Baudry Les Grézeaux 1996
Posted on 13 July 2011
I’m drinking quite a lot of French wine at the moment. It’s actually quite refreshing and distinctive after my usual diet of Italians. It’s interesting: on the whole French wines actually taste quite less oaky than Italian, white and red. Last weekend’s treats included a bold, concentrated, herby white 2005 Vacqueyras from biodynamic Domaine Montirius and my last bottle of the 1996 Chinon Les Grézeaux from star winemaker Bernard Baudry.
A previous bottle of this was an absolute cracker even when served against the 1996 Château Margaux (see blog entry here). I actually bought a case of this a few years ago in Paris, from the brilliant Caprices de l’Instant wine shop near the Bastille. That shop is a wine lover’s paradise. The owners buy stuff at release and then age the wines until they are ready to drink. (I think they have 20,000 bottles ageing). The shop makes money on tourists and high-heeled Marais clientèle popping in for Champagne and classified Bordeaux, and so there isn’t so much price increase on all those old Rhônes, Loires and even Corsican wines. I stocked on plenty of 1996 red Loire wines (a great vintage) paying the current vintage price for 15-year-old likes of Lisagathe, Croix Boissée and other gems.
15 years old and still fresh and fruity. A delight.
The Grézeaux is Baudry’s third bottling, costing a ridiculous 12€. Yet it shows that with a conscientious winemaker and a great vintage, even a relatively modest wine can go the long way. This wine is everything but going down. It’s light on its feet as Loire Cabernets often are (or were back in the 1990s: now they’re often quite ripe), juicy, approachable, embodying the term ‘elegant’. It’s one of those wines you could empty a bottle and still feel thirsty and energised. There’s lovely fruit, and the whole has aged on acids, remaining fresh and transparent, which you can’t say about many Cabs these days. A delight.
Disclosure
Source of wine: own purchase.