If you are visiting us for the first time, Welcome! The Wine Spies feature one exceptional wine each day – and we only bring you wines that we ourselves seek out and love. Always, the wines are great. Sometimes greater than great, as is the case with today’s wine from Bourassa Vineyards.

Mission Codename: Napa Valley Premier Cru?

Operative: Agent White

Objective: Find a California Bordeaux style blend worth of our operatives palates.

Mission Status: Accomplished!

Current Winery: Bourassa Vineyards

Wine Subject: 2003 Harmony³

Winemaker: Gary Galleron

Backgrounder:

Bordeaux wines are usually a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet France, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Carmenere. And in France, perfection is achieved with the perfect balance of those grapes. In California’s Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon reigns supreme with large crops of Merlot and to a lesser extent Cabernet Franc. The 2003 Bourassa Vineyard Harmony³ is a perfect blend of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot and 21% Cabernet Franc. Napa Valley’s unique location, climate, aspect and soil make it ideal for the production of the primary Bordeaux grapes.

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – Beautiful dark purple in color with a slightly inky clarity.

Smell – Big and intense juicy blackberries and plums balanced against oak and spice.

Feel – Medium bodied, smooth and rich, but still exhibits a solid tannic structure with an almost creamy texture to the fruit.

Taste – Great fruit flavors of juicy and tart blackberries, cherries, mild toasted oak, hints of cocoa and a nice mineral quality.

Finish – This wine finished long, rich and smooth with lingering flavors of its fruit and a hint of spice.

Conclusion – There is a reason that Bordeaux wines are so loved among wine aficionados, and this Napa California version reminds us of just why wines from Napa Valley is among the best for the Bordeaux varietals. This wine is both elegant and juicy with exceptional layers of flavor, balance and structure. If you are a fan of Napa Valley wines then this is definitely worth a try. After tasting this wine, we know why it is considered Bourassa Vineyard’s ‘flagship’ wine.

Mission Report:

For those ‘insider’ operatives that know me, you know I also have a soft spot for Highland Scotch and authentic Jalisco Tequila. While on a mission where I was technically ‘off the reservation’ in search of tequila, an interesting incident occurred.

I had flown in to Mexico via small aircraft (our very own Wine Spies Spy Plane, a kitted Cessna R182) into a dirt strip, just to the south of the pueblo of Tequila and after scoping out some of the farms, I was relaxing in the plazuela. Now its not uncommon to see people walking around with bottles of the distilled nectar of agave, but strangely there was a young man carrying a couple bottles of what looked to be red wine.

I immediately grew suspicious and carefully followed the man into a tequila tasting room where I sat at one of the plastic ‘Tecate’ tables, adorned with limes, salt and a bottle of Huichol salsa. After, browsing the shop, the man sat down at my table and introduced himself as Mr. Barragan, from the Bourassa Winery.

“Agent White, what are you doing here in Tequila”, he asked, followed by “Our intel suggests that you should be in Napa, trying to discover ‘our’ versions of a Bordeaux blend”. I replied, “I am, supposed to be in Napa, but I needed to pick up some samples for a personal mission, I’ll be in Napa in the next couple days in search of a few exceptional Bordeaux styled wines.”

“You could have saved me a trip” he proclaimed, “But not all is lost, I have some wine for you to taste, assuming your palate is not ruined by the tequila.” I had not yet indulged, so I was prepared to taste his samples. Thankfully, the cantina/tienda had a couple of wine glasses.

All I could say is ‘wow’, the wines that Mr. Barragan poured where amazing. Having spent so much time in France tasting Premier Cru Bordeaux wines, their 2003 Bourassa Vineyards Harmony³ was like being back in Pauillac. “You must come and visit us to meet Victor Bourassa and our winemaker Gary Galleron when you’re up in Napa.”

The juxtaposition of drinking a fantastic wine in Tequila was strange at best, and almost surreal. (Try enjoying wine listening to Banda.)

I was getting anxious to get back to California, and subsequently Napa to gather the full intel and conduct a complete tasting, but I’d have to wait to fly back, I needed to wait “8 hours bottle to throttle”, knowing that the earliest we could fly back was the morning, we finished enjoying the wine, and even a few tequilas.

Wine Spies Vineyard Check:

The location of Bourassa Vineyards can be seen in this satellite photo. The historic pueblo of Tequila can be seen in this satellite photo.