Château La Bourrée 2015 Bordeaux

I bought this week's wine at a new wine store that just opened in Durham, The Wine Feed. They've had a location in Raleigh for the past few years, but a few weeks ago they opened in Durham as well, and last weekend they hosted a Grand Opening event. One of my friends and I went on Sunday early afternoon for a sparkling wine tasting, and we were very impressed by The Wine Feed. It's a bottle shop and wine bar, and it was a great place to spend a few hours on a Sunday. The bar set up is huge, my guess is that 25-30 people could sit at the bar, and then they have about 10 small tables inside and 10 outside for people to sit at, and two couches positioned in front of a fireplace. I wish it had opened months ago, because I would have loved sipping on a glass of red wine while sitting in front of the fire.

The bottle shop section of the space was a bit smaller than I was expecting, but they had a wide and varying selection, from $12 rose to $125 Bordeaux, it would be difficult not to find a bottle that interests you. When I walked into The Wine Feed I was expecting to do the sparkling wine tasting and maybe buy a bottle of sparkling if any of the ones I tasted really interested me. However, I liked The Wine Feed so much that I stayed longer and bought more bottle of wine than I was anticipating. I ended up trying a dry rose flight as well, and loved every wine in the flight, and when I perused the bottle shop, I couldn't limit myself to just one bottle. I ended up picking up two bottles of sparkling wine (one being a sparkling rose), a bottle of one of the roses that was in the flight, and this bottle of Bordeaux, because who can say no to a reasonably priced bottle of Bordeaux? If you're ever in the Raleigh/Durham area, I highly recommend stopping by The Wine Feed.

This Bordeaux was only $18, and it gives you a lot of bang for your buck. It's made by Jean Francois Meynard in the Cotes de Castillon region of Bordeaux. It's a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc and it's well-balanced. When I sniffed the wine after pouring it I got strong dark fruit notes; blackberry, dark cherry, and currant, and I got the scent of cloves and oak on the back end. When I tasted the wine, the tasting notes matched the scent. It's a very jammy fruit forward wine, I also got notes of strawberry, blueberry, and dark raspberry when I tasted it, but it's well balanced with a strong oakiness on the back end, and notes of vanilla and tobacco in addition to the clove. It's a very smooth and well-balanced medium-bodied wine. The tannins are soft but noticeable. It's a very strong and bold Bordeaux.

I paired this wine with chicken parmesan. The wine played well off the tomato sauce, but I think a richer meat would have been better with it than the chicken. This wine would be great in the winter with a hearty bowl of beef stew, or with spaghetti bolognese. I really enjoyed this wine, and would definitely consider getting another bottle of it.