Two More Inexpensive 2015 Bordeaux Wines from Grocery Outlet

A few days ago, I compared four inexpensive Bordeaux wines from the 2015 vintage from Grocery Outlet. Here are two more.

2015 Chateau de Reguignon, Bordeaux: Comparatively deep in color for a young wine, but looks youthful nevertheless. A medium purplish red. The deepest in color of the six young Bordeaux wines from Grocery Outlet I've recently compared [see below]. Leathery, meaty scents initially on the nose. On the palate, subtle fruit nicely balanced by tannins from the outset, tannins that linger through the mid-palate before receding on a moderately long finish. Something milky on the mid-palate as well. Overall, seems well made, compact, and honest. Not especially complex, but immediately appealing. Probably a bit too dry and too tannin-driven for consumers used to more fruit-driven California wines, but anyone familiar with Bordeaux will recognize this as an attractive "little Bordeaux" for everyday drinking. $6.99 at Grocery Outlet.

2015 Chateau La Cure, Bordeaux: Typical medium red of a young Bordeaux, but looks a bit thin, relatively speaking. Light floral scents with hints of something citrusy. Something reminiscent of those orange marshmallow peanuts that used to appear in Halloween candy bags--which is to say, oranges and marshmallow. Later, somewhat darker scents, but I'm at a loss to characterize them more precisely than that. Maple and wood perhaps? On the palate, light citrusy fruit but also with a hint of cherries. Tannins considerably lighter than in the Chateau de Reguignon, but not so distant as to make the wine seem unbalanced. Light, but immediately approachable. Already drinking easily. Tannins are soft enough that I suspect this won't be for long keeping, but delicious now. Another inexpensive, attractive little Bordeaux from a very good year. $6.99 at Grocery Outlet.

I have no financial or other connections with any producer or retailer of wine. For more wine reviews, use the "Wines I'm Drinking" label at top right.

Wines I'm Making: 2015 Cabernet Bottled

Bottling by hand siphoning

Yesterday I finally got around to bottling our 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc. It was a short job as our 25 vines (21 Cab Sauvignon, four Cab Franc) produced a tiny harvest that yielded only three gallons of finished wine, or 15 bottles. The low yield was in part because of a row of overgrown trees in my neighbor's yard that have increasingly shaded the vines over the years. This spring, I persuaded him to remove them, as he had wanted to anyway. I'm hoping the greatly increased sunshine now will result in both better yields and fewer problems with mildew.

Siphon and bottles ready

I tasted the wine as I was bottling it. It promises to be very good—perhaps as good or better than the 2014, which has been the best wine from our little vineyard to date.  2016 was a disaster—so little fruit that we made no red wine at all, only 15 bottles of rosé from the combined fruit of the 25 Cab vines and our nine Sangiovese vines. I'm hoping 2017 we'll be the turnaround year.  Below is a finished case of corked wine. Now it's time to design the label for the 2015 wine.

Wines I'm Making: New Leaves on the Vines (2015)

Bud break was early this year with the lack of rain and unusually warm weather. Our Sangiovese vines already have about a foot or more of new growth on them. The Cabernet vines have shoots of about four to six inches. It's already time to do the first sulfur spraying, but with rain in the forecast yesterday and today, I'll be waiting until the weather clears again. Tiny grape clusters are already visible, the raw material for our 2015 wines. 2015 will be our 12th vintage.