Welcome back to Bordeaux. Are the acidic and tannic, astringent horrors we were told we had to like because they were famous and they’d taste good in 10 years finally on the way out? Here at last, a winemaker in Bordeaux is making something drinkable. Or maybe I just haven’t been paying attention lately, but these wines are wonderfully fruit forward, with restrained structure and none of the rustic roughness we’ve come to expect from Loire Cabernet Francs. 

Jean Faure has been organic and biodynamic long enough that they are seeing the results in stronger and healthier plants which leads to more resilient harvests. 

Another big factor improving their reliance is their soil, deep clay laced with iron. This clay soaks up rain in winter and early spring and then meters it back through the hot, dry summers, especiallyto older vines, whose roots reach meters deep. 

More than 1/3 of Jean Faure’s vines are more than 80 years old, which raises the average age of the site to an impressive 49. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the first wine today, called RESERVE, though it is the estate’s second wine, aged entirely in concrete, no oak at all. This wine is made to be enjoyed young and finished before it gets old. It’s fruit forward and juicy, low in tannin. OK, not very Bordeaux-like. I see my blind-tasting colleague across the table hastily making notes to revise his previous assumptions. 

We move on to the first estate wine from Jean Faure, several vintages in fact. And all of them continue the core theme of Reserve, though with oak aging added to define the house style and keep it in line with St Emilion Grand Cru Classe. The most Bordeaux-like of these vintages is the 2015, it having been made before the new house style fully appeared. but even this expression is fruitier, gentler, lighter and less tannic than I’m used to tasting from the right bank.

Thanks to Olga Shiryaeva for fielding all our questions so capably, and thanks to SCH for picking up these innovative wines and offering them at bargain prices.