Buying premium Cabernet at a steakhouse is a bit like buying a phone charger at an airport. If you gotta have it, then you gotta have it–but there are way better times and places to make that particular purchase.
As a price-conscious wine lover, I try to maneuver around the restaurant markups while still treating the table to a great bottle. I love Cab. But if I can find something Tuscan, something Argentine, or something Rhône-ish that suits the occasion, I’ll usually opt for that instead.
This restaurant has a Wine Spectator Award-winning wine list. It’s bound in a floppy brown folder that smells of leather and beef fat, like an aged Spanish Garnacha. The pages are full of all the usual California heavy-hitters, plus some smaller producers and global wines that make you go “hmmmm.”
It was a Monday night and the somm had the evening off. With all honesty (and with no offense to sommeliers), sometimes I prefer that situation. It means I can take my time reading through the entire list–or (horrors!) look up a producer or a blend on my phone–without feeling self-conscious about it.
And so, I went scanning the menu for values. Resolved not to drop $400 before I even ordered any food, I reluctantly flipped past Napa Valley.
But it’s never that easy for me to turn the page on Bordeaux. Pretty quickly, I settled on this modest (by steakhouse standards, anyway) Left Bank bottle, the 2016 Château de Cérons Graves ($90).
The server decanted it for me while I nursed my by-the-glass Kessler Riesling. (There’s something absolutely decadent about having red and white wine on the table at the same meal!) As soon as I picked up the Bordeaux, I knew I had made a correct choice.
A jewel-like deep garnet, it leads with fresh blackcurrant, vanilla cream, roast coffee and pipe tobacco. Although toasty, the nose is still fruity and intense, brightened by a whiff of mint pesto and raspberry liqueur. It’s medium-plus in body and acidity with high but gentle tannins.
I can’t always pick up on stony flavors in red wines, but on this it’s unmistakable. Graphite for sure–also slate, and the irony tingle of freshly sliced raw steak.
After an hour decant, even more meaty and tobacco aromas are evident. But it’s still an admirably lush and fruit-focused wine. Blackberry, blackcurrant, red plum, and pulpy raspberry, all completely ripe and well-defined. The finish is medium and noticeably mineral-ly with cleansing acidity.
This is a straightforward and comfortable glass of red Graves. At nine years old, the tannins and the flavors have settled to a perfect stage of “broken in”-ness. It’s like a favorite pair of boots–softened, not scruffy.
Château de Cérons is usually blended to about 50-50, but this 2016 vintage is heavier on Merlot. That’s no deficiency: Its classic Cabernet aromas and acidity satisfied a Left Bank craving as well as anything possibly could have.
The “Grand Enclos” red and white wines are made from old plots located in the estate’s original walled vineyards, which in total amount to about 9 hectares. Blend of 64% Merlot and 36% Cabernet Sauvignon. Aged for 12 to 14 months in barrels, 35% of which are new French oak and the majority of the rest are second-fill.
Bottle: Grand Enclos du Château de Cérons (2016) – Graves, Bordeaux
Variety: Merlot (64%), Cabernet Sauvignon (36%)
ABV: 14%
Suggested retail: $35
My rating: 9.2 (out of 10)
Further reading:
Grand Enclos du Château de Cérons: Our Story
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.
This review is dedicated to Sarah–who not only treated me to a fancy anniversary dinner but also tolerated me having my wine journal on the table throughout most of the meal. Love you forever. ❤️
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