What I'm Excited About This Week: Bordeaux and New Discoveries!
I feel like I have, later in my life, turned a page on wine and how I look at it, which has helped my writing immensely as well. There was a time when my relationship to wine was a lot more personal and subjective, and it was more about me and what I thought about things. There came a time during my tenure here at K&L that I realized that wine tasting really wasn't about me. Ultimately, I learned that the best thing I could do would be to try to look at wines as objectively as possible, and, while I fail at that every day, it's less about the unlikely destination of true objectivity and more about the journey trying to work my way upstream.
Bordeaux is a place that took me too long to truly appreciate, and it wasn't until I stepped back a little that I started to understand it more as a region and a wine. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, I'll admit that, but instead of trying to decide if I like Left or Right Bank wines more, I look for the story that the wine is telling me, because often these are stories that have travelled generations. And, while undoubtedly the wineries may modernize over the years, the underlying story of the tie to the land and the people remains the same. Châteaux can change hands, but the land underneath is the same. Except when they sell that, I guess, but that's not what this is about.
The wines that I'm most excited about this week are all wines that tell me a story with every sip—be it the story of the vintage, the land, the people, or our relationships—it's all something of interest. The story of the wine makes it that much more special. We have new Discovery Series wines, and they're just absolutely mind-blowing Crazy Eddie deals that we're just casually dropping. Both of the new K&L Discovery Series St-Emilion wines—2005 K&L Discovery Series Bordeaux, St-Emilion (Elsewhere $40) $19.99 and 2009 K&L Discovery Series Bordeaux, St-Emilion (Elsewhere $40) $14.99—are outstanding, showing incredibly well even though they're pretty much fresh out of the container from France.
Not only that, but we recently emailed out the 2019 Latour-Martillac, Pessac-Léognan $34.99 96JD 95JS, and gosh that bottle is absolutely pristine and drinkable right out the gate. You often want to wait a bit longer after wines arrive for the whole bottle to come together and integrate a little bit more seamlessly, but this thing is already watertight. Yes, of course, it wants a long decant to really open up and tell you the true story of itself, but that goes for a lot of the wines we're drinking if we want to be really serious and studious about it. That being said, there's pretty much zero chance if you decide you just want to go for it instead of decanting that you'll be arrested by the Vinopolice for wine crimes.
I've been super impressed by the l'Esprit de Chevalier Rouge before, but having now had the 2021 l'Esprit de Chevalier Blanc, Pessac-Léognan $37.99 94JS, I realize I've been missing out on their white wine. It has all the class and sophistication that you both want and expect, but at a third of the price of its more famous First Wine big brother. This has a classy nose, and the well-integrated oak in the back elevates it and helps round on the Sauvignon Blanc-heavy blend. Crisp green apples, white flowers, lemon zest, and chalk round out the nose. The palate is super refreshing and yet still quite deep. There’s great chalky minerality with a little bit of a saline finish, and all flavor elements present fruit first with juicy lemon, underripe green apple, and quince working together. Then, last but not least, the barrel spice on the finish makes all the flavors feel complete. This is a delicious bottle of wine. People need to start drinking more Bordeaux Blanc—they're all so good and range from super approachable to yummy yummers.
2009 K&L Discovery Series Bordeaux, St-Emilion $14.99 Yet another wine whose pricing I find to be wicked bonkers, but hey I'm just a salesperson and wine review writer guy and it's good to know your role. This wine costs you, valued reader, less than a dollar per year that it has existed in this world. That's insane. I mean maybe it would make sense if this wasn't impeccably aged and really delicious Bordeaux. This and its older brother, the 2005, are both just really wonderful examples of what I like about Bordeaux. Yet, they are different enough to give you a feel for their respective vintages and what aging does as well. This has a charming nose, especially with a few hours to develop in a decanter. There's a bit of creaminess to the fruit, more red than black, with cherry and even some sweet cranberries. There are also more savory notes, with dried and fresh tobacco, worn leather, a touch of oil-cured olives, and a dense loamy note in the back holding hands with the barrel spice. The palate is just a little chewy, both from a firm but integrated tannin profile, but also from the leathery tobacco in the back palate. The fruit is ripe but not stewed, with just a bit of dried fruit notes. There's a phenolic note on the finish too—a little bitterness that is going to help this to pair well with whatever you eat it with. This is a crazy nexus of great deal and great wine that I'm not sure if I'm able to express strongly enough how much you need to try this, but please know that I care about you and I want you to be happy and that's why I want you to try this wine.
