Outmoded praise for cellar wine

In the small world of passionate drinkers usually it’s normalto divide wines into two categories, which end up in a forced opposition, as if they were White against Black, or Indians against Blue Jackets.

On one side there are industrial wines, produced by large, important and in some cases even prestigious companies, and withrather high quantities.

I love to call them "cellar wines", because they are generally the result of assemblages of huge vineyards inside origin appellations and tend to be so tamed, even if they are almost always well made. Above all these wines don’t feel the vintage, always being equal to themselves from year to year.

On the other side of the barricade there are the artisan wines, the result of the work of small producers and generally pulled in very small quantities.

I love to call them "vineyard wines", because they are marked in a very significant way by the terroir from which they come and - unavoidably - end up being affected by the conditions of the vintage in which they were produced.

In this dispute between David and Goliath, between Good and Evil, the "novice" consumer generally tends to appreciate the former more, since they are more comfortable, charming and less demanding, while the more experienced consumer, the wine lovers, it prefers without a doubt the latter, ending up seeing industrial wines as a sort of “devil on the bottle".

In other posts I think that have clarified quite clearly what’s my "heart team", since I love terroir’s wines and that among my favorite labels there are almost only bottles coming from individual vineyards, but cause my intellectual honesty doesn’t prevent me - when the conditions are right - to defend but also appreciate wines that can be defined as "industrial".

I had it an example a few nights ago, when to accompany an excellent stew (cooked by my wife) I decided to take from my cellar and open a bottle of Chateau des Laurets – vintage 2014 - a Bordeaux produced by the Baron de Rotschild company inside Puisseguin- Saint Emilion appellation.

A wine that has all the characteristics to be despised by “true wine” lovers: it’s a blend with a clear prevalence of Merlot (the most hated grape by wine enthusiasts), it’s made by a holding company that has properties in every most remote corner of the world, its grapes come from huge vineyards and finally is aged in new oak barriques.

Ok, it will never be "my wine", the one in which you can feel an almost human vitality and energy, the one that make you think about the existence meaning, but for sure it’s a label of important level, packaged very well and extremely balanced and pleasant.

A wine to drink rather than to taste, thinked to seduce and bewitch the one who approach it, but which has also made a very good impression on a table of a "evolved" drinker like me.

Chateau des Laurets Puisseguin-St. Emilion 2014

Personal rating: 88/100

Grapes: 80% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc

Aging: 16 months in new French oak barrels

Price range: € 18-25

TASTING

👀 Bright ruby, very intense

👃Very clean, intense, fine and with good complexity, although with a bewitching imprint. Vanilla, face powder, black cherry, herbaceous/bramble notes, light licorice, fungal note in the background

👄Full body, good pleasantness, fresh and sapid but at the same time well balanced by softness and alcohol. Light tannin. Medium persistence, consistent finish