LCBO Sale Wine of the Week: March 28

Château Saint-Germain 2016 Bordeaux Supérieur (Bordeaux, France)

Sale $13.45, Regular $16.45
Discount (until April 3): $3.00
LCBO #152587 | 750 mL bottle

Tastes like: Black cherries, plum, blackberries, tobacco, leather with a little vanilla and dried leaf. An earthy wine — seriously “Old World” — but super sexy.
Pairs with: Steaks, grilled stuff, mushroom sautée, lamb (rack or stew), boar… anything big and scary that you can throw onto a grill (though you must kill it yourself).
Good for: Reading the New York Times while your meat marinates. Better have a few more bottles for dinner though.
Alcohol: 14%
Drink: Now to 2020.

Why we're drinking this
Good Bordeaux for under 15 bucks? Yeah. No brainer. The French just do it right, and to your peril do you write them off. New World wines be damned. Here’s a solid cheap Bordeaux that does everything right: it’s heavy on the Merlot, which is what you want, because it means you’ll get some nice texture and red berry fruit. But it’s got that austere “eff you” Bordeaux/French sensibility in spades. It’s not all soft and “easy to drink”… it’s a seriously deep and complex wine. For the price, you can’t get much better. For context: This wine at $20 would still be a good deal. Take that to the bank.

Tasting note
Cedar, eucalyptus and plum/blackberries… that’s the nose. It’s bold, and might in fact clear your blocked airways. Lots of plum and black berries here, along with generous dark cherries and a fair amount of cedar/oak/pine. It’s woody, but with concentrated fruit and substantial alcohol (14%) that adds texture and kick. Cheap Bordeaux (and I don’t mean that pejoratively) is often thin and nasty, but this wine is friendly, generous and, still, kind of obtuse and dismissive. Like the French, I suppose. Sweeping statement alert! Yeah, but kind of right… right? Get this wine. It’s good.

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