To be honest, when a friend of mine recently poured me a taste of the 2012 Family Réserve, I didn’t get a chance to see the bottle before I stuck my nose in the glass; aromatically, this wine smelled like Bordeaux, but something with more life, energy and florality than one often encounters in the wines. I assumed immediately it was from Bordeaux and that I would have to offer it at a fairly high price. Alas, this was not the case. After looking at the bottle and noticing it was from Buzet, which is located about an hour’s drive southeast of Bordeaux, I understood why I had been fooled. Buzet was once inside the boundaries of the Bordeaux appellation, but the local wine industry politics of the region and a bout of phylloxera pushed Buzet out. Competition for great Bordeaux, bottled and sold at ever-soaring prices over the years, made it difficult for Buzet to get back on its feet. However, with their AOC status granted in 1973, small producers in Buzet began to very slowly make a name for themselves—and the appellation. The wines from this region mirror the style of Bordeaux and can be enjoyed at a more affordable price, and for that reason, consumed more often. Because Buzet shares nearly the same terroir as Bordeaux, the wines are difficult to distinguish from each other.

Domaine Courège-Longue has surely contributed to the rising reputation of the appellation, with their meticulous organic farming practices and honest blends of classic Bordeaux grape varieties. The 2012 Family Réserve from Domaine Courège-Longue is made with grapes grown on the same soils that make many Bordeaux wines so definitive—alluvial soils with gravel and sand. The mature age of the vines helps produce very concentrated fruit with complex flavor profiles. Manual harvest allows for the berries to stay intact during harvest and transport to the winery, before complete de-stemming and then temperature controlled fermentation. The wine is then aged for one year in majority barrique (70%), with the remainder in concrete (30%)—giving this wine a perfect aromatic freshness and desirable texture. Wines like these remind us that classically-made Bordeaux blends do not have to strictly come from Bordeaux; there are incredible regions outside of Bordeaux, like Buzet, that are absolutely worth knowing about.