|
|
|
| Current Article | Previous Articles | Search Articles | Search Offers | Search Tasting Notes | Forum |
|
|
|
|
| Current Article | Previous Articles | Search Articles | Search Offers | Search Tasting Notes | Forum |
The panel admitted that they never buy Bordeaux Blanc. Unfortunately, they still don’t. White wine in Bordeaux is made from Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. The Semillon gives it some weight and the Sauvignon some zingy freshness. Howevera, we found it difficult to find much on these wines that pointed to either grape. Whether it’s because of the climate, or the winemaking, these wines don’t stack up well against the competition. Prices ranged from £3.29 to £14.99 and we found only dry white wine, which offered little of interest. We weren’t expecting the world, but we wanted something fresh, zingy, recognisably made from either grape and which left a nice taste in our mouths.
Our favourite wine was Sainsbury’s own Bordeaux Blanc NV, which only costs £3.35. It smelt freshly green, reminding me of green soap and Karen of blackcurrant leaves. It tasted of not very ripe fresh pineapple, which isn’t a bad taste. I found it had just a touch too much residual sugar for me, but it’s a very pleasant, clean, summer drink. Really, quite alright.
If you want something with a little more zing, Dourthe No 1 Sauvignon Blanc 2005 is £5.99 from Waitrose. It’s in a screwcap and there was a whiff of labrador as we gave our few initial sniffs. However, this lifted to a pleasant Sauvignon smell, with a hint of fresh parsley stalks, which I found very appealing. The taste was clean, fresh and slightly floral. Exactly what we were expecting, apart from the initial dog.
Chateau Fantin 2005 is £6.29 in Oddbins or £5.03 as part of a mixed case of 6. It didn’t smell much initially, but after an hour or so gave us something fresh and quite appealing. The taste was as plain as you could imagine. It was just dry white wine. I realize that this is what it’s meant to be, but for £6.29 we need something that stays in the memory and this had nothing.
Aldi’s Chateaux’s Selection (sic) 2006 is only £3.29 and so we shouldn’t expect much, but we tasted them blind and so didn’t know it wasn’t a £15 wine. It smelt sweatily of damp dishcloth, or something you’ve left in the washing machine accidentally, for quite a while. The taste was bland, albeit with a hint of cat on the end, to remind us of its source.
Marks & Spencers’ Grand Enclos du Chateau de Cerons 2005 is £14.99 and so between twice and four times the price of other wines we tasted. It’s from Graves, which is an area that produces some of my favourite white wines, but it just didn’t work. After we’d taken the covers off, I revisited it to try and see what we were meant to be paying for. The smell isn’t unpleasant. There’s some good oak, but the aroma is tropically peachy, which is all wrong in Bordeaux. The flavour is rich and sweet, but the alcohol burns, despite only being 13.5%. I kept the wine and tried it a couple of times afterwards, to try and get the point of it, but it just wasn’t nice. Chateau Guiraud from Majestic smelt of peach flavoured chews and tasted similar.