When I first began working in wine, the village of Bandol was synonymous with one single and very particular type of red wine. Bandol, by definition, was almost always a) overwhelmingly Mourvèdre dominated, b) fermented in whole grape clusters, c) aged in large barrels, and d) seldom released earlier than 5 years after vintage. The resulting wines were deep, savory, layered and extremely complex—not for the impatient or faint of heart, but wines intended for true purists and students of wine. If you ordered a bottle of Bandol at Chez Panisse in Berkeley or at a bistro in Paris, that’s what you got. There was no “modern” or “young drinking” Bandol; just Bandol.
Over the years it has been troubling to watch as the very definition of Bandol changing before my eyes. So much so that today, after a general and widespread “bending of the rules” in the appellation—presumably to accommodate the global wine press and mainstream tastes—the typical Bandol is a completely different wine. Today, the norm in Bandol is sticky Grenache fruit, 100% destemming, aging in new oak barriques, and releasing wines much earlier across the board. Today when I taste the village’s, I sometimes can’t even tell the difference between them and mediocre Côtes du Rhône or Spanish reds. It’s a shame, but much of what is bottled in Bandol today tastes like overripe, overly oaked “red wine.”
All this is to say that Château Pradeaux rests at the completely opposite end of this stylistic continuum. Because of decisions made in the vines and in the cellar—and above all, because of the Portalis family’s integrity and undying patience—Château Pradeaux’s reds continue to carry the torch for the Bandol of yesteryear. Cyrille Portalis is the current patriarch of the family property and he maintains all traditional processes: Vines younger than 25 years are jettisoned to rosé production, all fruit is harvested by hand, and everything from the grape varieties to the giant old barrels in the family’s cellar remain as they were in the 1960’s.
Today’s wine, the 2009 Château Pradeaux Bandol Rouge is a convincing argument in favor of maintaining the idiosyncrasies of France’s historic wine producing villages at all costs. There is nothing else quite like this wine on Earth. It has an opaque dark ruby core moving to orange hues on the rim—the is not particularly dark colored but it somehow communicates a sense of greater concentration and restrained power. The nose is wild and untamed—one should expect nothing less from a top Bandol estate in a great vintage. Blackberry, boysenberry and black currant liqueur notes quickly evolve into savory aromas of dried leather, tobacco, game, black pepper, dried violets and wild herbs. The palate is rich, full and layered with impossible to fully comprehend depth and complexity. This wine is a rubix cube and I could spend hours just sipping and exploring it without any food. The wine’s tannins are just beginning to soften and I’ll admit that I love it right now with all it’s brutish, adolescent strength. Still, this is a wine which should be at least a decade old when drinking best. Along those same lines, I’ll stress that I have enjoyed so many memorable and unreal experiences with Château Pradeaux Bandol at 10-15 years of age. I think it’s an important learning experience to taste these wines when mature—and to open them periodically to see how they’re evolving—so I’ll gently encourage you to put 3-4 bottles down and forget about them in a cold and dark place. I promise that in a few years, you will be very happy you did. If drinking soon, please decant for a minimum of 2 hours, then serve in large Bordeaux stems at about 60-65 degrees alongside a protein-rich dish to help tame the wine’s young tannins. One could explore many directions with pairings, but I personally suggest a 4 inch thick ribeye. Grill over high heat to get a nice char on the outside, and then finish to medium rare in the oven. With olive oil mashed potatoes and sauteed mushrooms, I promise you will fall in love with the Portalis family’s defining expression of Bandol.
