The trick to finding great value in French wines is to seek stand-out producers from less-famous appellations. We are always on the hunt for these opportunities, and one of our favorite finds over the years has been Tour des Gendres in Bergerac. We’ve written about them before in this newsletter, but we focused then on their white wines. They provide equally spectacular value in red, so let’s focus in on that today.

A quick look at a map reveals that Bergerac is just upstream from Bordeaux – talk about being in the shadow of someone else’s fame! The soils of Bergerac are quite similar to Bordeaux – there is limestone, there is gravel, there is clay – but the influence of the Atlantic Ocean is felt less here, so the summers are a touch warmer, and there is a bit less rainfall.

Bergerac, obscurity that it is, has almost never been able to produce wines of great prestige, and therefore very few producers have ever bothered to invest in improved farming, lower yields, or precise wine-making – only serving to reinforce the general perception of the AOC.

Why is Tour des Gendres so different? Simply put, love and passion has pushed them to make the quality upgrades that straight economics would never have done. Exceptionally for the region, they work fully biodynamically. They plant their vineyards to very high densities (ensuring high quality fruit). They have invested in Stockinger foudres. In short, they are doing all the kinds of things that normally only top domaines in Bordeaux – or Burgundy for that matter – would bother doing.

Today’s “La Gloire de mon Père” is an exceptional value that you could easily serve side by side with a $50 Bordeaux. It is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Malbec and 20% Merlot. The current release is from the excellent 2019 vintage, and it is immensely enjoyable to great now (after a short decant), with gloriously gushing Cabernet fruit providing instant pleasure, and a sneaky serious side lurking beneath to make this a very interesting — and ageworthy — wine.


Château Tour des Gendres, La Gloire de mon Père Côtes de Bergerac, 2019 $23.99