2003 Comtesse Thibier Graves Blanc, Bordeaux, France

As I stood there looking at this bottle at the local wine shop my instincts were telling me not to buy it. There's the grandma's upholstery look to the label, there's the back label... and I quote:

"At the turn of the century, I began riding my bicycle through the Bordeaux countryside getting to know the grapes that makes premium wines. Today my family continues the tradition of carefully selecting the best grapes. Our aim is perfection."

Despite that little piece of poetic heaven on the back of the bottle I bought it and brought it home. We've hit a bit of a dry patch with Graves, as of late, and just have not had that classic gravelly, lemony Bordeaux blanc experience. Maybe this one will be different. Maybe this one will live down the floral drapery.

As you can guess, we did not find it to really work out all that well. This wine had a light, almost non-existent nose. There was a little pine, some citrus, but so faint as to make you strain to pick it up. The palate was also light, and weak missing both the traditional mineral qualities and the clean, refreshing fruit indicative of these wines. The finish was non-existent. So... I feel mean here but I am being absolutely honest. This wine did not deliver on the Graves blanc promise.

cost - $9.99

winecommando rating (1-10) - 2

2005 Chateau Graville-Lacoste Graves, Bordeaux, France

Yes, another white Graves. Yes, we love Sauvignon Blanc. Rarely do wines from Graves disappoint us. This one did. It just did not have the qualities of the wines from this region that we dig so much, and totally expect. Honestly, this wine was flat. It had little discernible fruit, and what was there was citrus at best. It lacked that lovely minerally quality... no wet rocks here. The nose was virtually non-existent. We should have had a bottle of water instead. I shouldn't be mean, but this wine was a let down.

We do like all of the whitespace on the label, though.

In all fairness, we have had Chateau Graville-Lacoste many times before from different vintages and do not ever remember being disappointed. Perhaps this is just the case with the 2005. Be warned.

cost - $16.99

winecommando rating (1-10) - 4

2004 Chateau Magence, Graves, Bordeaux Blanc

Delicious, clean and crisp. That about sums this wine up. Then you figure in the price and, assuming you are a fan of white wine from Appellation Graves in Bordeaux, there is everything right with this picture. I revealed my penchant for sauvignon blanc, especially those from Sancerre, in a previous post. The white wines of Bordeaux are often Sauvignon Blanc, sometimes Semillon, and sometimes a blend of the two, but right up there with those from Sancerre. Whites from Graves are a blend, with the balance being Sauvignon Blanc.

We like them a lot.

This is because of the vineyards in Graves (pronounced "grahvs"). The name Graves comes from the soil that makes up the vineyards. You could have probably guessed this, but I am going to tell you anyway because this is my blog, the soil is quite gravelly. Some vineyards are actually made up entirely of small rocks from alluvial deposits cast off by a river that once ran through the area. These deposits are mostly rocks, gravel and sand. There is no dirt here, really. This imparts a really special quality to the wine, which in all honesty smells and tastes like rocks, gravel and sand... in a good way. I am not messing around, that's literally what the soil has created in the wines of this area (remember "terroir"?). The white wines of Graves are among the best whites coming out of Bordeaux, but often go over looked. This bottle is of especially good quality, being very crisp and with that gravelly character. It also has great citrus fruit to the palette and a cut grass smell to the nose. For a clean white wine, it is actually quite complex, and very elegant. Cat had a glass waiting for me when I got home from work later than usual this evening, and it was the perfect way to relax after a long day.

cost - $11.99

winecommando rating (1-10) - 9 (an excellent example of a Graves blanc!)