Chateau Noaillac Medoc Cru Bourgeois 2010

• Alcohol
• 14.0% : Vintage
• 2010 : Appellation
• Medoc AOC Cru Bourgeois : Grape
• Red Blend

Following Bordeaux's landmark 2009 vintage, the recently released 2010's set new records for richness and color. But the really exciting thing about the vintage is that the sun shone equally on all estates — not just First Growths like Château Lafite, but also tiny, family-owned domaines like Château Noaillac.

This fine ‘Cru Bourgeois’ — a mark of exceptional quality that's awarded annually — hails from the fabled Médoc region, and won a coveted gold at the 2012 Concours Général Agricole de Paris. It comes courtesy of the Pagés family, who have been making wine on Bordeaux’s Left Bank for three generations. Luxuriously aged in fine French oak, it's crafted in a fuller style, with rich and complex dark fruit flavors. The wine is already drinking beautifully (a hallmark of the vintage), and will also reward patient cellaring over the next decade.

Château Noaillac is delicious with a wide range of foods — including both hearty white and red meat dishes. The Pagés' pick is a traditional French pot au feu (beef stew), but it’s also the perfect accompaniment for firm, mature cheeses.

This under-radar Médoc find is a fantastic value from an exceptional vintage.

We have very limited cases — please hurry for your share.

Boston Wine School notes:

Every wine we use in wine class has something important to teach us - sometimes about grapes, sometimes about places, sometimes even about ourselves. When we popped the cork on this classic red Bordeaux the other night in class, the range of aromas and flavors people experienced was amazing. More than anything, this Chateau Noaillac transported us back to the farm and fields and vineyards it came from. Full of dark ripe black fruit flavors, the fragrance was really the astounding thing: cedar and rosemary, barnyard and hayloft, brick dust, roasted figs, black raspberry tart, and more. Now seven years old, this Merlot/Cabernet/Petit Verdot blend is just starting to drink nicely, but great vintages like 2010 can persist for years and years - that's why I am recommending the full case purchase, some for now and some for later when you wish you'd bought two cases. With the discount, the Chateau Noaillac comes down to $5 a glass, which is a phenomenal value for a wine of this quality. Serve it with the biggest, reddest meat dish you can whip up.

- Jonathon Alsop