Hi All, We have a quorum, or at least a quartet... Lori Russ Janet Jim Will all be there tomorrow, 6:30 or as soon as we can get there. If you've been sitting on the sidelines, this would be a great evening to jump on in. Erte is easy, inexpensive and the category is wide open. (Note, Bob won't be there, so I'm saving my S. American stuff to, er, uh, "foment" him on some future date.) Cheers, Jim attach: Brdx article from NYT On Wed, Feb 06, 2008 at 09:51:32AM -0600, Jim L. Ellingson wrote: i February 6, 2008 WINES OF THE TIMES Bordeaux’s a Bargain, and Here’s Why By ERIC ASIMOV IT’S been said that the distinctions between Bordeaux and California are rapidly diminishing, and that the singular finesse, elegance and longevity that have long characterized good Bordeaux wines have given way to a New World emphasis on powerful fruit flavors and easy accessibility. Allow me to respond to that in one word: nonsense. The idea that Bordeaux has lost its distinctiveness has been woefully exaggerated. Sure, it’s easy to find examples of producers who are clearly aiming at what they perceive to be New World palates. You can visit any number of Bordeaux wine cellars and find the sort of technology — concentrators, reverse-osmosis devices, micro-oxygenation machines and so on — used to tweak and manipulate flavors and textures. But when you look at the bigger picture, Bordeaux remains Bordeaux, still a great source for age-worthy, balanced, refreshing wines capable of depth, subtlety and, yes, value. Two weeks ago we reported on 2004 cabernet sauvignons from Napa Valley selling for $50 and under a bottle. That’s not cheap, but it represents the lower stratum for Napa cabernets. Frankly, we had a harder time finding value in those wines. Although we noted wines that we liked, we also found too many generic red wines that had little character or distinction. Today we offer for comparison a look at what $50 and under can get you in the 2004 vintage in Bordeaux, and our findings showed stark differences between the regions. The Bordeaux wines were lighter and more graceful, with more distinctive personalities, too. They were fresher and more attuned to the table than the softer, fruitier Napa wines. We restricted ourselves to the Médoc, the area between the Atlantic and the Gironde River north of the city of Bordeaux that is home to the cabernet-centric communes of Saint-Estèphe, Pauillac, Saint-Julien and Margaux, along with lesser appellations like Haut-Médoc and Listrac. This region in many ways has been the historic point of comparison for Napa Valley, even allowing for the fact that California wines have developed their own specific expressions. We did make exceptions for two wines from Pessac-Léognan in the historic Graves region south of the city of Bordeaux. Well, why not? The 1855 classification of Médoc chateaus made an exception for Haut-Brion, so we have precedent. For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Michel Couvreux, head sommelier at the restaurant Cru, and Alexis Kahn, wine director of L’École, the restaurant of the French Culinary Institute. Of course, it can be misleading to compare wines of far-flung regions in the same vintage, so let me offer some cautionary notes. In both Napa and Bordeaux, 2004 probably exaggerated the differences among the wines. In Napa, 2004 was a very warm year leading to wines that were high in alcohol and low in acidity. Indeed, we found many to be soft, smooth and plush but not lively and refreshing. By contrast, 2004 in Bordeaux was a cooler year, and so many of the wines were fresh and tannic, with a lively and occasionally overbearing acidity. For plush Bordeaux, the 2000 and especially the 2003 vintages offer numerous examples, while in Napa the cooler 2005 vintage offers fresher wines than in 2004. Nonetheless, the 2004 comparison does offer a glimpse of the bedrock character of each region. While it was easier to find value in ’04 Bordeaux than in ’04 Napa, this was partly because the public and wine writers have been so much more interested in the surrounding, more expensive vintages of 2003 and 2005. Try finding a 2005 from any of our top choices in the same price range. While the Grand-Puy-Lacoste ’04, for example, is a good buy at $35, futures for the ’05 vintage are around twice that price. That said, the ’04s offer many good values beginning with our top wine, the Brane-Cantenac. It is somewhat closed now, but underneath the tannins lies a fresh, elegant wine with classic Margaux aromas of flowers, cassis, minerals and earth. Our No. 2 wine was also our best value, the Château de Pez from Saint-Estèphe, which showed an earthy complexity and plummy fruit bordering on jammy but without heaviness. I want to call attention to our No. 3 wine, the Grand-Puy-Lacoste from Pauillac, one of the more underrated chateaus in the Médoc. I’ve found these wines long-lived and delicious, and the ’04 strikes me as a tremendous value for $35 with the flavors of berries, fresh herbs and minerals and the potential to evolve. While good acidity can make a wine fresh and lively, some of these wines had too much of a good thing. We found both the Phélan-Ségur and the Clerc-Milon, from two well-regarded chateaus, to be overly harsh. Michel in particular was disturbed by the acidity and what he called a lack of complexity in a number of other wines. That didn’t bother me so much. I was looking more at balance and weight, by which I mean the lightness that can make Bordeaux seem so graceful especially when combined with intensity. The Sociando-Mallet from Haut-Médoc is an excellent example, balanced, focused and precise. The Branaire-Ducru from Saint-Julien offers a different, fuller-flavored impression while maintaining its harmony. I mentioned that we included two wines from Pessac-Léognan. Both made our Top 10. Haut-Bailly is usually a fresh, lithe wine. This one is tannic now, but I think it will evolve well. The Bahans-Haut-Brion, the second label of Haut-Brion, is packed with flavor. You will have to choose carefully among the 2004 Bordeaux. As uniform as the wines from Napa in this price range can seem, so can Bordeaux seem inconsistent. Yet even as producers in California and France these days share knowledge, experience and methods, they cannot share the land. Napa and Bordeaux are still a world apart. Tasting Report: At $50 and Under, the Médoc Has Surpassing Value Brane-Cantenac Margaux 2004 $50 *** Stylish and well balanced with dark fruit and mineral flavors; closed and tannic now. (Importer: Stacole Company, Boca Raton, Fla.) BEST VALUE De Pez Saint-Estèphe 2004 $30 ** 1/2 Bright plummy fruit and minerals balanced by mint and herbal flavors. (Maisons Marques & Domaines, Oakland, Calif.) Grand-Puy-Lacoste Pauillac 2004 $35 ** 1/2 Well-structured and elegant with ripe berry fruit and chewy tannins. (Regal Wine Imports, Marlton, N.J.) Sociando-Mallet Haut-Médoc 2004 $42 ** 1/2 Balanced and harmonious with cassis and mineral flavors. (BNP Distributing, New York) Branaire Ducru Saint-Julien 2004 $38 ** 1/2 Full and fleshy with aromas of flowers and berries. (Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines, New York) Gruaud-Larose Saint-Julien 2004 $44 ** Earthy black cherry and spice flavors; still closed and tannic. (Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines, New York) Bahans-Haut-Brion Pessac-Léognan 2004 $38 ** Lots of stuffing with flavors of cassis, licorice and tobacco. (Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines, New York) Haut-Bailly Pessac-Léognan 2004 $50 ** Balanced with spice and earth flavors; needs time to evolve. (Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines, New York) Langoa-Barton Saint-Julien 2004 $38 ** Dark, soft and powerfully fruity. (William Deutsch & Sons, Harrison, N.Y.) Cambon la Pélouse Haut-Médoc 2004 $19 ** Lightly tannic with brambly fruit and mineral aromas. (Regal Wine Imports, Marlton, N.J.)