Recommended for visiting!
Are you a wine connoisseur and enjoy this drink? Or a professional sommelier and you can hardly be surprised by anything? Or maybe you just live near Bordeaux?
In any case, La Cité du Vin wine museum in Bordeaux is a place that should be visited more than once. It is advisable to walk around the permanent exhibition Le Parcours Permanent 2-3 times if you really want to see everything. Here you can take part in:
- monthly tastings of wines of the world;
- weekly tastings of Bordeaux wines;
- serious seminars and conferences on the topic of alcohol consumption and climate change.
And also meet famous people in the world of wine and attend many other events.
And each semester, in addition to the permanent exhibition, another, temporary exhibition is organized. It is dedicated to wine regions (the last two were the regions of Georgia and the Douro Valley, and in 2019 the exhibition was dedicated to Argentina), the grape varieties grown there, the peculiarities of viticulture and winemaking, as well as the culture of the country itself.
My impressions
My annual subscription includes unlimited entry to the permanent and temporary exhibition. But since wine is a lifelong pursuit and always something new to discover, I decided to go beyond the WSET diploma and head to regions of Argentina that I hadn’t studied in class.
Like all the museum installations, this temporary exhibition was very informative. Lots of illustrations and models of climate, landscape, soils, grape varieties, maps of wine regions, and even local food and costumes!
You could even get acquainted with the characteristic aromas of Malbec, a variety that has become a symbol of Argentine winemaking.
The historical facts are no less interesting here. For example, I discovered that it was thanks to Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France and England, that Malbec was brought to England. Thus, this variety avoided extinction when the phylloxera epidemic devastated the vineyards of its homeland, Cahors. It was from England that Malbec reached Argentina, where it survived the epidemic and found its second home.
Sorry, Malbec! Another time…
Initially, I intended to consolidate the theory with practice and remind myself of the taste of Argentine Malbec at a tasting after visiting the exhibition. However, among all the wines offered in the panoramic bar la Belvédère on the 8th floor of the building, which can be accessed with a ticket or subscription, I was more interested in the wine from Washington state, from the Red Mountain AVA region. So let’s leave the Argentine Malbec for next time, we will definitely come back to it.
A few words about Red Mountain AVA
Red Mountain AVA (American Viticultural Area) is a small region of 1,635 hectares, part of the larger Yakima Valley, which in turn is part of Washington state.
This region is a relatively new one – it was granted AVA status in 2001. The name of the region, and the mountain itself, comes from a phenomenon that can be observed in the fall: the grass covering the mountain turns red. The vineyards are planted on the slopes of this mountain, in the northeast of the region, at an elevation of 400 meters above sea level and are oriented to the southwest, toward the Yakima River, which flows into the Columbia River nearby.
The climate in the Red Mountain AVA, as in the entire Yakima River Valley, is continental. Hot summers, cold winters and a large temperature difference between the coldest and hottest months.
Arid conditions and scant rainfall are also a feature of the Yakima Valley and the entire state of Washington, since the Cascade Mountain range in the west of the state protects it from humidity and rain, which is limited to only 180-200 mm of precipitation per year.
In such an extreme climate, the Yakima River plays an important role in providing suitable conditions for winemaking: it moderates extremely high and extremely low temperatures and provides water for irrigation, which is necessary due to the lack of rainfall.
Another important characteristic of the Red Mountain AVA and Washington State is their northern latitude, which lengthens the days and provides vineyards with two more hours of sunlight than in Napa Valley. This feature allows the grapes to ripen better and gain sufficient sugar, despite its northern latitude. At the same time, a fresh wind from the west, penetrating the Yakima River bed, contributes to slow ripening, preservation of acidity and accumulation of aromatic components in the berries.
Soils Red Mountain AVA were formed during the last ice age, as a result of the Missoula floods 13-15 thousand years ago. The streams of water that went around the mountain carried various rocks with them and, thanks to their deposits, formed various soils (in most cases – loam based on gravel or basalt).
The vines are typically planted on loam and gravel soils with high limestone content. These soils are particularly well suited for viticulture because they provide good drainage (and are 60% drier than other Washington soils). This allows for smaller crops and forces the vines to develop deep root systems that can extract minerals from deep within the soil. This results in smaller, richer berries with more aromatics, resulting in full-bodied, powerful wines.
Red Mountain AVA is known for its Cabernet Sauvignon, but Merlot, Syrah, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot also do well here.
At the show, Red Mountain AVA presented…
The Hedges Family Estate wine selected by the Wine Museum is a complex blend dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon (58%), complemented by Merlot (25%), Syrah (15%), Petit Verdot (1%), Cabernet Franc (0.5%) and Malbec (0.5%).
The grapes for this wine were harvested from different sites on the same estate, with varying degrees of slope (0-5%) and soils of loam and sand in varying proportions. The wine was also aged in American and French oak barrels (40% of the barrels were new) for 20 months.
The result of such a (too) complex blend turned out to be quite intriguing for the European taste, which is not accustomed to it.
Tasting
The wine is dark ruby in color, quite aromatic, with fresh notes of fresh black cherries and plums and a light shade of the same dried fruits.
Long aging in oak barrels (some of which were made of American oak, known for the bright aroma of spices that it imparts to wine) was very noticeable in the bouquet. Notes of cloves, liquorice and vanilla were felt, which were intertwined with a light aroma of black pepper, characteristic of some grape varieties included in the blend.
The same complexity and concentration on the palate: above average body and intensity of flavours, slightly above average alcohol and tannins with a soft, velvety texture.
This generally warming wine needs enough acidity to maintain balance. The wine is of very good quality, open, dense, but balanced by its freshness. However, in my opinion, it still lacked the subtle notes of fresh herbs and flowers that would add elegance. 
