Wine find of the week: Chateau Cantelaudette 2006 Graves
December 12th, 2008 by Besha Rodell in Drink
Here’s what always annoys me about wine writing: babbling about floral notes and up-front fruit is all good and well, but for those of us who don’t have an encyclopedic memory, it very rarely matters – not because we don’t care, but because we aren’t likely to stumble upon the bottle in question. I’ve read about wines that sounded so good I wrote them down and kept my eye out for them, but that is not the norm. What I want to know is, what great, affordable wine should I be looking for at the nearest wine shop? Where can I actually find a wine worth buying?
In an effort to address that need, I’m launching “Wine find of the week,” a regular spot on the blog where I’ll tell you exactly where you can go to get a certain, decent bottle of wine. Because my budget is limited (as I’m assuming yours is – if not, bully for you), I’ll be keeping my finds in the under $20-range.
A couple of disclaimers before we get started: while I hope to cover a broad range of wines in this spot, the wine find of the week will reflect my personal tastes a bit, which come with some prejudices. I hope to challenge many of those prejudices – perhaps there is a huge, buttery California chardonnay that I’ll come to love (I doubt it). I’m a bit of a Francophile, so be forewarned. Very bold red wines with huge tannins give me migraine headaches. I’m talking, like, after one sip. So I probably won’t be covering too many of those here.
Beyond that, I’ll try to be as broad as possible. If you have tips for me – especially if you’ve found a fantastic bottle at a local store that you think I should feature here, please email me about it: besha.rodell@creativeloafing.com. And now to this week’s find:
Chateau Cantelaudette 2006 Graves – $16
Available at Tinderbox Vino 100 in the Lenox Mall
Lord, it’s mall season – I swear, every year I promise myself I’m not going to end up at the mall for holiday shopping, and every year I do. This year, I came across Vino 100, which is in the Tinderbox store (near Urban Outfitters). The store’s premise is that they have 100 wines for under $25. I didn’t find a whole lot there that excited me, but I did find this – a white Bordeaux that’s a blend of Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle. I was pretty surprised – this would be a wine to stump someone in a blind taste test. Big, tropical, almost over-ripe – it reminded me of some Australian Semillons – but then it finishes dry and almost smoky, without any unpleasant lingering oak. This is a fairly rich white, and would stand up to a lot of food, even some game dishes. If you get dragged to the mall this year, sneak away (”It’s a secret” actually works quite well this time of year) and grab a bottle.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
excellent idea! You are exactly right when saying that most bottles generally reviewed are hard to find. There are a few major wine store in town, why not reviewing things one can find there? This is what I hope to read about. I am looking forward to reading your column on a regular basis.
December 18th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
“Here’s what always annoys me about wine writing: babbling about floral notes and up-front fruit is all good and well…”
but then you say: “Big, tropical, almost over-ripe – it reminded me of some Australian Semillons – but then it finishes dry and almost smoky, without any unpleasant lingering oak.”
Who’s babbling now? Descriptions help me, so don’t diss on ‘em!
December 18th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Descriptions absolutely help – “all good and well” means that it’s, uh, all good and well. The babbling doesn’t annoy me (and yes, I like to babble as much as the next wine geek) – the emphasis on flavor profile without any direction on where you can get it annoys me. I find that only the most ardent wine buyers – not the rest of us – will remember the babbling long enough to locate the wine in a retail location. My goal is to pair babbling with retail locations.
February 13th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
I was wondering if you stopped doing your wine reviews… It has been a long time since you did your last one.
February 13th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Hi nelu,
You’re right – it’s been a long time. I was out of the country for a while (kind of a long while) and I’ve been playing catch up ever since. Wine find of the week will re-launch early next week.