Chateau Terrefort Lescalle Bordeaux / 2023 / 375mL

Description:

Château Terrefort-Lescalle 2023 is a medium-bodied Bordeaux red, made largely from Merlot with Cabernet Sauvignon, here in a 375mL half bottle. Grown at Macau on the edge of the Médoc, it is a supple, savoury claret built for drinking rather than cellaring.

Dark plum and blackcurrant lead the aromatics, with dried herbs, tobacco leaf and a faint graphite edge behind the fruit. The wine is matured in tank rather than barrel, so what you smell is the fruit and the clay soils it came off, not oak.

Merlot gives the palate its roundness and the Cabernet Sauvignon draws it back into line, with fine, gently gripping tannins and a dry, earthy finish. A half bottle also matures faster than a full one, so the 2023 already shows a little of the softness a 750mL would need another year or two to find.

Two glasses is the point of this format: a midweek steak for one, a roast chicken shared with someone drinking white, or a wedge of hard cheese at the end of the night. Terrefort-Lescalle also handles a mushroom risotto, sausages or a shepherd's pie without fuss.

Drink the Château Terrefort-Lescalle 2023 half bottle now and over the next two to three years, while the Bordeaux fruit is fresh and the tannins still have shape.