The Wine Fairy

Wines with castles and knights on the labels are fancy. That’s a wine fact. And cheap Bordeaux is always preferable to no Bordeaux. That’s a wine fact, too. Both facts were on my mind when I cautiously opened this bottle of Marquis de Bern Bordeaux Supérieur.

My cellar (read: lower bar cabinet) records are a little patchy, so I couldn’t remember exactly where I had obtained this bottle. Quel mystère! Hostess gift? Wine club?

Nope, a quick Google search revealed that it is from the Costco Grand Vins de Bordeaux holiday box from 2023. For the uninitiated, the Bordeaux box comes out every fall and features 4 full-size, gift-boxed bottles of French wine for $29.99. (The poor Marquis de Bern was the last knight standing–I must’ve already drank the other wines in the set.)

Costco sells more Bordeaux than any other retailer in the world, so perhaps you have a lonely Marquis in your wine cabinet, too. Is it any good? Let’s get the corkscrew!

Tasting Notes

Marquis de Bern certainly pours up nice, featuring a rich color and impressive legs (just like our gallant knight). Pronounced and intriguing aromas rise from the glass: A bushel of blackberries and black cherries, dry spicy cedar, baker’s chocolate, dusty ground black pepper and licorice, and an odd but pleasing tropical note of banana that settled into smooth ripe coconut.

I was drooling over the nose and excited to take a sip–but after all that boasting, the flavors tripped and fell flat on their face. Just a thin, tart mouthful of cran-cherry juice and damp garden mulch. Something green and vegetal (celery?) and something metallic. Thin and watery. High tannins, medium acidity. Yuck. I went looking for some crackers to scrub the sour, wet-leaf taste from my mouth.

What the heck? The James Suckling 90-point medallion is right there on the label. He must have been “suckling” up again because I don’t think this is 90-point wine by any sane person’s standards.

Wine critics sometimes say that young Bordeaux goes through an “awkward” phase–a Bordeaux adolescence, if you will–before it matures into a sophisticated, nuanced wine. If that’s the case, then this wine is dyeing its hair purple, arguing with its parents, and posting godawful poetry on TikTok. Will it be better in a few years? Perhaps. But Costco puts out a new Bordeaux box every single Christmas season and I can’t be accumulating that many bottles in my pantry. Besides, it likely doesn’t have the acidity and the concentration to be very age-worthy.

So here’s a PSA, from one budget Bordeaux enthusiast to another: Decant that shit. I sometimes read critical reviews of the Bordeaux gift sets and they usually sound like this: “How can people drink this? I brought these four bottles to a dinner party, opened one after another, and I hated them all. Ugh!!”

Dinner party lady, you’re doing it wrong! Some of the wines might actually be subpar, but some really just need a little time and oxygen. You don’t even need to dust off the decanter: Just pour the Chateau Le Cheap into a roomy wineglass and let it sit while you make dinner.

Wine people often talk about how oxygenation transforms a wine and you’re all like, “Yeah, sure.” But I’m not a wine snob so you can take my word for it. Most of the Costco Bordeaux improve immensely just by sitting in the glass for about an hour. Decanting the Marquis de Bern, for instance, mellowed it a lot and unlocked aromas of dried plum, toffee, and cigar wrapper. It didn’t do much for the body of the wine, of course. But this budget wine went from tasting like a spit-it-out-bad mess of soggy tannins to a totally sippable glass of vin rouge.

And the price? C’mon, it’s four bottles of Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur for under 30 bucks. That’s $7.50 a bottle. It’s about what a bottle of generic Bordeaux costs at a grocery store in France (i.e., really cheap). So adjust your expectations, decant the wine, serve it with some suitable food, and you’ll be fine.

Food Pairing

Are you ready for the secret recipe? Here goes: Fittingly, I served the Costco Bordeaux with some pre-cooked lamb shanks from Costco. I know this is a wine review, but I’m gonna go on a tangent real quick about these here lamb shanks.

I mean: “Herbes de Provence lamb shanks with a rich brown sauce infused with lavender, honey, thyme, basil, and Dijon mustard.”

Like it says on the label, it’s heavy on the botanicals–so if you don’t like your meat to taste like a French grandma’s herb garden, you’re out of luck. If you do, you’ll be in heaven. They come refrigerated and fully cooked, ready to reheat on the stove or in the microwave. (I keep mine in the freezer to have a dinner ready on nights I’m feeling gourmet but not people-y. There’s no noticeable difference in quality when thawing them versus cooking them “fresh from the fridge”.)

Each box contains two lamb shanks, and each portion weighs about a pound and half. My wife and I split one–they’re very meaty and lamb stock is filling. If you don’t have a huge appetite or if you serve it with sides, each lamb shank can easily feed two people.

That’s not a recipe, you say! Hear me out. When I worked as a chef, I made French-style braised lamb about a thousand times–it’s a low-effort dish that always impresses. However, this ready-to-eat product retails for freakin’ $6.99/lb at Costco. Raw lamb shank around here is anywhere from $9-$15 per pound, so I couldn’t possibly make this dish for less–even if I wanted to buy a bunch of herbs and keep the oven running for hours.

Are you drooling yet? Here’s how to make this easy dinner even better: Reheat, then roast.

See, the downside to boil-in-the-bag convenience is that the lamb shanks come out looking a little pale and flabby compared to home-oven braised. I recommend a quick roast on a sheet pan to get a brown crust and crisp up some of the fat.

Separate the lamb shanks from the liquid and pop them in a 375-degree oven, 15-18 minutes, turning them once to brown the other side. (I didn’t do it in the picture above because I was hangry.)

The sauce that comes with this entree is flavorful but a little thin. So while the lamb shanks are getting nice and roasty and making your home smell amazing, go ahead and reduce that braising liquid. Simmer it on the stove in a saucepan until at least half is evaporated. Take it off the heat. If your cardiologist isn’t watching over your shoulder, stir in a pat of butter.

Plate the lamb shanks with risotto (or polenta or cheese grits or mashed potatoes) and a green veggie side. Pour the reduced sauce over the lamb. Garnish with parsley, grilled lemon or a rosemary sprig. Pair it with a sub-$10 Bordeaux (that you opened and poured an hour ago, remember?) and everyone will think you’re a culinary genius who has been cooking all day. Bon appétit!

Review disclosure: I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.