TN: Chateau Pradeaux Bandol 1998

[Waiters Friend]

G'day

After trying the odd Bandol a few years ago in France, I picked this up on my return, and have held it for that time in the cellar. I wanted to see what it was like at 20 years of age. Well, we got there. Decanted an hour before service.

Deep purple in colour, with red around the rim. Mourvedre is well known for its earthy characters, and this apparent on the nose, along with delightful developed blueberries and uplifting violets. There's cigars and a little brandy / plum pudding, and faint dark chocolate.

The palate has some viscosity or thickness, as if the earth and chocolate have somehow folded into each other. The fruit flavours pretty much take a back seat, being somewhat stewed. There's some acid, and the finish carries the earthiness through, and is quite long and persistent.

Possibly at its best when I bought it (!), but it's been an interesting experiment.

Cheers
Allan

[Mahmoud Ali]

Except for the bit about it being "stewed" the rest of your note sounds rather attractive.

I've not had many Bandols and not many pure Mourvedres for that matter. However late last year I was served a 2007 Dupéré Barrerra "India" Bandol that I really liked and despite it being already ten years old I felt it had the fruit and structure to keep it going for many more years. Days later I opened a 2001 Castaño 'Hecula', a Spainish wine from Yecla that I had cellared for many years. It too was a pure mourvedre and was highly rated when it was released. I drank quite a few in it's youth and cellared a few to see how it would fare. It was flat and uninspiring when a decade old so I held off on the remaining bottles and was amply rewarded with a dry and savoury wine.

I wish I had more Bandol and mourvedre dominant wines in my cellar.

[Waiters Friend]

I wish I had more Bandol and mourvedre dominant wines in my cellar.

Hi Mahmoud

In Australia, straight Mourvedre wines have become more common - I cannot speak for their availability in Canada!

I searched Auswine for imported mourvedre / Bandol, but our host doesn't appear to stock any. I suspect this is the case with many retailers, where the big name regions (Bordeaux, Burgundy) are stocked and promoted at the expense of less prestigious regions that specialise in other varieties (Bandol for mourvedre, Cahors for malbec, for example). It might be a search worth pursuing, however.

Cheers
Allan

[Waiters Friend]

This may be of interest: https://www.intowine.com/bandol-provence-s-best-kept-secret

[Mahmoud Ali]

My favourite part of the article, regarding the purchase of a 2001 Pradeaux:

"After ringing me up, the shop owner held the bottle firmly in his hand and waived his finger at me in warning. “It’s forbidden to open this wine before 2016,” he told me. And then, staring deep into my soul: “Forbidden.”

While this might be true of Bandol, it was also true of my 2001 mourvedre wine from Yecla in Spain and, I suspect, from other mourvedre wines. However, before anyone thinks that I hold a uniform view of mourvedre wines let me tell you about one that was served to me last wekend. It was a Wine Spectator Top 100 wine with a 92 point sticker on the label. It had everything going for it: ungrafted, old vine mourvedre, dry farmed, manual harvest, indigenous yeast, unfined and unfiltered. You would expect this to be an intense, terroir-driven, earthy, iron-flecked wine but instead it was an overwought, modern, distinctly sweet wine. Perhaps I was too harsh on the wine as the unstoppered third of a bottle was somewhat better the following day but I do not recall my '01 Hecula from Yecla being like this when it was young. Despite my friend finding this wine, the 2015 Bodegas Volver 'Tarima Hill', at a local Costco at a bargain price I will not be buying.

Mahmoud.