Region: Bordeaux
Country: France
Alcohol: 13.5%
Price: €10,50
Closure: Cork
Calvet was founded in 1818 by Jean-Marie Calvet, and was where the great Emile Peynaud started his illustrious career in the wine industry. The company was once one of the best family-owned negotiants in Bordeaux although this changed in 1982 when the company become a subsidiary of the Whitbread group and was subsequently consumed by the giant multinational Allied Domecq.
1997 saw the company once again become an independant French-owned company under the leadership of Jack Drounau. There was limited success and the 188 year old Calvet went through several restructures in an attempt to move into profitability, selling off its property holdings and bottling line, making a large number of redundancies and finally being taken over by H Mounier. In 2006 it was finally sold off to Grand Chais de France, a wine company based in the Alsace.
Anyway, lets get to the wine. This wine is a blend of semillon (80%), sauvignon (15%) and muscadelle (5%). The aim behind this blend is as follows: the semillon forms the base of the wine and provides the wine with body and sweetness as it lacks in acidity and aromatics. The sauvignon blanc, on the other hand, gives the wine these aromatics along with lively acidity. Last but not least the muscadelle gives wine the more elegant, subtle aromatics. Here is my tasting note:
Yellow-gold in colour; maybe some tinges of green too. The nose is more elegant than powerful; lightly floral with honey and some hints of botrytis. More honey on a palate that is not all that sweet and a lot lighter than I expected it too be. Some flabbiness too which is kind of dissappointing. Finishes with the sweetness giving way to some slightly bitter characters. A lighter style that really lacks the weight. Disappointing.
