This month, the French #winophiles are traveling to Bordeaux. We were charged with looking at what’s new in Bordeaux. I choose Chateau Labadie, a winery that is located in Bégadan in the Northern Médoc.

The winery is not new but it changed it’s core nature in the 1970s when the Bibey family bought the winery. Today it is run by Jerome Bibey who uses only sustainable agriculture practices in the vineyard such as sexual confusion for pests so as to avoid using insecticide. I also wanted to look at this winery as a way of looking at the Cru Bourgeois.

The grapes for the wine I tasted were a blend of Cabernet sauvignon 46%, Merlot 51% and Cabernet franc 3%. The average age of the vines is 32 years. The wine ages in a blend of French and American oak, about a quarter of the barrels are new. Yield are low at 48 hl/ha and the winery produces 300, 000 bottles.

Tasting note: Blackberry, plum, spice and forest floor on the nose and plate, with fine velvety tannins and an enveloping mouthfeel. Persistent and concentrated, this Chateau Labadie 2016 was a beautiful, approachable Bordeaux. Structured and elegant on the palate, the wine was also reasonably priced.

Food Pairing: I paired the wine with sausages that were spicy which brought out the spice in the wine as well as some cheese. It worked well although the wine was more elegant that my food. Tomorrow I will make something to do it justice.

A note about the Cru Bourgeois. Well-know since ancient times, this is a historic classification and in 1932, the Crus Bourgeois were grouped in a list by Bordeaux merchants. The wines come from the Médoc, Haut-Médoc, Listrac, Moulis, Margaux, Saint-Julien, Pauillac, and Saint-Estèphe. The classification has been in evolution and was newly revised in 2009. The list for 2020 includes 249 chateau, 179 Cru Bourgeois, 56 Cru Bourgeois Supériors, 14 Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnels. The rules for each part of the classification are very precise and range from environmental protects to hospitality in the winery. The latest classification is the culmination of a decade of work by the whole category. The Cru Bourgeois are about 31% of wines from the Medoc.

Read what my fellow bloggers have to say about what’s happening in Bordeaux below and join us tomorrow on Twitter. On Saturday, Jan. 16  11-12 pm EST at #Winophiles.

• Susannah at Avvinare shares “Cru Bourgeois – A Closer Look At Chateau Labadie”
• Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm shares “Chateau Haut-Pougnon with Mediterranean Stew”
• Terri at Our Good Life shares “Hearty Seafood Chowder with a Special Bottling from Chateau Tour de Bonnet”
• Allison and Chris at Advinetures shares “Fronsac: Out of the Shadows of Bordeaux”
• Linda at My Full Wine Glass shares “This Francs Côtes de Bordeaux lets the fruit shine through”
• Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla shares “Croissants aux Framboises + Chateau Sabliere Beausejour 2016”
• Gwendolyn at Wine Predator shares “For a Special Evening at Home: Bordeaux’s Sweet, Sparkling, Savory Surprises”
• Lynn at Savor the Harvest shares “Sustainability, Adaptation and Oenotourism Evolve in Bordeaux”
• Lauren at The Swirling Dervish shares “Are Dry Wines the New Sweet Spot for Sauternes?”
• Nicole at Somms Table shares “Faux Fancy Bordeaux”
• Lisa at The Wine Chef shares “Learn About Cru Bourgeois Wines: What’s New and Why You Should be Drinking Them”
• Jeff at Food Wine Click! shares “What’s New? Natural Bordeaux!”