Chateau Haut-Belian Entre-Deux-Mers '06

Country: France
Thoughts: My word, 11 days since I tried a wine? Sad but true. Instead, I was preoccupied with cleaning out the beer in the fridge and enjoying the two bottles of Gentleman Jack that I got for Christmas. Hey, I still like testing wine, but Gentleman Jack is a fine drink as well. But, Saturday night, after working a bit during the day and watching competitive and uncompetitive games later on, we dipped back into the wine fridge. We finished off the second bottle of Lion's Crest; a second shipment was already waiting for a home in the fridge. Since it wasn't at the optimum temperature, I pored through the selections and came up with this. I think my wife was right when she said I got this across the street at Whole Foods; I honestly can't remember. But I do think I picked it up because of the name. While not the same, it is reminiscent of the famous French winemaker, Chateau Haut-Brion. Having read The Wine Bible - and if you have any interest in this subject, you should be too - I remember Ms. MacNeil saying that many French vintners offer other, lesser products under different but similar names (lesser in relation to the vineyard's famous wines, which means they aren't as good as them but are still miles from sucking). So that's how this landed in our abode. The wine itself was excellent; my only major complaint was a smoky, harsh nose. But if you could get past that, you were rewarded with an excellent wine. Sweet and dry were well balanced, and a hint of citrus could be found as well. It was a superb sipping wine, a delightful drink one that you could easily pass the time with. In some respects, it was almost too mellow, so it was low on the adventure scale. But it seems downright wrong to penalize such a solid wine for such a superficial reason. So I'll let the letter grade speak for itself and recommend this as a super value.
Do-over? Unquestionably
Final Grade: A-