Great Bordeaux - and why we don't sell them - Philip Bernot

I like the wines of Bordeaux, but have never been “in-love” with them as I am with wines from other parts of France. I have tasted many top-quality wines from Bordeaux from vintages ranging over fifty years. I have never had 1947 Cheval Blanc, 1945 Mouton Rothschild, 1928 Margaux, 1920 Lafite, or 1904 Haut Brion, or any wine from the 1800’s. Any Bordeaux wine, I mean. I have never visited Bordeaux; but I don’t feel bad about it. My feeling has always been this: These wines, especially the great ones, rarely shine their light of greatness on the observer. Often when you taste Bordeaux it’s impressive, but I’m rarely blown-away. I know this because when the stars align and you do taste great Bordeaux, in the right setting, when the wine is showing at top-form, it is amazing. When that light shines on you it’s like those searchlights at the new Chevy dealer - illuminating to say the least! But those experiences are few and far between. More often I have what happened today- a really nice, well-known wine from 2004 that I would sell for about $175 a bottle. It was really good, but I think for most people the better part of two C-notes is a lot to ask. Not that 175 bucks is the high end; far from it. The best wines from the 2005 vintage could be $3,500-$5,000. That is not for a case but a bottle. And that’s if you can find it; the list of hedge fund managers willing to slip a $60,000 case of wine into the boot of their gold-plated Bentley Flying Spur is a long one; thankfully that list is getting shorter everyday!

So we have a few Bordeaux wines. Like everything I buy I tend to seek out the properties that offer exceptional value. The difference between the fifty dollar bottle and the hundred and fifty dollar bottle is often quite small. And what about those high-flyers? I would love to tell you that we churn through hundreds of cases of first and second growth wines-but we don’t. It is literally a different business, and you are going head-to-head with mega-stores in mega-markets. In other words, a lock to lose for us.

And what about those wines I do love? I think Burgundy is the end-all, and you can still turn up some remarkable values. The best wines from there, however, are hideously expensive. But man-oh-man is there amazing wine from the south for the price! I am crazy about the delicious wines from Provence, Languedoc-Rousillon, and the Rhone. There are some pretty amazing values from Bordeaux as well, but I just love the earthy connection that the wines from the south have. Stop by sometime and talk to me about it; I always have something fun from those places.