I must confess that red Bordeaux was my first wine love, but rather than have that youthful romance create a tender spot on my palate for the oceans of mediocre red Bordeaux that flow to our shores, it has made me hypercritical of Bordeaux reds that don’t measure up or simply under deliver. Happily, this month’s feature, the 2008 Château Boutisse St. Emilion Grand Cru, is no under achiever. In our panel tasting, it shone when others fell flat. Granted, good Bordeaux can close up after a year or two in bottle and need some additional time to emerge from its dormancy. In short, it can make a liar out of you on any given day. However, I think you’ll find that the 2008 Château Boutisse has all it needs to please. Moreover, it will only improve in bottle for at least five more years. Consequently, it earns one of my two top picks.
To complicate matters, Barolo is my second love and a wine I enjoy more and more. And to be fair, Revello’s 2006 Barolo is a beautiful Barolo from a splendid vintage, so it should rightly stand with the Château Boutisse. That means I have a problem: the 2010 Adega O Casal Godello is delightful too, so what do I do? If forced to choose, I have to go with the two reds, but frankly, I’m going to enjoy all three. And you should too. We can even pretend we never had this conversation and declare all three top picks.
A Votre Santé!
Don
