You do not have to be very far away from the limelight in Bordeaux before the wines can again be acquired at affordable prices and if you then aim just a little higher than the supermarkets’ lowest common denominator, there is plenty of happy drinkability and not least some wines that come with a promoting freshness like many of the other wines served at the Danish dinner tables today often miss.
One of the many overlooked talents of the time is Frédéric Bellot who in 2014 returned home to the family after being absorbed for 8 years first as a trainee and then as an assistant winemaker at the Château Haut-Brion itself. The years in the distinguished company had not made him more proud of the family wines, which like so many other Bordeaux wines most years were marred by too much tannic acid and so little fruit that the personality disappeared, and really his father Daniel Bellot did not disagree.
So the two sat down and worked out something resembling a Russian 5-year plan, which was to liquidate all the vines that did not deliver in quality and during the transition period sell everything from that that could not create joy. This has meant significant changes on this Château Ploizeau, which is the 16 ha. large almost neighboring property, which family has rented for “a really attractive service” since 1995, and which Daniel Bellot called our “bread and butter”. Now more and better clones are being planted with Merlot, and while waiting for them to contribute, this “Cuvée Excellence” is being marketed, where about 40% of the grape material is sacrificed on the altar of quality.
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