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Domaine les Carmels, Cotes de Bordeaux Les Caprices, 2024

Red Wine from Bordeaux, France
$35.99
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This is Bordeaux for people who think they don't like Bordeaux: an organic red made for easy drinking, not decades in the cellar. Les Caprices comes from Yorick and Sophie Lavaud. Yorick sourced wine for Rothschild, then in 2009 found a 17-hectare property that the big local owners had passed on because only a third of it was planted to vines. (His great-great-grandfather owned ten Graves châteaux, Domaine de Chevalier and Fieuzal among them. Yorick jokes that he comes from "the impoverished branch of the family.") The fruit grows on multicoloured clay with limestone in Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux, a narrow strip of vineyards on the right bank of the Garonne about 45 minutes southeast of the city. The house style is lightly extracted, with no new oak and very little sulfur, and that last choice is personal: Yorick has mild asthma. The Lavauds call it deliberately simple, with volume, and we'd call it a weeknight red with a better story than most.

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More about Domaine Les Carmels

Elegant Bordeaux is making a comeback. More and more producers are seeking restraint and terroir transparency in their wines, moving away from the flashy, opulent style that got good ratings in the 2000s from critics like Robert Parker.

These producers are also making changes in the vineyards, eschewing chemicals and focusing on sustainability – what’s the point of transparency if the fruit isn’t healthy? Another trend: artisanally-minded producers are going to unsung appellations, seeking out the best sites, and raising the bar for what can be accomplished there.

All of this converges at Les Carmels, a domaine founded by a young couple in AOC Cadillac a little over a decade ago. Their wines – floral, vibrant, soulful, and approachable – exemplify the movement towards elegance and purity we’re talking about.

Contrary to what the name might conjure, Côtes-de-Bordeaux Cadillac is one of Bordeaux’s less glamorous appellations. But there’s actually some great terroir there: a crest of clay and limestone slopes overlooking the Garonne river at Sauternes and Graves.

That’s where Sophie and Yorick Lavaud have 6 hectares of vines – mostly Merlot – surrounded by forest and pasture land. Farming is organic, but they also use biodynamic techniques and preparations. The cellar philosophy is low-intervention, and sulfur additions range from little to none.

Wine Details

  • Grape Variety

    Merlot

  • Vintage

    2024

  • Size

    750ml

  • Farming Practice

    Organic

  • Style

    Earthy

  • Sweetness

    Dry

  • Body

    Medium Bodied

Flatiron's Take

From the Importer

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Tasting Notes & Food Pairings

Perfect Pairings

Roast chicken with thyme and garlic, duck rillettes on toast, a bistro burger, mushroom and sausage pizza, grilled merguez with lentils.

Tasting Profile

Expect a soft, juicy Merlot in a lightly extracted style: ripe plum, red and black cherry, and a hint of earthy, savoury Bordeaux character. It's typically medium-bodied, with generous, rounded fruit, gentle tannins and fresh acidity, and it finishes clean and supple. Think classic Bordeaux with the edges sanded off, made for weeknight drinking rather than the cellar.