Chateau La Rame Bordeaux 2009

Chateau La Rame is situated 40 kilometers southeast of the city of Bordeaux on the Left Bank and is among the oldest and most renowned properties in the Sainte Croix du Mont appellation. The estate was purchased by Claude Armand, the father of the current owner, Yves Armand. The Armand family has undertaken to reestablish Sainte Croix du Mont as an appellation of merit set to rival the great estates of Sauternes and Barsac. Their 20 hectares are set on a limestone and clay soil blessed with an exceptional substratum bed of fossilized oysters dating from the Tertiary era. The hillside vineyards overlook the Garonne River and face full south as they slope down toward the river. The vineyards are planted 75% to Semillon and 25% to Sauvignon Blanc with an average age of 45 years.

Chateau La Rame Bordeaux Blanc is 90% Sauvignon Blanc and 10% Semillon and was also done all in “cuve.” The crisp, snappy, minerally, almost flinty white has great Sauvignon Blanc structure with the Semillon giving the wine a bit of heft on the mid-palate. It’s an almost waxy mid-palate texture – not overly so, but a downy, soft waxy feel almost like a very fine Alsatian Pinot Blanc. We think it's a perfect a wine to transition us through the melting snow into the almost-Spring we're encountering. It's still rich like winter, but bright and crisp like spring. 

Chateau La Rame  $19 a bottle

meet semillon

Semillon
Most well known perhaps for being the predominant grape in the delicious dessert wine, Sauternes, semillon is one of only three approved white wine varieties in the Bordeaux region. The grape can be rather full and rounded, with low acidity and an almost oily texture which sounds undesirable, but when combined with grapes of high acidity it makes for bright and rich wines that can grow old and graceful.

Still most people think of Sauternes when they think of semillon and when we think of Sauternes we think of Chateau d'Yquem (which today, if you wanted to buy a 1/2 bottle of d'Yquem, would cost you $609.00!). In these wines, the semillon vine is exposed to the "noble rot" of Botrytis Cinerea which consumes the water content of the fruit, concentrating the sugar present in its pulp (it's actually what the grapes are doing in the photo). When attacked by Botrytis Cinerea, the grapes shrivel and the acid and sugar levels are intensified. This is not what happens in the dry wines of Bordeaux, like our pick today, but is an interesting phenomenon that occurs to make these expensive sweet wines such as Sauternes or Barsac.