Half Amazing

No, that's not an airline bottle of Bordeaux; nor are your eyes deceiving you. It's a half bottle - dwarfed by a gigantic jar of dijon mustard. Elisabeth goes through one of those in a coupla weeks!

Speaking of the wife, it was she who purchased the 375 ml. Brought it back from London for me. There's a shop called Lea and Sandeman in Kensington (there're also locations in Chelsea and Barnes I see) that has the best half-bottle list we've ever seen. Half bottles are more than twice as easy to pack in a carry-on bag, y'know.

The salesman Elisabeth dealt with recommended Chateau Meyney 2002 as an underrated Left Bank Bordeaux. I guess Sainte Estèphe gets overshadowed by all the neighboring First Growth action, which must draw attention like so many tremendous pots of fancy mustard. You can't see it in my photo, but the Meyney is labeled "Cru Bourgeois," which means it's in the classification system a notch below the entire "Cru Classé" hierarchy. Did you know that already? The other thing you're supposed to remember when shopping for Bordeaux (if you want to be a sophisticated European shopper like Elisabeth) is that the Left Bank is the side where they use mostly Cabernet Savignon. (I forgot that and had to ask when choosing the bottle of Pomerol I'll be writing about in a week or two.)

One more hifalutin fact before the tasting notes: The price of the half bottle was 10.95 pound sterling.

I liked it a lot! This despite a dominant note of oak barrel - in this case convincingly old, dry and clean. Maybe this is what a tobacco barn smells like. I didn't get much fruit on the nose, but without straining a bit could taste black plum, fresh fig and -- after it opened up a bit -- plump cranberry. The finish was surprisingly long for a young wine. I'd bet it was the classic Brodeaux structure that inspired the salesman to call it underrated. Nothing says "victory" to the value wine shopper like tasting a bit of what all the fuss is about without going through all the fuss.