French Reds

[muichoi]

How was the Petrus? I hope it wasn't one of the thousands of fakes with which Paris is currently flooded!

[sharonb]

Petrus is so not worth the hype. This was a bottle my boyfriend had had stored in his cave in Chinon for nearly ten years and decided we should drink it to celebrate moving in together. We had three other friends over.

A year later, we mentioned drinking Petrus to our friend Philippe, who had been there, and he said, "Yeah, would be interesting." I said: "But you DID, don't you remember?"

Not a memorable experience, and again not memorable when I tasted the 1996 at a tasting for Moueix's opening of a new Paris-region wine store last December. Assumably it was not counterfeit as Moueix owns Petrus, and it was similar to what we had tasted in a full bottle at home of a comparable vintage (not a recent purchase, as described above), so...

Anyone who can explain the mystique will be welcome to me.

[muichoi]

I think the mystique is a Pomerol/merlot thing-wines that don't place too many demands on the palates of the world's wealthy-though to be fair it is not really meant to be judged at this age.Certainly hard to understand what's so exciting, though, I agree. Now DRC-that's another story!

[sharonb]

Agreed. I'm much more of a Burgundy fan.

Edited June 10, 2007 by sharonb (log)

[pierre45]

Petrus is so not worth the hype. This was a bottle my boyfriend had had stored in his cave in Chinon for nearly ten years and decided we should drink it to celebrate moving in together. We had three other friends over.

A year later, we mentioned drinking Petrus to our friend Philippe, who had been there, and he said, "Yeah, would be interesting." I said: "But you DID, don't you remember?"

Not a memorable experience, and again not memorable when I tasted the 1996 at a tasting for Moueix's opening of a new Paris-region wine store last December. Assumably it was not counterfeit as Moueix owns Petrus, and it was similar to what we had tasted in a full bottle at home of a comparable vintage (not a recent purchase, as described above), so...

Anyone who can explain the mystique will be welcome to me.

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Totally agree.We celebrated the new century with a 1982 Petrus.

It was quite pleasant .good fruit and balance and a lingering aftertaste but nowhere worth the cost and the hype.Not a memorable experience at all.

The hype is caused by the media repeating the same cliche.ITs bought by people to impress .

[loladrian]

I am happy to read about and participate in a not-so-serious french wine discussion! And how timely. Last week, my friend and I made a plan to spend 30 Euros each on 6 different bottles of french wine and try one a night to see which were drinkable in that price range. We found quite a few standard and mediocre wines, but one that we particularily liked was a Bordeaux (sorry Dave, not white!) 2006 Château Genibon-Blanchereau Côtes de Bourg. At 3,60 a bottle from Monoprix, I have no complaints. Somewhat spicy and herbal, reminisent (to a very amateur taster) of a nice Rioja. Still have a few to go, and hopefully more to report. Cheers!

[John Talbott]

Host's Note:This is actually from Vinotas not me but I couldn't split the already split post.

Our current house red is a 2004 Usseglio Chateauneuf-du-Pape, also retailing in NYC for about $20. This is a delicious red that also mates well with tons of food (BBQ and steak anyone?) or is nice on its own.

[Dave Hatfield]

(sorry Dave, not white!)

Great! I only started with white because what with the weather turning hot we're drinking more of it.

Your red is noted & will be tried if I can find it. (Monoprix seem thin on the ground down here.)

I think you & your friend hit it about right at a 5 Euro average price per bottle. I think you can find pretty palatable reds at that price. A couple we like are 'Reserve des Barons' a Bordeaux and Raymond IV a Gaillac. We can get both from HyperU & LeClerc.