Dark garnet, bricking all over the glass. A Barbiemobile burnout of lecithin, lanolin, nutritional yeast greets the nose. Muddy and oxidized, smelling of multivitamin–the big fat brown ones with no fruity coating. Wait. That’s also this wine. Late-breathing gives you flyswatter-gunge roiled in fine sawdust.
I hope this is a bad bottle. It doesn’t strike me as corked, there’s bright marachino and acidic notes lurking here and there, but otherwise it is ghastly dretch. Another bargain BDX… thinking I paid 30-ish for it. 30 dollars I wish I had back. But hey: At least *Bad Bargain Bordeaux* is not a lonely club. I wish I had a dollar for every cheap BDX that has polished my garbage disposal.
And in the mouth, there is a bit of fruit. Nice clean entry, good Bordeaux rigidity and abusive minerality. Once the initial structure settles down, a nice round ripe fruit gains ground momentarily before stalwart–but one-dimensional–tannin takes over.
But still… you have to smell it first. That’s a deal-killer.
2011 CHATEAU BERNATEAU “Tertre de Lisse” St. Emilion Bordeaux France 14.0
Stephen McConnell 