With the excitement over the superb quality of the 2005 vintage coupled with the anxiety over the stratospheric pricing of the vintage, this is the right time for lovers of Bordeaux to rediscover some of the classified growths whose quality has improved tremendously over recent years.  While the prices of these wines have also increased along with their Wine Spectator and Parker scores, they are now selling for one-tenth the prices of first growth Bordeaux, far below historical averages of one-half to one-third.  After the three excellent vintages of 2000, 2003, and 2005 in the Médoc and better than average vintages in both 2001 and 2004, my wife Kassidy and I decided to visit Bordeaux for several days at the end of the 2006 harvest to taste, visit Châteaux, and find values in the rapidly changing Bordeaux marketplace.

Our host for the visit was Patrick Marateaux, the proprietor of Château Branaire Ducru.  The Marateauxs bought Branaire in 1988 and set about to completely revamp the 50 hectare (125 acre) vineyard and winery.  Since the purchase, the Branaire has poured millions into a completely new state of the art winery, gorgeous new tasting room, new offices and significant improvements in replantings in the vineyard.  While the early vintages such as the 1989, 1990, 1995 and 1996 showed improvements over the wines made by the previous owners, the results since 2000 have been nothing short of spectacular.  While the 2000, 2003, and 2005 vintage have all scored in the 95 point range, the prices have increased from about $40 on futures basis for the 2000 vintage to $70 for the 2005 vintage.  Compare this to increases for first growths from about $225 for the 2000 vintage to $750 for the 2005 vintage and the incredible quality of Branaire screams out great value.  Just about to come on the market is a very good 2004 vintage (92 points), which is an absolute bargain at about $40 per bottle. 

Among our other visits were to Smith Haut-Lafitte, where the Cathiards have managed to combine one of the worlds great wine destinations, the hotel and spa at Sources de Caudalie and both great red and white Grave from their cru classé vineyard.  Once again investments in the winery and in the vineyard, along with excellent winemaking, careful selection and good consulting have resulted in wines that really capture their terroir in the Pessac-Léognan appellation of the Graves.  When the Cathiards first bought the winery in 1991 they faced a string of mediocre vintages caused by bad weather between 1991 and 1994.  After producing good wines in 1995 and 1996, the Cathiards really broke out of the pack with an excellent 1998 vintage. 

Once again 2000 through 2005 have been a great run of vintages with the 2005 red likely being the best wine ever produced at the estate.  The 2004 white Smith Haut-Lafitte stands out  as a mineral based dynamic white grave at about $45 a bottle and the 2003 red, a member of the “Wine Spectator” top 100 is a standout at less than $50 a bottle.  The reds are wines of great structure that will easily cellar and improve for the next 10 to 20 years.  The Graves is currently producing some of the great values in Bordeaux today.  Château Haut Bailly, where Jean Delmas retired in 2000 has been consulting enologist with the 2004 vintage, has raised the high standards of this Château even higher.  Other Châteaux from the Graves that are currently selling absolutely great wines at reasonable prices are Domaine Chevalier and Malartic La Gravière. 

One of our major tasting visits to an outstanding property in Pauillac was to Château Pontet-Canet.  Proprietor Alfred Tesseron and his winemaking team has worked wonders in improving this vineyards wines over the past decade.  One of the largest vineyards in the Médoc at 75 hectares (about 180 acres), the château is right across the road from Château Mouton Rothschild.  Classified only a fifth growth in 1855, for the past decade it has been producing far above its rank, making wines at the level of Bordeaux second growths.  The trend really started with the 1996 vintage, but the 2000, 2003, and 2005 have each in its turn ranked as probably the best wines ever made at Pontet-Canet.  Compared to the current prices of the first and second growths and the prices of top cabernets from California, the wines of Pontet-Canet are some of the best values for the dollar in wine today.   Our Bordeaux visit did include some visits to friends at the first growth vineyards.  A very memorable lunch was the pickers lunch on the last day of picking at Château Margaux with proprietor Corinne Mentzelopolous and director general Paul Pontallier.  Picking is quite a family affair with Pauls eight-year old son helping to push newly picked Cabernet Sauvignon grapes into the de-stemmer.  There are about 350 pickers at Margaux and befitting a first growth they are served a high quality luncheon and, on this day, Pavillon Rouge 1995.  We also had a chance to taste the Margaux 1995 which is showing extremely well right now and had a chance to taste Margaux 2001, an underrated vintage and excellent value for Margaux.  It was a pleasure to end lunch with a 2001 German Auslese and some 1961 Château Climens. 

Another fabulous opportunity for us was the chance to taste 2003, 2004, and 2005 Latour at the Château.   The tasting demonstrated, as have my notes from first growth tastings in recent years, that Latour is consistently the first among the first.  However, this is not a charity effort, Latour is now being priced for Russian oil moguls, Hong Kong billionaires and New York hedge fund managers.  Fredrick Engerer, the dynamic director of Latour was not there during my visit as he was supervising the first harvest at Francois Pinaults newly acquired Burgundy property of Domain René Engel.  One of the absolute highlights of our visit was a spectacular luncheon at Chateau de Farges, with the Comte de Lur Saluces.  Now that he is retired from dYquem, the Comte is devoting all of his energy to de Farges and this extraordinary historic property is producing Sauterne as good as any property in Sauterne at one-sixth the price of dYquem.  While production is small, only about 15 thousand bottles a year, de Fargues is worth seeking out as the incredible 2001 and 1997 vintages that we enjoyed at lunch superbly demonstrated. 

A quick note on the 2006 vintage.  On October 3^rd, our first full day in Bordeaux, the region was hit by an unusual Atlantic storm that came on shore near Arcachon and spread over Bordeaux.  Much of Bordeaux lost electricity for anywhere from 3 to 12 hours, and numerous beautiful old trees were knocked down.  This storm also dropped anywhere from a half-inch to an inch of rain over just a few hours and had winds up to 50 to 60 miles per hour.  For a Château not finished with picking by October 3^rd, picking was temporarily suspended as the pickers could not safely be out in the vineyards.  Through the end of August, 2006 had been a carbon copy of the fabulous 2005 vintage.  However, during September there were average rains and cooler than average temperatures, thus denying the repeat of 2005.  Those vintners who pick for balance as well as ripeness and who had finished the harvest before the storm will wind up with a very good vintage.  Picking had already been completed at such properties as Branaire, Smith Haut-Lafitte, Haut-Brion, La Mission Haut-Brion and most of Saint Emilion and Pomerol.  Some of the larger estates were not quite done and it is likely that the last couple days of grapes picked in the poor weather will wind up in second wines.  The sugar and alcohol levels between picking on October 2^nd and October 3^rd fell by one degree because of the additional water being brought up into the grapes.  In general, it is unlikely that any producer matches 2005.  However, for some Châteaux, 2006 may be better than 2004 and for others not as good as 2004.  Unlike even vintages such as 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005, 2006 like 2003, will reward those who carefully choose which Château to buy at good values.