It's time to stock up on some brilliantly-priced everyday red Bordeaux. Jean Luc has created his Presidial Bordeaux bottling to be enjoyed young. It is delicious and a wonderful example of how expressive Bordeaux Merlot can be. The blend in this wine is 80% Merlot with the remainder split evenly between Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.
Presidial Bordeaux is all concentrated fruit and none of those vegetal, reedy flavors or rough tannins that often mar a lower-priced Bordeaux that is not meticulously made. This Presidial 2011 is quite perfect and no surprise considering that Jean-Luc Thunevin is the winemaker.
Here are some tasting notes: rich and full, with plenty of fruit. We are seduced by this wine, not just its attractive price. Explosive fruits, raspberry, blackberry, hints of roses, full palate, soft, smooth tannins, with live and fresh finish, little touch of astringency.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Presidial is going to give Chateau Latour a run for its money. But, what I am saying is that this wine tastes way beyond its pedigree.
Here is the Wine Spectator review of Jean-Luc Thunevin's Presidial 2010 (the 2011 has not yet been reviewed) "Ripe and fleshy, offering velvety plum and blackberry fruit, with a smoky, friendly, inviting finish. Tasted non-blind. -J.M."
You all know who Jean Luc Thunevin is, don't you? You could say that he started the whole "garage" movement back in 1989. Garage wines, as you probably know by now, are small production wines from tiny parcels of wines that are tended as preciously as orchid gardens. Jean Luc bought a tiny parcel, on the "wrong side of the tracks" in St Emilion and proved to the venerable St Emilion establishment in a few vintages that one could make a silk purse from a moose's ear if you did things like de-stemming by hand and severe green harvesting and keeping the yields very, very low.
He called his wine Valandraud. It led the way in the quality revolution in St Emilion that persists to this day. Now, even the old establishment left Bank types are copying his every move. He taught Bordeaux, by example, that just because you don't have the best terroir out there, with good vineyard work and meticulous vinification, you can conceive a wine way above its class. It has always been Jean Luc Thunevin's objective to get the most out of any terroir whether it be a fancy cru or a petite unclassified. He just wants to make great wine.
And so, when I tasted the opulent, fruity ripeness and soft tannic structure of the 2011 Presidial I knew Jean Luc had come through with another winner.
And best of all, I will feel no guilt uncorking these bottles because of the price, but neither will I feel I have made any compromise toward quality. Thank you, Jean Luc.
-Cynthia Hurley French Wines
