When I am my local wine shop, the Fine Wine Source, I may get a chance to taste several wines.  It may appear that they monopolize my writings at times, but it is because I taste whatever wines that they think I may like, or that my Bride may like, plus we also get a chance to talk wine with out it always being dollars and cents.  Wine is a product that is retailed, and unless you are buying wine from a governmental agency, that product should be romanced, just like a man’s suit.  It is so boring to buy wine in a grocery store or a convenience store or even nowadays at a gas station.  I want to discuss the wine and get some background and tasting is a real bonus.  I also try not to write about more then two wines at a time, as I am not writing a thesis. This is my fun and hopefully I can pass some useful information about a wine that you might encounter, when I am not discussing some dusty old bottle from the cellar.

They wanted me to try Le G de Chateau Guiraud Bordeaux Blanc 2019 and I felt like a snail or a slowpoke, because we haven’t even cracked into the six pack of the 2018 and it was as delicious as I can remember the ’18 being.  Chateau Guiraud is classified as a Premier Cru in the 1855 Classification of Sauternes and Barsac.  It was originally known as the Noble House of Bayle, but it was bought by Pierre Guiraud in 1766 and passed through many generations of the family until it was bought by a group of French winemakers in 2006.  The Chateau has two-hundred-ten-acres, of which the majority of the land is planted with Semillon and the balance is Sauvignon Blanc.  Along with the famed Chateau Guiraud, their second wine label is Petit Guiraud which is made from younger vines.  They also produce Le Dauphine de Guiraud (Sauternes) and Chateau Guiraud Pavillon Rouge (Bordeaux).   Then there is Le G de Chateau Guiraud their Bordeaux Blanc Sec or Dry White Bordeaux wine. While most Bordeaux Blanc Sec wines are predominately Sauvignon Blanc, Le G de Chateau Guiraud is fifty/fifty.   The fruit is manually harvested using small baskets and fermentation is for about three weeks.  Eighty percent of the wine is aged in the barrels from the last vintage of Chateau Guiraud and twenty percent is done in Stainless Steel. The average aging in the barrels is seven months with regular stirring of the lees.  This is a very lush and full-bodied white wine with a delicate gold tinge, a very refreshing wine that leaves one chewing the wine to appreciate the suppleness of the fruit and the terroir that lingers and beckons for another taste.  The good news is that we can get more, when we need some and the vintages have been great.

Saintayme Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2018 by Denis Durantou was a great wine to begin with.  The sad news is that Denis Durantou passed away in May at the young age of 62 and he was the owner and winemaker at Chateau L’Eglise Clinet, La Petite Eglise Cruzelles, Montlandrie, La Chenade and Saintayme.  For a Saint-Emilion Grand Cru this is a very reasonable priced wine and the wine comes from a nine-hectare parcel of thirty-five-year-old Merlot vines.  This wine is pure Merlot and probably aged for nine to ten months in oak, of which thirty percent is new.  The tannins were a bit strong, but with the black fruit and some red fruit already blending, especially with a soft red fruit nose, it was very easy to drink and I think that it would be perfect now or even ten years from now, especially since I am known to forget about wines and let them mellow.  I really can’t think of a better way to spend an hour or so, then with tasting some wines.