I’m not even thinking about Merlot when I belly up to the bar. I’m looking for something light and fresh to have before dinner. But Merlot finds me anyway.
The neighborhood wine bar boasts hundreds of bottles and a fanciful, Roaring-20s-inspired cocktail list. Alas, its ambitious beverage program feels a little out of place in this dim suburban corridor of chain restaurants and office buildings.
I sit on an upholstered velvet stool and look surreptitiously up and down the bar as I thumb through the black three-ring binder. What are people drinking? Austin Hope to the left of me, Belle Glos to the right. Dry martinis as far as the eye can see. I try to order the Merry Edwards Pinot Noir from the list, but they don’t have it.
“Would you like the special great-bargain Bordeaux special instead?” the somm offers, using the word “special” twice.
“Who makes it?” I ask, and he holds the bottle aloft. The label looks familiar. But then again, it has a château and some vines on it.
“Uh…it’s only 22 dollars for the bottle.”
Okay, yes. This frugal, Merlot-sipping Wine Fairy will absolutely be getting the $22 red Bordeaux in the fancy wine bar.
The cork comes out of the bottle, and so do aromas of cooked berries, beef blood, and crushed rocks. The savory development on the 2020 is startling, as is its earthy, iron-tinged character on first pour. A few minutes later, blackberry blossom and crushed mint join the ripe-and-meaty red-wine party.
The flavors are reserved–salty and mineral more than plush–with dried cherry, smoky cedar, and graphite. There’s no obvious oak to cushion the fruit. It ends with fine tannins and a lean, saline finish.
It is a wine that would no doubt be at home on the table, but it is at once too brooding and too sparse to play the aperitif role we’d pressed upon it. I shove the cork back in the bottle, shift my thoughts from “Merlot Thursday” to “weekend roast dinner with leftover Bordeaux,” and order some bubbles.
It was only in interrogating my mild disappointment over the wine–and the expectations that were most surely at its roots–that I remembered where I had seen the label. Château La Freynelle also makes a white Bordeaux blend, which I tasted recently and prefer. Coming from estate vines in Entre-Deux-Mers, it’s similarly well-priced, with fragrant Muscadelle bringing a floral lift to the blend.
Bottle: Château La Freynelle Bordeaux AOC (2020) – France
Variety: Merlot (60%), Cabernet Sauvignon (40%)
ABV: 14.8%
Suggested retail: $15
My rating: 8.1 (out of 10)
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.
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