It's Winesday: Chateau Le Coteau (2008) Margaux Review

It's been a very busy week, with too many meetings to count plus a product launch for my textile company - coupled with the fact that my kids are off for TWO weeks for Spring Break. You read it right. Two weeks, two boys and trying to work from home. It's an insane combo; hence, I'm super glad it's Winesday (and hump day, yay!) so it's time to crack it open!

This time we're headed to the Bordeaux region of France and to the Margaux sub-region, which is my favourite. To give you some context, Bordeaux is not unlike Paris where a large river runs through it. The Gironde River divides Bordeaux into two major areas, the Left and Right Banks. The Left Bank lies southwest of the river and is home to some pretty prestigious sub-regions including Saint Julien, Saint Estephe, Pauillac, Graves and of course, Margaux. The Right Bank produces wines that are heavily Merlot based while the Left Bank produces wines that primarily use cabernet sauvignon grapes. White or red, all the wines produced here are primarily blends.

As you can imagine, there are some really fantastic wines from the Margaux sub-region to meet every price point - including one of value. One such wine is the Chateau Le Coteau (2008) which I decided to pull from my cellar a few years early. It was still very drinkable after some decanting (for about an hour). Not a super complex wine but very smooth and delicate on the palate. Hints of blackberry and cherry, layered with chocolate and coupled with pepper add spicyness to the nose. Tannins even at this early stage (recommended to cellar until at least 2018) were smooth and modest.

Again, it's not a stunner but it's great value for a pretty decent Margaux at US$40. And man, does it ever do the trick in the middle of a difficult week.

Photo: The Vancouverite