so go out and get a Bordeaux from the less prestigious properties as well.