A worthy, everyday Bordeaux at the right price! No, this wine isn’t one of the region’s fancy crus classés that require a decade or more of cellar aging to be at their best. Château Saintongey is a simple Bordeaux rouge for everyday drinking from the vast area south of the city of Bordeaux called Entre Deux Mers. It’s the kind of attractive inexpensive Bordeaux red that the French enjoyed with Sunday dinner a couple of decades ago and that turned up on wine lists at French bistros in the U.S. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a California Cabernet or Merlot or an Argentine Malbec that’s as balanced and pleasurable to drink for the same price as this Château Saintongey. A classic Bordeaux blend of 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 10% Cabernet Franc, it is full of fruit with a nice rich palate capable of accompanying most meat dishes.
A Bordeaux blend, at its most basic, is any combination of those grape varieties typically used to make the red wines of Bordeaux. The phrase, which seems to have originated with British wine merchants in the 19th Century, relates as much to wines made from the blend as to the grape-variety combination itself. Red Bordeaux blends are known for their beautiful structure and deep flavors.
This wine is filled with fruit and offers plenty of dark cherry in its Merlot character, soft tannins, medium body, and excellent purity. Enjoy this wine over the next year with burgers, roasts and even a nice rib-eye steak.
AWM Regular Price: $11.99 by the bottle or $122.30/case ($10.19)