Château Chasse-Spleen 2003, Moulis
29th February 2008
Version 1: On his way to Spain, Lord Byron stops at the Grand-Poujeaux estate in Bordeaux. He tries the estate’s wine. He is enchanted. “It is,” he declares, “a medicine to drive out spleen.” From now on the wine is known as Château Chasse-Spleen.
Version 2: The poet Baudelaire visits a friend who lives near the Grand-Poujeaux estate. He tries the wine. He is enchanted. The wine is renamed after the Spleen poems in Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil.
Which version should we believe? As Bertrand Russell was fond of saying, they can’t both be right but they could both be wrong. Version 2 seems the more problematic. Just because a poet likes your wine, why should you rename it after one of his unhappier themes? And if you really must, then why pick this theme? The Flowers of Evil has quite a range of morbid subjects. Why not Chasse-Horreur or Chasse-Poison or even Chasse-Vampire? (I know which one a marketing man would prefer.)
Also, one of the Flowers of Evil poems happens to be about wine. It celebrates the drink and describes some of its benefits; driving away spleen is not one of them. (You will find it here, with the rest of The Flowers of Evil.)
In short, the Baudelaire story raises more questions than it answers. The Byron version makes more sense. It is clear, tidy and unambiguous. It is also more pleasing. For all these reasons I suspect it is an invention, and the Baudelaire version is the correct one.
But what of the wine? It comes from Moulis, a small Bordeaux commune between St Julien and Margaux. The estate which makes it has been growing wine since the 1500s. Most recently its production has been overseen by two formidable women, Bernadette Villars and, after her death, her daughter Claire.
Chasse-Spleen is made up of 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 7% Petit Verdot, fermented in stainless steel and cement, then aged in oak for 12 to 14 months. The 2003 is bluish-purple, with a strawberry jam nose. Its tannins are still a little harsh – unavoidable in a wine built to last – but they do not impair the pleasure, which is intense. The taste is scrumptiously full and meaty, the finish good and persistent.
Château Chasse-Spleen costs around $30 in the US, £15 in the UK. Looking back over past entries, I see that I often grumble about wines in this price bracket, arguing that they are not really worth the money. Although pleasant, they too often lack the depth or complexity that is supposed to set them apart from wines in the $15-20 class. Château Chasse-Spleen admirably supports my case. This wine shows what can and should be done at this level. It is brimming with character and interest. These are the qualities that raise a wine from passing pleasure to memorable delight.
