We had a dinner party with some relatives, who brought along a bottle of Château Prieuré-Lichine 4ème Cru Classé Margaux red, and some good friends. The Prieuré-Lichine is one of my favourite wines from Margaux. It has typical Margaux taste and concentration and it is silky smooth. This wine went down well with some roast pork.
On such an auspicious occasion I thought that I would open a top quality red wine from the USA - Qupé 2012 Syrah from the Californian Central Coast and this, too, is a favourite wine of mine. My family from France rarely get an opportunity to drink any sort of American wine let alone a very good one. I have never seen Qupé 2012 Syrah on sale anywhere in France. We also drank this wine with the pork as there were six of us.
How can you compare these wines for quality and taste as they are from different countries with different traditions?
The Margaux 1998 had matured much longer and I doubt that the Qupé would be at its best after 17 years. The American wine was designed and produced to be consumed younger.
The Margaux had a taste of its own but of course it was easily recognisable as a fine Bordeaux. The Qupé was reminiscent of a French Syrah from the South of France but it had a quality all of its own with a concentrated red fruit flavour with a little bit of spice.
Both of these wines were made to go with good food and were not meant to be slugged back at a party. It is really difficult to say which was the better wine and it was obvious that the winemakers were proud of their product. The Old world and the New united to produce high quality wines. This is what wine-making is all about: they are little bit more expensive - in the UK the Bordeaux is over £20 pounds a bottle and the Qupé can be found for just under. Of course both these wines are better value for money in their home countries.
We British are lucky, however, as it is easy to find great wines from all over the world - you can't do this in France as easily.
http://www.prieure-lichine.fr/
http://www.wine.com/v6/Qupe-Central-Coast-Syrah-2012/wine/132909/Detail.aspx?state=CA
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