2014 Château Trimoulet “Jean de Trimoulet”, St. Emilion Grand Cru, Bordeaux, France (Alcohol 13.5%, Residual Sugar 2 g/l) LCBO $22.95 (750ml bottle)
Just in time for the festive season (it’s released on the 17th of December, so mark your calendars) comes this rather terrific and yet extremely affordable red Bordeaux, and as an added bonus it’s got a fair bit of age on it too. Looking at how much this bottle costs in other markets, it appears that we are getting a pretty good deal here in Ontario. It’s also a great introduction to the (often prohibitively expensive) wines of St. Emilion.
This junior version of Château Trimoulet is a blend of 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Franc, from 30 year old vines sitting on clay/limestone soils with some traces of iron. Élevage takes place in concrete tanks, with 25% seeing new oak barrels, and there is a healthy lick of that new cooperage on both the nose and palate, but it does sit ever so well with this generous style of wine.
It’s an ashamedly modern take on Bordeaux wine, that’s for sure, with bags of dense super-ripe black fruits still sitting high in the mix, even after all that time in bottle; the bouquet is remarkably fresh given it’s relative age. Even with all that explosive punchy fruit, this is a deeply savoury wine with aromatics of leather, tobacco leaf, chocolate, cloves, and warm wood spice.
The savoury palate is rich and powerful, with chocolatey tannins that are soft and supple, and a pitch-perfect acid/fruit balance that is most becoming of a wine from this particular region. The finish is extended and most impressive, a touch of mineral rounding out the wine rather nicely.
I seriously enjoyed this solid bottle alongside some slow-braised beef cheeks with a herb-spiked fontina polenta, and I feel that the wine really came into its own paired with the deeply flavourful collagen-rich cheeks and braising liquid.
This is an excellent entry-level Bordeaux that I would highly recommend.
(Four and a half out of a possible five apples)
