Poitevin 2018

I was pouring the Poitevin 2018 at a tasting not long ago and it kind of turned into a one-pour-for-you and one-for-me type deal. The wine was/is utterly delicious and fits into the new version of affordable high-quality Bordeaux which is fighting back against the old view of the genre as an elitist, old white guy, wine. Not this wine, no way, it’s wines like Poitevin that scream, Bordeaux is back!

In fact, I could mount a pretty good argument that Bordeaux is currently making the best value cabernet blends on the planet, a far cry from the weedy, faulty rubbish of 30 years ago. Nothing epitomises that more than the 2018 Chateau Poitevin.

Poitevin sits at the northern end of the Haut Medoc, on one side of the property is the Gironde and on the other is the Atlantic. The property was started in the 1950s and for most of it’s history grew and sold fruit to the co-ops and other Chateaux. In the 1980s, grandson of the founder, Guillaume Poitevin, decided to start making his own wine.

He’d studied, knew his way around a fermenter and had a clear vision for the style of Bordeaux he wanted to make. If I was to describe that style, then I’d probably call it “luncheon claret”. By that I mean, the wine beautifully expressive of it’s varietal mothers (merlot, cabernet and petit verdot), all being evident without dominating and also not dominated by too much wood – the wine is aged in larger oak to maintain freshness and detail. It’s medium weight so it’s impact on the palate is insistent but also enveloping and gentle textured. It gives you everything you should expect from claret at this level without overburdening you with wood tannin and artifice.

I admire this wine and its creator even more on top of the obvious quality because it is always, always of similar quality and rarely ever lets you down. What’s more, I think it takes a certain lack of ego of the winemaker to let the fruit and terroir be the stars here. Guillame, from what I can see, has never been tempted to emulate a classified growth wine.

He sticks to his knitting and thank the wine Gods for that, because in the end what you get is a banging claret for immediate consumption but that will stand some cellaring as well for under $50.

What can I say, buy it. As Neil Martin says, it is well crafted, utterly delicious Medoc.

Cheers
Michael