The wine is a very lovely deep purple color, leading to some bright ruby along the edges. The nose is quite nice, with wonderful notes of sweet cherry, blueberry, leather and tar that seems quite appropriate for a Medoc. The taste has some nice dark fruit at the outset, plum and ripe berries with scattered floral notes that transitions nicely to some dusty limestone and baking spice notes midpalate. The finish is delightful, as the well balanced tannins support a long, luscious dry ending to a lovely sipping Bordeaux.
Overall I would rate this wine a solid 8, as it's a nice example of a Medoc that is drinking very well now, and it was a bargain at the World Market for less than $15! As for my more traditional pairing, tonight I am enjoying this wine with a nice New Zealand lamb chop grilled medium rare and topped with a bit of French sheeps milk Feta over a bed of baby spinach, the ripe fruit and earthiness of the wine really accents the beautiful flavors of the lamb, cheers!
Thanks for the post. Based partly on your recommendation, I snagged a couple of bottles of this wine at World Market the other day--with all the discounts (including 25% off on mixed cases) it was on $11.24 a bottle. I'm usually hesitant about buying older vintages that have been released more than a year or so, because you never can be sure whether the wine was stored at a proper temperature all those years. But Chateau Griviere's website says they store their wines in their own underground cellar and don't release them until they are aged enough to drink! So these bottles have only been on the shelves for a year or so. One doesn't get many chances to grab a properly aged Bordeaux for under 12 bucks!
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