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.
