I've been waiting until this entirely new, young red bordeaux was released on to what is surely the most protracted primeur market of the modern era before writing about it in any detail.
It's the brainchild of Swiss businessman Michel Reybier and Jean-Guillaume Prats of Ch Cos d'Estournel, a thoroughly modern wine which may provide some sort of model for a solution to the severe economic problems currently suffered by growers in the Médoc. (For more details see wine news.)
The Médoc has no shortage of fine soils and old Cabernet Sauvignon vines. The problem is that to make ends meet most growers have typically been pushing yields and selling sheer volume to the rather lacklustre co-ops up here in the northern, lower half of the Médoc – just up the road from some of the most famous wine estates in the world.
A scheme was hatched to buy grapes from selected parcels of vines for a brand of super-modern wine that might just find a market with those wine lovers who find classical bordeaux, or at least classical AC Médoc, too austere for their tastes. (As I say, there are as many tastes in wine as there are tasters.)
Special permission had to be sought from the authorities to move the grapes the few miles to St-Estèphe for processing, and a separate winemaking premises established. (What a contrast with the New World!) The bottle shape is very un- Médoc (and rather like Haut-Brion, some might think). The label is extremely un-Médoc – more reminiscent of a hip hotel than a Bordeaux château. The name, that of a village near the main source for this vintage, is admittedly a bit unfortunate for English-speakers, but none of us could bring ourselves to explain this when presented with the wine at the primeur tastings.
And the wine itself is quite a different take on what is possible from Médoc fruit. "I want the consumer to be as confused as possible," Jean-Guillaume Prats told me. "The wine is very, very technical, very modern, but still very Bordeaux. We use cold maceration, ageing on lees, very small vats... I see it as a sort of high end brand for Bordeaux." A thousand cases have been produced in 2003 and the idea is to increase production considerably if it proves popular but to retain considerable vintage variation.
The colour is the first giveaway, far deeper than any other AC Médoc, and then there is enormously sweet, round fruit (yes, fruit, in an AC Médoc!) on the palate. The blend is four parts Cabernet to one part Merlot, half new oak and half second-year barrels ex-Cos (a sensible use for them). There is considerable freshness here too though – so much so that it reminded one of my fellow tasters of a red Loire. It is not for purists or classicists and has, unfortunately, been released at a price that is just a tad too high. It's currently selling on most UK fine wine merchants' 2003 bordeaux primeur lists at £140 per dozen bottles in bond (though is being offered in six bottle cases). A little more modesty at the beginning would not have gone amiss. Nevertheless, its very existence is a development of note for Bordeaux history. Of course personally I prefer the similarly priced, more traditional cru bourgeois from the Cos team, Ch Marbuzet, which is delicious in 2003 and is being offered at more or less the same price, but these are exceptional circumstances in the Médoc. I take my hat off to this initiative which has been undertaken mostly to make a bit of money for Domaines Reybier of course, but also to show a possible way forward for those thousands of acres of Médoc vines currently churning out wine no-one wants to buy.