Blason d’Issan is great qpr as is La Croix Ducru
Another vote for the ‘17 Gravette and I agree with the comparison to the ‘19 (and ‘18 for that matter). ‘17 Gravette is firing on all cylinders for me and I highly recommend it.
I also echo everyone’s comments re Dame de Montrose and recommend the ‘10 if you can find at a good price.
I’m piping up over here mostly because I disagree on some counts of what has been said, but also think some valuable points have been made that can be synthesized into a pretty reasonable approach.
As far Le Petit Ducru goes, I think the 2019 is fantastic for the price. It contains enough “stuffing” to be considered its own well-made, well-drinking wine at the price point, and reasonably “goes the distance.” I opened one two weeks ago that continued to expand over nightly tastes until it finally started to unwind on night four.
In many ways though I think the advantage of second wines is for individuals who are still trying to develop a comprehensive understanding of their palate and preferences. I agree that it is worth being very selective with second and third wines, but I appreciate that these wines give me an opportunity to understand the winemaking of certain chateaux more clearly, and when you find a winning second wine it encourages you all the more about purchasing the first. Many second wines seem to be developed out of a different parcel selection or from what I imagine are “leftovers” that were not formulated into the first wine and thus have different grape variety percentages.
Examples:
My strong affinity for Brane-Cantenac came from encountering Le Baron de Brane 2016 at Costco for $34 a piece. They were a steal. I still have three, and cherish them. Le Baron de Brane runs typically 50-70% Merlot vs the grand vin’s 50-70% cab sauv, and so stylistically they really drink differently, but Le Baron de Brane expresses Margaux quite naturally as the wine that it is. I always keep an eye out for it.
La Sirene de Giscours is far too expensive these days for what it is ($50 at Total wine, no way) but when I first encountered it you could get it for $30 retail. At the time, it showed as a nice representation of Margaux that you could drink early, albeit while missing some layers that I’m sure the grand vin consistently displays. I would use it to help show people what Bordeaux was kind of about, when they had no experience with drinking Bordeaux.
My final statement would be that I also agree with many others, who essentially have stated, if you know Bordeaux well, second wines most likely rarely make sense. There are so many chateaux producing great, wonderful, fun primary wines that if you know where to look, just buy those. But not all of us have that knowledge yet, and I think second wines are a good access point to understand the different appellations and wine making styles with recognizable and categorizable wines. Hope this helps!
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I greatly enjoyed the Margaux de Brane when I was getting it for $20/bottle. Haven’t tried the Baron, but plan to eventually.
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Nice! I’ve only ever seen pretty positive reviews, but price has gone up enough on it that it seems a little hard to justify. Good to know though if I ever come across it at the right price!
I don’t buy second wines. They will always come from lots rejected from the Grand Vin, which by definition, dictates that the best barrels go into that wine. This means the second wine will almost always be second rate dependent on what is left after that. If Merlot is weak this harvest, well let’s put it into the second wine. This plot never produces wine fit to be included in the top wine. Don’t worry, that is what the second wine is for. Net result; the first wine is the terroir driven one, the second is almost certainly not.
That being said, I have had some decent ones, Gravette, Blasons and Les Forts. But for the same price I can get Tour Saint Christophe, Cantermerle and Lynch Bages.
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They have uses – like in a restaurant setting. Croix Canon was very nice at a recent dinner party.