BordeauxClairet wines are very colourful and distinctive Bordeaux rosé wines. As you might expect, they are made from the classic red Bordeaux grapes - mainly Merlot with a little help from the more "Serious" Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Despite their intense Color and Rich, FruityAroma, the wines are still Dry. With their simple structure and lack of tannin (an essential ingredient in the wine maturation process), Bordeaux Clairet wines are not suitable for aging.
They are accessible at a much younger age than ordinary red Bordeaux, but they also begin to fade earlier and should be consumed within a year or two of the vintage. This is drastically less than the 20 years of bottle age required by the most prestigious wines of the Medoc and St. Emilion. The classic Bordeaux Clairet wines are so deep in colour (even more so than those from Spanish Navarre) that they could almost be mistaken for very lightly coloured red wines.
In fact, that is precisely what they used to be.
Cabernet Franc is one of the oldest red grape varieties in Bordeaux. The Libourne region is its terroir where it develops best. The terroirs of Saint-Emilion and Fronsac allow it to mature and develop its best range of aromas. It is also the majority in many blends. The very famous Château Cheval Blanc, for example, uses 60% Cabernet Franc. The wines produced with Cabernet Franc are medium in colour with fine tannins and subtle aromas of small red fruits and spices. When blended with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, it brings complexity and a bouquet of aromas to the wine. It produces fruity wines that can be drunk quite quickly, but whose great vintages can be kept for a long time. It is an earlier grape variety than Cabernet Sauvignon, which means that it is planted as far north as the Loire Valley. In Anjou, it is also used to make sweet rosé wines. Cabernet Franc is now used in some twenty countries in Europe and throughout the world.
pink wines from the region of Bordeaux Clairet go well with generally quite well with dishes of beef, pork or game (deer, venison) such as recipes of beef with onions chinese style, pasta carbonara almost like the real thing or potjevleesch (meat in a pot).
On the nose in the region of Bordeaux Clairet often reveals types of flavors of raspberry, earth or microbio and sometimes also flavors of oak, red fruit or strawberries. In the mouth in the region of Bordeaux Clairet is a powerful with a nice freshness.
