Wine & Spirits - June 2019 - 83

IMPORTED NEW RELEASES
270738

92 | Château de Brousse

$20

2015 Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux (Best
Buy) ^ All of the Castillon wines our panel recommended for this issue grow in the town
of Belves, including de Brousse, an old property, renovated in the 1980s, where the vines
now average 30 years old, most of them on
a south-facing slope of clay-limestone soils.
The wine is lovely, firm and lasting, with fragrant sour-cherry flavors and silken tannins
that carry coriander-like spice. § V.O.S. Selections, NY
270537

92 | Clos Puy Arnaud

$50

2014 Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux Grand
Vin ^ Thierry Valette's top selection from his
Demeter-certified estate in Belves, this exceptional 2014 is 60 percent merlot, 35 percent
cabernet franc and five percent cabernet sauvignon. The first word in my notes from the
blind tasting is "dynamic" -this is an elegant
wine is invested with energy from the careful biodynamic farming Valette has practiced
since 2005. It's delicious, and it lasts on fresh
berry flavors, tightly structured, floral, zesty
and clean. This is a vintage to enjoy now,
especially if you can find his Grand Vin from
2015 or 2016, or the 2017 Cabernet Franc to
cellar. § Duclot La Vinicole, NY
270536

90 | Clos Puy Arnaud

$30

2015 Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux Les
Ormeaux ^ Les Ormeaux, with its higher percentage of merlot than Valette's Grand Vin,
is a beefy red in 2015, with slightly rustic tannins. It tastes of salted plums and Cara Cara
oranges, bright and spicy, with subtle, lasting
scents of rose and tea. § Duclot La Vinicole, NY
270546

90 | Château Cru Godard

$18

87 | Château de Genibon

$13

2015 Francs Côtes de Bordeaux (Best Buy) ^
A tight, floral Bordeaux with sweet blueberry
and plum richness, this is restrained by some
youthful sulfur, but overall it feels gamey and
fresh, with a spark of acidity that will clean
up after grilled sirloin. § Duclot La Vinicole, NY
270284
2014 Côtes de Bourg Cuvée Prestige (Best
Buy) ^ Here's a soft and earthy wine for bistro fare, a merlot-based blend that's showing
some evolution in broad Bretty notes while
still holding some freshness in its simple dark
fruit. § MHW Ltd., Manhasset, NY

MEDOC
270665

90 | Château Lestruelle

$30

2015 Médoc Cru Bourgeois ^ The Bouey family farms this 52-acre vineyard organically,
and has worked with Stéphane Derenon-

court on the wines since 2007. Their 2015 is
a fresh and fragrant merlot-driven wine, subtle, savory and rich. It comes across as an oldfashioned Bordeaux, juicy and delicious with
steak frites. § Tri-Vin Imports, New Rochelle, NY

FR A NC E RED: L ANGUEDOC
270605

90 | Jeff Carrel

$17

2017 Languedoc Les Darons (Best Buy) ^ A
blend of grenache, syrah and carignan from
Minervois, Corbières and La Clape, this is as
saturated with sloe-berry flavor as it is bright
and lifted. It smells of cedar fronds and lavender and tastes of berries and earth, with
a cool-stone feel that makes it refreshing. §
Hand Picked Selections, Warrenton, VA

CORBIERES
270456

93 | Domaine des
Deux Anes

$18

2016 Corbières Fontanilles (Best Buy) ^
Biodynamically grown and blended from
old-vine carignan, syrah and mourvèdre,
this is a powerful red in a tense, muscular
mode. Herbal, peppery notes highlight its
red-fruited, acidic side while the smoky, gravelly tannins draw out the dark, bloody flavors
that run underneath. It feels coiled, needing
time in a decanter or the cellar to emerge. §
Jenny & François Selections, NY
270338

93 | Domaine de
Fontsainte

$18

2016 Corbières Réserve La Demoiselle
(Best Buy) ^ The Laboucarié family has been
making wine in Boutenac since the 1600s;
more recently, Bruno Laboucarié has been
shepherding his oldest parcel, La Demoiselle, into its 115th year. Those ancient carignan vines put out a quietly powerful red
in 2016, savory to the extreme. There's a
lovely red juiciness in the center, thanks to
Laboucarié's practice of carbonic fermentation for the carignan, and the addition
of a little younger-vine, cement-fermented
grenache and mourvèdre. The lean, tense
structure adds to the wine's appeal, carrying
notes of coffee and walnuts, bay leaves and
warm stones. It tastes like a wine from one
of the sunniest places in Corbières, vibrant
and alive, radiating flavor without weight. §
Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA

270729

92 | Château des Aladères

$35

2016 Corbières Barrique Réserve ^ Aladères
is the "second" château of the Allard family,
who own the nearby Château de Lastours. A
blend of syrah, carignan and grenache aged
in barrels, this matches its smoky wood tones
with super-juicy fruit flavors. Notes of mushroom, game and woodsmoke add a sultry
appeal while the tannins keep the wine en
pointe for steak frites. § W.Direct, Lawrence, KS
270732

91 | Château Fontjoncouse $23

2016 Corbières Prestige Vieilles Vignes ^
This brackets its juicy cherry flavors with
spicy oak scents and notes of wild mushrooms and meat, but that cherry fruit lasts,
lengthening out along firm, fluid tannins. §
W.Direct, Lawrence, KS
270730

90 | Château des Aladères

$48

89 | Gérard Bertrand

$19

86 | Dom. de la Baquière

$15

2016 Corbieres Cuvée Confidentielle ^ This
is smoky and saline, with a spicy lift to the
red-raspberry fruit and a toasted-nut savor.
Fresh and medium-bodied, it's balanced well
for summer's steak salads. § W.Direct, Lawrence, KS
270612

2016 Corbières Grenache/Syrah/Mourvèdre (Best Buy) ^ An over-the-top red, this
sweetens its lush flavors of blueberries and
purple plums with generous lashings of
smoky, spicy oak. It's clean and big-boned,
built for steaks or beef barbecue. § USA Wine
West, Sausalito, CA
270742
2017 Corbières Les Romarines (Best Buy) ^
This is dark and tangy, like crushed blackberries with some of the leaves mixed in. § Traditions & Innovations, NY

FITOU
270614

90 | Gérard Bertrand

$19

2016 Fitou Grenache/Carignan (Best Buy) ^
A blend of grenache with carignan that's
undergone a carbonic maceration for two
weeks, this is both juicy and black, with licorice notes and cool, slatey stony notes framing the berry flavors. That sense of cool stone
WINE & SPIRITS

JUNE 2019

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Wine & Spirits - June 2019

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