Last Friday, Bordeaux guru/Big Cheese Clyde Beffa and I hosted an Instagram Live tasting of nine value bottles, each under $50 and some well under $50. One of my favorites from the IG tasting was such a bottle: the 2004 Vieux Robin, Médoc $29.99. It was just hitting that perfect sweet spot for older Bordeaux: where it’s still fresh and alive, but all the hard edges have mellowed into tune. Last Friday (and even open after a few days), it was absolutely delicious.
Read MoreThis Friday, Cinnamon and I enjoyed our traditional steak and claret dinner with a bottle of the 2000 Château Camensac Haut Médoc—on Clyde’s recommendation. As usual, his advice was golden, and the wine was magnificent with the food. For the first time, we had a Denver Steak from Five Mary’s Farms, a cut from under the front shoulder blade of the cow, which Cinnamon cooked on our charcoal hibachi. This flat cut cooks up like a skirt steak but is tender like a New York and very flavorful. It was a good night!
Read MoreThis Friday, Cinnamon and I had our traditional steak and claret night with some lovely shaved and roasted Brussels sprouts and jacket potatoes to pair with a new wine arrival to K&L: the 2007 Château Potensac. I must say that K&L’s Bordeaux Buyer Clyde has done it again—this is a spectacular drink for under $30, and showing both lovely clean fruit and resolved tannin at 15 years of age. Before publishing this blog piece, I will buy a case for our cellar!
Read MoreLast night, Cinnamon and I enjoyed the perfectly aged 2004 Brillette, Moulis with a big cowboy steak, diced potatoes, and a steakhouse salad. Now that my case is safely in my cellar, I can tell you about this wine: it’s the best deal in aged Bordeaux to come along in some time here at K&L.
Read MoreIn our next Club Francais, we’ll be featuring the 2000 de Viaud from Lalande de Pomerol, so Clyde took the occasion to revisit a bottle of the 2003 from the estate. This was a controversial vintage in Bordeaux—a warm year with some hits and some misses—so I was curious how the wine would taste 17 years down the line. But Clyde lives by the credo of finding the best wines in under-rated vintages for the best values, and he’s king at picking out the good ones.
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