New From Bordeaux
Château La Tour de By
by Dixon Brooke
Kermit often told me to look where no one else is looking! The far northern tip of the Médoc, where the Gironde estuary dominates the climate and the semi-forested upper left bank of Bordeaux falls into the Atlantic, shrouded in fog, seemed to be one such place. Here I found a two-hundred-year-old formerly active stone lighthouse surrounded by Cabernet Sauvignon vines and a burly Viking named Benjamin Richer de Forges who welcomed me with open arms, open bottles, and a large slab of beef on a seemingly diminutive Weber grill.
Even though Tour de By is only thirty minutes north of Saint-Julien, it seemed like a totally different world, as if it were still a much longer ride by horseback and things had just developed differently, farther from the center of trade. While the weather might be slightly cooler with a little more proximity to the ocean, the late-ripening Cabernet and classic sand and gravel soils are the same as they are farther south. This is the prime Cabernet terroir in all of France! The incredible history of many of the Médoc’s most famous châteaux, and the legendary wines aging in cellars around the world, are living testament to this fact.
My tasting of six decades of Tour de By’s production dating back to 1966 left no doubt in my mind as to the quality of this less-traveled terroir and of the Pagès family’s savoir-faire over three generations of stewardship of the property. These serious and age-worthy clarets also provide a great deal of immediate pleasure in their youth. Ripe and expressive, full-bodied and charming, a nice chewy, yet civilized tannin to sink your teeth into... I hope you enjoy the newest KLWM Bordeaux.
2020 Médoc
France | Bordeaux