Wine of the Month – Bordeaux Supérieur Rouge
Our wine of the month is the traditional Bordeaux Supérieur Rouge by Château de Parenchère. Bordeaux in a glass, the fleshy red wine, is an outstanding blend that never fails to impress, year after year.
About Bordeaux Supérieur Rouge
The Bordeaux Supérieur Rouge, a traditional blend, is a testament to the expertise and care that Château de Parenchère puts into its wines. With a deeply coloured robe and a perfect balance between fruit and tannin, it’s a wine that displays distinct red fruit aromas and a long, sustained finish.
The award-winning wine by Chateau de Parenchère, a renowned name in the industry, is a blended wine produced using 20-year-old vines. The chateau, located on the eastern edge of the Bordeaux wine-growing region, on the border of the Dordogne department, consistently produces exemplary Bordeaux wines that have won countless awards and are a firm favourite with the critics, a testament to their quality and reputation.
Grapes
The Bordeaux Supérieur Rouge blend is approximately comprised of Merlot, which offers suppleness, fruitiness, and roundness; Cabernet Sauvignon, which provides structure and tannic density; Cabernet Franc, which adds aromatic finesse; and Malbec, which contributes to the wine’s colour and spicy character, depending on the vintage. This unique blend creates a wine with a complex and balanced flavour profile, appealing to a wide range of palates.
Ideal Drinking Period
The ideal drinking period varies from vintage to vintage, but the cuvee is excellent in its first year of bottling, improving between four and seven years and even ten years for the best vintages. We currently stock vintages from 2014 through 2020, ready to ship or collect from our Hampshire-based warehouse.
Food Pairing
The Bordeaux Supérieur Rouge is a great all-rounder red wine, so pairing it is a breeze. We love it with rich dishes, including roasted, barbequed, and grilled red meat, so it is perfect all year round, from spring to winter. For those who enjoy offal, game, or wild mushrooms, the red wine is ideal for bold, unique flavours. For cheese lovers, you can’t go wrong with this fleshy wine because it brings out the right nuances of nutty aged goudas and cheddars. The Supérieur Rouge is excellent with fondue or slow-cooked ragu lasagne with lashings of stringy cheese.
Awards & Accolades
James Suckling, internationally acclaimed wine critic and journalist, gave the 2020 Bordeaux Supérieur Rouge 91/100, noting, “Notes of plums and blackberries with coffee, walnuts, dark spices and violets. Juicy and blue-fruited palate with medium body and firm tannins. Toned and textured, with a chewy finish. 100% merlot. Try after 2024.”
And he’s not the only one who rates this outstanding Bordeau wine. Don’t just take our word for it; the awards speak for themselves.
2019 vintage – Silver Medal Concours de Bordeaux 2021
2018 vintage – Silver Medal Indian Wine Award 2022
2018 vintage – Decanter – 2021 Bronze World Wine Award winner
2018 vintage – Gold Medal by Concours de Bordeaux 2021
2018 vintage – Silver Medal by Concours Gilbert & Gaillard in 2020
About Château de Parenchère
Our flagship wine producer is the award-winning Château de Parenchère, located on the eastern edge of the Bordeaux wine-growing area, 38 km from Saint-Emilion, near the village of Sainte-Foy-La-Grande. It lies on the borders of the Dordogne and the Lot et Garonne departments.
In 1958, Château de Parenchère became the property of Mr Raphaël Gazaniol, who had returned from North Africa, where his family had already been making wine for two generations. He enlarged the estate from 90 to 153 hectares and replanted almost the entire vineyard, which had been decimated by the frost in 1956.
With his son Jean, they decided to take up a challenge: to make Château de Parenchère an authentic Grand Vin de Bordeaux, able to demonstrate that great wines can come from more modestly recognized appellations.
The estate’s reputation soon exceeded the borders, and Parenchère wines were exported to more than thirty countries worldwide.
Organic Wine Production
Château de Parenchère began their sustainability focus in 2008 and, for over fifteen years, have converted their vineyards to produce organic wine. The process has been long and arduous but is important to the chateau. The entire vineyard ecology has undergone a tremendous change, but the family are committed to it and excited about the results.
Managing Director Richard Curty told us. “We believe this is the best option to preserve our soil biodiversity as much as possible and, more generally, to preserve the environment. We also think this type of culture translates into more pure and vivid wines.”
Discover La Roseraie Bordeaux Rosé here, and read the full story of Château de Parenchère’s organic conversion here.
