Merlot & Cabernet Sauvignon, Bordeaux, France

It’s hard to picture anything other than a smoking jacket, cigar and a moth-eaten British man using dusty words like ‘brouhaha’ when one hears ‘Bordeaux,’ but there’s plenty of young fun to be found in the region – like this dramatic velveteen mash of even-keeled merlot & earthy cab sauv. The 16-hectare estate in the undulating limestone hills of Saint-Émilion has been in the winemaking biz since King Louis XIV’s reign in 1680 (!) and while it still makes classique wines, the estate has modernized since the dark ages. Deep as a purple midnight and thick with heady, bramble fruit, this wine is asking you to join a secret society and drink it out of a clanky metal stein. Put your nose in that big mug and you’ll get yard’s old plum tree (it belongs to yard not to thee), tonic bean & butterscotch, Manhattan cherries, pencil crayon tin, second-hand copy of ‘The Power Broker’ & Kawartha Dairy’s blueberry’d treasure flavour. Have it with some gas station black liquorice and stay up past 9 p.m. for a change!