The Bordeaux edge
COUNTLESS bottled wines are available in the market today, but nothing quite comes close to Bordeaux wine, the gold standard in the intoxicating world of wine. Ask any wine connoisseur, or avid wine drinker, and she will talk, earnestly and indefatigably, about how it tastes different in more ways than one.
“When you taste this wine, it has texture and emotion. You feel the warmth and tickle of the spreading spice, tannin. It’s not just onedimensional. Its taste is very complex,” explains Cherie Ramirez, Store Supervisor at Wine Story, a local purveyor of the finest selection of Bordeaux wines.
Bordeaux, a port city in southwestern France, enjoys the distinction of being the greatest wine region in the world and the birthplace of some of the finest wines ever produced.
Its geographical features have made Bordeaux largely inimitable. It has the wine-producing areas called the Left Bank and the Right Bank divided by the Gironde estuary, which is formed by the convergence of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers. Each bank features a terroir – a set of conditions that includes the weather, topography and soil – conducive to growing different varieties of grapes. Soil-wise, the Left Bank is mostly gravelly. By contrast, clay and limestone soils dominate the Right Bank.
Médoc is an appellation d’origine controlee (AOC) on the Left Bank. AOC is produced in a particular place under strict controls resulting in higher quality.
“Bordeaux’s unique terroir allows for both a sense of complexity and excellence,” says Hubert de Boüard, of Château Angélus, in the Saint-Émilion appellation.
According to the Web site Vins de Bordeaux, Médoc has alluvial terraces of gravel deposits, making a red wine taste structured, robust and round, and smell of licorice, red and black berries and small fruits. Graves, another Left Bank-AOC, produces wine with a supple, firm and rich taste, and aromatic of spices, chocolate and vanilla.
On the Right Bank, there is Saint-Émilion, which possesses a limestone plateau surrounded by chalky soils with a clay- loam texture. Saint- Émilion wine is warm and solid but has a velvety tannic structure. A wine hailing from Pomerol, meanwhile, smells of violet, red berries and truffles, and tastes refined, intense and sensual.
Six grape varieties – three for red wines and three for white wines – are widely planted in the vineyards of Bordeaux. “In- depth knowledge of the soils has made it possible to alter the choice of varieties to make the most of the aromatic dimension of the wines,” says Vins de Bordeaux.
For red wines, the three most commonly used grape varieties are Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. The supple and round Merlot is the most planted grape variety; It reaches its full potential when planted in cool, moist soil. Cabernet Sauvignon offers firm and fine- grained tannins, and is very aromatic of black fruit, blackcurrant and licorice. Cabernet Franc, meanwhile, is a medium- colored complementary grape variety.
For white wines, there are Sémillon, a round and full- bodied grape variety used in mellow and sweet wines; Sauvignon Blanc, the preferred grape variety in dry whites that gives the drinks the necessary acidity and mineral character; and Muscadelle, a round and powerful variety used in dry and sweet whites.
The quality of a Bordeaux wine is determined in part by the interplay of the tannin, acidity and alcohol. These components must be balanced, says Carla Santos, Wine Education Manager at Wine Story.
In addition to balance, there is blending, which combines the exciting characteristics of designated Bordeaux grape varieties into one sensational whole. The art of blending has been refined by winegrowers over the centuries.
These very winegrowers, in fact, are deeply responsible for the prestige of Bordeaux wines, not just because they plant and harvest the grapes with serious care, but because they imbue the resulting wines with their individualities.
“Bordeaux’s history is reinforced by the legacy of local family owners who have given their own identities to each vineyard. As a result, we produce great whites, reds and sweet wines, which reflect the personality of those individual property owners,” Mr. Boüard says. “These great wines would not exist were it not for the generation after generation of great families and vignerons who continue to manage these vineyards.”
In a way, when somebody drinks a Bordeaux wine, he drinks the entire history of generations of Bordeaux winemakers. In a way, Bordeaux wine is not simply a refreshment, it’s a multisensory and historical experience.
But one need not travel thousands and thousands of miles just to have that extraordinary experience only Bordeaux wines can provide. Wine Story can handily serve up these drinks in their unaltered Bordelais glory.
Having opened just six years ago, Wine Story has already built a reputation for itself as one of the go- to wine retailers in Metro Manila. It currently has three branches – one in ShangriLa Plaza Mall, in Mandaluyong City; one in One Rockwell West Tower, in Makati City; and one in Serendra Piazza, in Taguig City.
The vision of Wine Story is to make wine enjoyment a part of people’s lives and it guarantees that it offers only the finest wines that money can buy.
It stocks a wide range of Bordeaux wines that will definitely suit a wide range of palates, even a wide range of budgets.
Perhaps as important as storing a great Bordeaux wine selection is the earnest enthusiasm that the people of Wine Story have for wine. They are passionate about the drink and will not think twice about sharing not only their knowledge but also their experience with the customers.
They make customers, however experienced or otherwise they are, feel a deeper connection with the drink by narrating to them both its nitty- gritty and emotional facets.
Wine Story believes that every wine has a story and sharing it deepens the appreciation, pleasure and passion for these jewels of fine wine.
Wine Story believes that every wine has a story and sharing it deepens the appreciation, pleasure and passion for these jewels of fine wine.