Haut-Médoc Red Bordeaux Blend

Solid classically styled Bordeaux. Dark currents, some mid fruits, stones, dry topsoil, dark rich earth, lead pencil shavings, tobacco, leather, soft spice, light baking spices, withering dark flowers, round acidity, nicely woven with good evolution and integration making for well balanced and smooth finish. Nice producer from this region that prices good value. Fine pair with the brisket.

There are good steak wines and then there are steak WINES! Not that this is the best wine or steak wines I’ve had. It was simply birthed for steak. Allen Brothers Strip Steak. Seasoned with coarse Garlic Salt/ Pepper and Napa Valley Rub from wholespice.com. If you haven’t had your steak this way, my highest recommendation. The fat & gristle are perfect w/ the 08 Belle-Vue. If you olive oil, heavy coarse salt & pepper your bake potato at 475 for an hour & a half, you’ll discover how great, crispy/crunchy/complex a potato shell can be. Older Bordeaux can be good on its own but with beef or lamb, it’s just a marriage made in heaven. Here’s the rub for my friends & I, we can’t find a steak better than we make. That’s what the Covid years firmed up for us. The 08 vintage was saved with late good weather. It sits somewhere between the good and very good vintages. Drinks better earlier than great to grand vintages. Slightly over achieving its young critical reviews.

The palate shows; drier dark currents-blackberries, black raspberries, black plum dark, not quite ripe cherries, raspberries edges. Dark chocolate baking bar (that’s what French oak does), lead pencil shavings, dark rich earth with dry leaves, limestone powder, dry river stone, dry tobacco, chewy leather, dark, intense spices, nutmeg, some cinnamon, vanillin, caramel hues, saline, fresh & withering, dark, purple flowers with lavender hues, nice acidity with a well structured & balanced, rounded meaty tannin, floral finish that lasts minutes. Medoc is always the place to look for nice wines with value…even better in excellent vintages. Even better in 5 years.

It has another 10 years plus of good drinking ahead properly stored.

2018 vintage

2016 vintage. Very good indeed, and the 2018 is even better.

Vintage 2015 | dark colour, autumn impression, cassis, laurel, cedar, earthy. Very good wine.

We had the 2000 with the Allen Brothers Ribcap’s. Might have been the most tender cut of meat we had. Even more tender than their Bone-in Fillets. Allen Brothers is currently selling to consumers during Covid-19 as most restaurants are shut or barely open. Order online before the go back to restaurant only sales. You’ll be glad you did. You can see on their site what revered steakhouses they sell their beef etc. Cooked them in the Green Egg. 👌

Perhaps the first 2000 that I’ve opened that was truly ready. Yet, it will improve for another 5-7 years and hold for another 5-10 years properly stored.

The tannins were round and supple...like velvet. Good balance fruit & earth. The structure, tension, length and balance just hit a good stride. Dark, rich, but, muted fruits, dark chocolate, mocha powder, touch of caramel, nicely layer baking spices, dark rich earth, clay, stone, fresh, soft tobacco notes, saddle-wood, soft graphite notes with fresh & withering dark flowers. The acidity nice & round...definitely shows the strength of the vintage. The finish, well balanced-knitted, plush, velvety, flat out elegant & smooth.

Photos of, Chateau Belle-Vue, living area shot of inside the Chateau, perfect fruit ready for harvest and their barrel room.

Vintage 2005 / sultry smell, classic and rich, cedar and leather, good concentration

Velvety, sumptuous, dark, brooding, plums, blackberries. Really superb for a 2014.

Another bdx qpr killer, under €15. Plush and dense, with textured / layered dark fruit and chewy tannins on the finish. Love the herbaceousness that kicks in to give balance and complexity. Has the mouthfeel, refinement, and structure of wines 3x the price. Excellent, just entering its window, bright future ahead.

Vintage 2005 / beautiful developed, elegance and power, laurel, cedar and chocolate in smell, great balance.