2015 Chateau Charmail Cru Bourgeois Haut-Médoc 750 ml

Château Angélus Winemaking Meets a Value Price

We first tasted the 2015 Château Charmail Cru Bourgeois Haut-Médoc on a quay in Pauillac: We were looking across the undulating waters of the Gironde toward Bordeaux’s distant Right Bank and eating the most “Médoc” lunch we could think of: a super-rich, super-rare foie gras burger on a brioche bun. Needless to say, the pairings—the wine and the burger, the meal and the view—were almost surreally perfect.

This is exactly why, no matter how in love we fall with a wine out in the field, we insist upon tasting it again at Wine Access home base in Napa: Because idyllic scenes have the power to transform mediocre wines into First Growths, but at home—before a panel of professionals in our brightly-lit tasting room—they have nowhere to hide. They can’t piggyback on an incredible burger or a breathtaking view. If they don’t stand on their own, they don’t make the cut.

Despite the missing burger, despite the view of our parking lot, the Château Charmail still left us extremely impressed. It was the same classic Claret that we tasted in Pauillac: deep purple, showing beautiful black fruit, cedar and spice box with just a hint of leather. It’s the kind of Bordeaux that the locals sip at tiny tables as they eat steak frites and watch the world go by—one that Jeb Dunnuck, in his 92-point review, called a “blockbuster that should be snatched up.” We fully concur, but would add three words: by the case.

Grapes have been grown on Château Charmail’s prime Haut-Médoc territory north of St. Estèphe since the 17th century, but its current reputation dates back to 1982, when well-known Bordeaux agricultural engineer Olivier Sèze purchased the property. Sèze pioneered the technique of cold-fermentation as proprietor of Charmail, and he still acts as the winery’s director, even though he sold the property to Bernard and Marie d’Halluin in 2008. By that time, Charmail’s reputation was firmly in place: Robert Parker, commenting on the 2010 vintage, called Charmail an “over-achieving estate that tends to produce wines with lots of intensity and structure.”

The final piece in the Charmail quality puzzle fell into place in 2015, when the estate began contracting with famed consulting winemaker Hubert de Boüard. Best known for his work at St. Émilion Grand Cru Classé “A” Château Angélus, de Boüard’s company has the knack for bringing out the best in an estate—be it an icon or a humble Cru Bourgeois—and the 2015 Château Charmail is simply shining: Dunnuck calls it a “seriously good bottle” that is “incredibly elegant and perfectly balanced.”

This is exactly the kind of Bordeaux we pine to pair with a weeknight steak. Although this wine will certainly improve with some age, it’s what we call a “front of cellar” wine: one that belongs close at hand while your more precious bottlings wait patiently for their turn. It is one to be purchased by the case, opened with frequency, and without hesitation.