2009 Chateau Peyruchet Bordeaux

I have been such a slacker with my blog, but I can be forgiven right?  After all, it's summer time now, and much easier to enjoy a glass of wine on the patio, far from the computer keyboard!  So a couple weeks ago I was at my favorite wine merchant and all around great Italian grocer, G. B. Russo's & Sons in Grand Rapids and among the delicacies I picked up that day were a few bottles of the 2009 Bordeaux vintage, still rumored to be one of the best vintages of the last three decades.  Now call me skeptical, but they said that all through 2010, and I even ordered a case of Margaux futures based on the excitement, but that was all surpassed this year, when now all of a sudden the 2010 vintage is all the rage.  So what gives?  Are these both awesome vintages, or have the chateaux come up with a genius marketing plan to sell futures based on perpetually more awesome vintages?  You know what they say, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me...

I guess I will reserve judgement until I finally get my case of Margaux and can compare it to some truly spectacular 2005 vintages I have on hand.  In the meantime, of the 2009 Bordeaux I've had the pleasure of tasting, they are all quite good, but nothing that had me dancing a jig and shooting off fireworks.  In fact, since they are all still quite young for Bordeaux, they often left me wanting, knowing that they would be so much the better having been allowed to age another year or five!

Tonight's wine is just such a creature, a nice wine drinking so-so right now, but destined to improve over time.  The 2009 Chateau Peyruchet Bordeaux is a very nice classic blend from the Gironde containing 70% merlot, 15% cabernet sauvignon and 15% cabernet franc, certainly a familiar combination to any fans of the bordeaux blends produced in the Pacific Northwest.  On the nose it exhibits hints of leather and spice, and you just get the overwhelming impression that this wine wants to be truly great when it grows up!  The taste is already quite dry, but the youthful tannins give it a bite, sort of like a really annoying small dog.  But throughout the tasting experience, you just long to forgive the youthful indiscretions of this wine and come back for more when it's had time to mature.  Even so, tonight this wine was ultimately saved by pairing it with the surf and turf I had for dinner, as even the worst wine tastes acceptable with a lobster tail and a NY strip grilled to perfection and paired with some fresh grilled corn on the cob!

For the time being, I would give this one a 7, knowing that in a year or two it could easily be a point or two higher.  And for the price now (I bought this one on sale for $12), it might be worth cellaring a bottle or two to see what happens next.  Salut!