I am sure that everyone has experienced todays prices on things so I don't have to go into just how much they have gone up. You would think that with prices going up companies would either have no choice but to drop them just a bit or that there would be sales on things as people wouldn't have the money or in the case of wine, disposable income to buy them. That however is not what is happening. Since we are here to talk about wine in particular, I will focus on the prices of that item. The other day I went to check out some wine on some of my favorite wineries and BAM, was I in for a shock. Lets take a wine from the Peju winery in the Napa Valley. Their regular 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon is selling for $70...DAMN! Think about that, a baseline Cab for that price. Add in $18 for shipping and that price becomes even crazier. The same thing goes for the Pine Ridge winery, $70 for their base Cab. Tell me people are struggling won't ya. How are these companies staying in business? I have to be honest as always guys, with prices like this they deserve to close down I have zero sympathy for them. Eventually the people shopping for these types of items that have now become luxuries for many, will simply have no choice but to stop bying them. Without getting into politics I will say that we as Americans are caught up in a sad but deadly game of "good cop, bad cop" and I will leave it at that. Right now, it is time to get into wine.
Today I will be taking a look at the 2022 Château de Beauregard-Ducourt - Entre-Deux-Mers . The wine is a blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc and cost me $12.99. The bottle is unfortunately screw cap sealed and comes in at 12.5% alcohol. The grapes for this wine come from the Entre-Deux-Mers region of France.
Alright, let's get into the label on the bottle for a minute. As usual the French label impresses. Just like every other French wine in existence, there is a Chateau prominently front & center on the bottle. I always think this is so impressive looking as the first thing a customer sees. I guess I am a sucker for a nice home :) I also love the font chosen for the lettering and the placement of the words as well. Overall, I think the label presents the wine nicely.
As far as the nose on this wine goes, I am getting what appears to be fresh & clean notes of stone fruit such as White Apricot and White Peach, both of which come across perception wise as being unripe. I am also picking up some light lemon as well. All of these notes are light and promise a very clean wine but we will see about that.
On the palate now, the wine is certainly not over the top in the tropical sense although it does offer itself up with enough of that fresh & clean liveliness that I enjoyed. You can taste the clay/limestone soil the grapes were grown in and I like that as well. There is also a driness to the wine but I don't believe it is a driness that will offend those of you (us) who are already appreciate and are very particular about this style of wine. I am picking up some unripe nectarine and peach here as well but these two notes have just enough flavor and liveliness to manage to pull things off rather nicely. Acidity is on the higher side but nothing foreboding.
This acidity is needed here in this wine as it goes right along with its other notes perfectly You can also taste the Sauvignon Blanc here as it offers up its customary lemongrass note but in nowhere near the presence you are use to having it presented in a New Zealand style Sauvignon Blanc. As I said, this is a wine that is overall on the rather lighter side in general but has that acidity going for it in a good way. A nice green note is offered up here as well and it goes right along with the sense of that soil composition that I mentioned earlier. Soft melon is here as well and it is noticeable and adds a nice touch to the wine overall. There is also a sort of spice to the wine as well and while it might sound crazy... it is a stone type spice. Yes, I know there is no such thing but you go ahead and taste the wine and tell me that you disagree. Once again I have to sat the word "unripe" because there is a lemon here that is (you guessed it) unripe. Yes, the lemon works in conjunction with everything else the wine is offering up yet at the very same time, it presents the impression of being a fruit that is not quite ready to eat. In the case of a wine however, this unripeness when done right, can make for a wonderful note as it does in this wine.
In the end although this wine is obviously designed for the Spring/Summertime although I don't see it going over too well for the average pool enjoying, wine drinker. I feel this wine is more geared towards those with discerning palates rather then those looking for a pool pounder type white wine. This wine as I said is on the green side which I have learned to really enjoy but I do believe this to be an acquired taste and not one which the "normal" wine drinker would care for. This is a rather weird wine to describe and I myself find it a rather strange wine to be honest.
Did I enjoy the wine? Yeah... I did but would I buy it again? Nah, probably not. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing "wrong" with it but it is just simply a wine that I would pass on as there are other wines along this line that I would much prefer that I find more appealing. On The Desert Wine guy rating scale, I am giving the wine 90 points.
The Desert Wine Guy
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