Guest Author - Jim Fortune

Year: 2005
Winery: Chateau La Pierre Levee'
Region/Country: Bordeaux (33133 Galgon - France)

If you read my bio, (You have read my bio, right?) I said that I would be talking honestly about all wines. You are slowly getting to know me. I am a guy who drinks wine and likes to write about it. You are getting the sense that I am not a Robert Parker or a Jancis Robinson. I overheard a friend on the phone, one time, tell someone that "Jim knows what he knows." That is probably a true statement and I can tell you that I also "knows" that I do not have a nose for wines. At least I did not have a nose for wine until I came across the 2005 Bordeaux Chateau La Pierre Levee'.

This review was number three of three bottles of Bordeaux that I decided to try after reading an article about Bordeaux in a magazine at the doctor's office. The person writing the article raved about the 2005 Bordeaux. It was the best this person ever had! Or so the article went on. So naturally, being the Bella Online wine editor, I had to try some.

My first disappointment was that I could not find any 2005 Bordeaux for under $10. I had set a price limit of $40 for my taste testing and research. Mind you, $40 would normally get me 5 or more bottles of wine, in my normal price range. $40 was only going to get me 3 bottles of Bordeaux. The first one I reviewed was $13.99, the second one I reviewed, and liked better than the first, was $10.99 and the third one was $15.99. I saved the more expensive of the three for last taste test. I had no particular reason. It just seemed fitting that I have the more expensive wine at the end of the taste trials.

I had a glass of the wine on Friday with salmon and one glass on Saturday with chile. This shows you the variety of food that I was pairing the wine with. I did not let the wine breathe - just popped the cork and poured. I sniffed, I swirled, I sipped, I let it roll around on my tongue, I swallowed. I had the sense of something in the wine. There was a presence of oak. I say presence, because it was very light; almost a fragrance. There was something else. Then I went from the kitchen to let the dogs out and it hit me. Cherries! I tasted cherries!!

The wine was even better the second night. Was this because the wine had time to breathe, because I was just more in tune with the wine and the flavor or because of the chile? I can not say for certain. Was it better than the 2005 Col di Sasso from Tuscany? Maybe. I would have to do a side by side comparison of the two to see which one I liked better. However the 2005 Col di Sasso is not the same grape as the 2005 Bordeaux Chateau La Pierre Levee'. So I would not be comparing apples to apples. And the 2005 Col di Sasso is also half the price of the 2005 Bordeaux Chateau La Pierre Levee'.

But this wine is a wine that I would buy again. And I don't say that about many $16 bottles of wine. Give it a try and see what you think. See if you taste the cherries or let me know - from the comments section at the bottom of this review - what you do taste. If you give me your e-mail address I will reply back.

Until next time, let me know what is on your mind, and how you are doing, O.K.?

Oh - have you signed up for our Wine Newsletter? My last newsletter went out over the weekend.

Jim Fortune - the Bella Online Wine Guy