chateau-troquart-2001-stgeorges-stemilion

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
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!