Best Value Red Wine in the World?

Hey Everyone,

After a long break from writing following my return from South Africa I have been active in trying to determine the course of what I will be doing over the coming year. With plans to replicate my South African experience in Napa Valley this coming vintage, there is plenty to be excited about, but until more concrete plans take shape I'll hold off on going into more detail.

A few days ago I came across a bottle of wine which the world's most influential wine critic, Robert Parker, Jr (or at least his Wine Advocate cronies) has declared to be the best value red wine in the world. Now inappropriate superlatives aside, I take great exception to many things Mr. Parker has contributed to the wine world; whether it be the inordinate influencing of prices by releasing his reviews of en primeur wines before they are priced by the producer, or the gradual disappearance of traditional wine styles as more and more producers strive to impress his Napa-Cab loving palate. Many things have been changed forever by the American wine critic for better or worse and now the wine world must continue as it is.

But the wine in question, Bodegas Borsao 2011 was reviewed by Mr. Parker to be the world best red wine for the price in the world. I tasted said wine, and while I found it perfectly enjoyable for the price, I found it predictably flavoured for the review it was given. Ripe fruits, a little complexity and a very enticing mouthfeel. I really don't see what it is that separates this £9 red wine from the rest of the pack. I enjoyed it perfectly well, I would enjoy it again and would happily pay for it. But in my head there is an ever growing list of wines between £8 and £10 that I would take long before Borsao.

I found the nose to be full of abundant fruits: ripe raspberries, some red currants and even a touch of strawberry jam and delicate spice. The palate is easy-going, a classically Spanish blend of Garnacha, Syrah and Tempranillo that works quite nicely and offers a tasty bottle of wine for a great price.

Therefore I do not blame the wine, merely the practice of decrying it so hyperbolically and laughably. Why Mr. Parker elected to elevate this wine over the rest of the world's medium priced wine, I think we shall never know, but here we are and this is the world we live in; the tastes and palate of one man being over-credited when it would suffice to call this wine what it really is. It is a good, reliable and solid wine for a damn good price and nothing less. I would give this wine a good rating, but as I am not in the usual habit of assigning numerical scores to the life-work of other people, I'll merely leave it at this...

Well done Borsao, very well done indeed!

Much Love,

G

 

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