Two nights a tasting Chateau Troquart 2001 St. Georges-St.Emilion
Posted on April 25th, 2009
Saved in Red wine, Sour Grapes recommends, €15-€20
Here’s the thing with Bordeaux. There’s tonnes of the stuff and it’s often hard to pick a decent one for a reasonable price.
The wines at the upper end, the iconic châteaux fetch ridiculous prices – we’re talking 100′s of euro for a bottle. For “decent” bottles you can expect to pay €40 or thereabouts. Is it worth it? Julian over at Bubblebrothers.com had a really well penned post on the perception of value (whether it’s cars or wine).
Don’t be too hasty in rolling your eyes to heaven if you hear of a wine buff spending the price of a tank of petrol or more on a bottle of wine. Chances are she really will get her money’s worth, even if it seems folly to you. Ask someone with an expensive car – he’ll understand.
So, what’s a good price for a good bottle of Bordeaux? It seems there’s plenty of really really decent stuff hovering around the €2o mark.
I picked up a bottle of Chateau Troquart 2001 in Louis Albrouze, Lesson Street. The Château Troquart is from from an area in Bordeaux calleed St. Georges-St. Emilion.
It’s not quite St. Emilion, geographically-speaking. So this means it’s considerably cheaper than the wines from St. Emilion proper which is just a short hop, skip and a jump over the road. According to the Louis Albrouze site,
Served blind it could easily be mistaken for a €40 - €50 bottle. One of the reasons it’s underpriced is that it comes from the region of St. Georges – St. Emilion, a small parcel of land bordering St Emilion itself, and technically a lesser wine. But for the sake of a couple of hundred yards I’ll gladly save €20, and enjoy the benefits of a wine maker really at the top of his game.
The grapes
Merlot 60%, the rest in Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet France and Malbec.
The taste: night 1
When I first opened it, I couldn’t smell much off it so I just had a small glass of it. It was decent with just a bit of plums, so the Merlot came out strong. I used a second glass to make a sauce (or red wine jus) to go over some steak.
The taste: night 2
24 hours later and it was a different story. More of the plums, but this time with dark cherries and “new shoes’ soft leather” on the nose. In the gob, satin-smooth blackberries, good acidity with nice smooth tannins and just a mere hint of oak oak. Delicious.
Worth €20? Absolutely. Well, if you’re into that sort of thing.
About Louis Albrouze
Louis Albrouze is a great little wine shop on Leeson Street which stocks some great wines. Definitely worth a visit. Oh, and tell them sourgrapes.ie sent you!
Hi, we used to sell this wine in the shop and yes we found it to be really good as well. Surprised they are still on the 2001, glad to hear it is still drinking well.
Thanks for the good review of the Troquart, Lar. Just to let you know that we still have some of the excellent 2001 vintage before we move on to the new one – 2002. Etienne Gregoire, the winemaker, only releases his wines after extended bottle ageing to ensure they are at their peak when bought by the consumer, and enjoyed immediately, rather than having to wait 4/5 years for them to mature and develop fully.