Description
Château du Val d’Or, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru
Whenever we’re presented with decades-old Bordeaux stored to perfection, we always bow down in gratitude, but after discovering today’s 1996 Grand Cru, we nearly toppled over. At $49, how are we so lucky to experience a Saint-Émilion of this age and magnitude, in the prime of its life, no less?
Sure, you can locate more “pedigreed” labels from ’96 that can endure many more years in the cellar, but not everyone has the patience or the bank account for it. That’s where the Bardets of Château du Val d’Or come in: They craft classic, cellar-worthy wines for the people, and today’s quarter-century-old Bordeaux is exhibit A! It appears we’re the only retailers with this rare back-vintage bottling, so unless you’re planning on making a trip to Saint-Émilion and knocking on the front door of their château, I strongly suggest stocking up. Trust me when I say enjoying a 1996 Grand Cru for under $50 will soon be ancient history.
The Bardet family got their start in Bordeaux in 1704 as river traders, selling grains and wines to local ports for nearly 200 years. However, the dawn of industry (train; steam-powered boats) hampered their business, so they then turned to the life of a vigneron and established their first property in the 1920s: Château du Val d’Or. Today, the Bardet’s 14 hectares of estate vines are mostly planted to Merlot, followed by Cabernets Franc and Sauvignon. Their mature vines also hug the bank of the Dordogne River—right down the road from red-hot newcomer and SommSelect-favorite Château Vieux Taillefer—and are therefore largely rooted in gravelly sand and clay.
After harvest and a strict sorting in 1996, variety-specific fermentations were carried out in stainless steel tanks. Following a brief cold soak, the resulting wine was transferred into French barriques (50% new, 50% once-used) for 18 months. Upon bottling, today’s small parcel was stashed away in a cold, dark Bordeaux cellar where they remained untouched for over 20 years.
In the glass, Val d’Or’s 1996 Grand Vin reveals a hazy garnet core moving out to a brick orange rim. Remember, this wine is approaching “antique” status, so treat it gently: After standing the bottle upright for a few days—the longer the better—gently extract the cork and serve in large stems making sure to avoid the last few ounces of sediment-heavy wine. I find with older Bordeaux, it’s best to let it slowly evolve in your glass versus risking a decant and introducing too much oxygen. As this mature wine is at its peak, an open bottle will probably not improve overnight so I suggest consuming it within the first 2-3 hours.
After a few minutes, soft, beautiful, and savory aromas emerge alongside hints of dried cherry, red plum skin, baking spice, rose, and blackcurrant. The earthy secondaries, though, steal the show: sandalwood, damp cedar box, bouillon cube, crushed gravel, loose tobacco, and vintage leather. Its supple, medium-bodied palate still holds impressive structure, full of dried red-black fruits and mineral savor that decorates every worthy mature Bordeaux. This is at its absolute peak, so be sure to drink over the next few years, paired with a medium-rare filet, while reveling in the fact that you’re having a white tablecloth dining experience for a seriously low price. Cheers!