2005 K&L Discovery Series Bordeaux, St-Emilion $19.99 What?—That's what I thought when Ryan Moses, our Bordeaux Buyer Par Excellence, told us the price of this wine and its 2009 younger brother. Just absolute bonkers pricing, but it's not like we can force them to charge us more. I remember a few years ago our own Gary Westby told me that if you can get Bordeaux for a dollar a year you've found yourself one of the best deals in the business, and here we are just offering it to you like it's a casual Tuesday afternoon. This has all the depth and maturation you have come to expect from a well-aged, solid-provenance Bordeaux. The fruit is still there, though it's definitely a bit behind the tertiary aromas that have lovingly and tenderly developed over these last 20 years. There's stewed black and red fruits—a bit of a compote of the two. There are also loamy mushrooms, forest floor, and creamy black olive notes that fade into barrel spice. The palate is fresher than the nose, with a great level of acidity and a surprising amount of tannin for how old the wine is. This could keep going and lay down for another 10-20 years, developing even more tertiary aromas. This is phenomenal wine at this price and something you really cannot afford to pass by if you drink Bordeaux, or even if you've ever thought about drinking Bordeaux. This is everything you want from a well-aged bottle of wine and the same price I paid for lunch the other day.
2019 K&L Discovery Series Bordeaux, Pauillac $29.99 Such a lovely nose even though I just pulled the cork. There's a pretty bramble-cherry note on the front, with a touch of cocoa and then something alluring and floral. Deeper into the nose there's a touch of developing tertiary note, with worn saddle leather, something mushroomy, and a lingering oak spice. The palate is medium-plus with just enough tannin to encourage you to think about laying it down for a few years, but soft enough not to demand it. There's a nice dusty blackberry and cherry, more cocoa than the nose, and then a firm hit of barrel spice towards the end. The finish is lingering and enjoyable with fruit, acid, and spice mixing back and forth, and the only one winning is me. This is so drinkable and accessible; it absolutely deserves to be paired with a nicely marbled ribeye and a fat potato. If you don't do that kind of thing, a mushroom stroganoff would be amazing as well, preferably on top of a fat potato. I love how we're bringing in these wines at really cut-rate deals; these are clearly wines that our buyer really saw something in.
2019 Latour-Martillac, Pessac-Léognan $34.99 This has that whole "serious" vibe going on in the nose, there's a lot of immediate depth and complexity. When I opened it and gave it time to develop, I discovered a level of perfume and allure that's just second to probably some but not a lot. The nose is a little kaleidoscopic—there's a shifting sort of perfume-fruit-barrel-spice trifecta hitting on all cylinders. The fruit is red and black, ripe and ready with a little bit of something slightly crunchy in the far background, like someone thought about a cranberry once. The perfume has this kind of pleasant potpourri quality, not at all Granny or cloying, but instead like fresh rose petals, a little touch of dried lavender, and a little bit of slightly wilted violets. The barrel spice is a constant background presence, lovely and dense and layered so expertly, never trying to be the star. The palate is the same and in the same order, rich dark fruit, a lovely dose of florals, and then more striking barrel spice, toast coming into the finish and mixing a bit with a little touch of dried tobacco and herbs, acidity making the whole palate absolutely sing. This is an absolute treat, a real gem of a wine that is so well balanced and intensely deep, showing everything that you want in a regal and classy Bordeaux at a killer price.
All of these wines are incredible deals, and not a single one over $40. They all deliver everything you need from Bordeaux, be it Blanc or Rouge, it just kind of depends what story you want the meal to have. Is it an older story or a younger story, do you want more freshness or a more developed and earthier and more tertiary palate? Do you want the comfort of the known or the thrill of the unknown, the slight risk of trying something where you don't know the producer, but I will pinky-swear is delicious for an aged Bordeaux? White or Red? There are no wrong answers, just different kinds of right answers, so please do something kind and loving for yourself and try these out and give yourself a little journey.