It's not 2005, but it's still great!

Call me irresponsible, but for the most part, until the Liquor Distribution Branch brings down their prices for it, we here at Spiritmerchants are giving most of the 2006 Bordeaux a pass -- the quality was pretty good but the prices were still up there in the stratosphere with the 2005's. (And we won't even think of the relatively even pricier 2007's still in the pipeline!) So until the somewhat more sanely-priced 2008's come out (and the very good-looking 2009's even further down the road) we'll be searching under rocks and in basement cubbyholes for Bordeaux from the halcion pre-millionaire, pre-2005 Bordeaux vintages.

One winner we've discovered is Fronsac's 2004 Chateau les Tonnelles, a nifty 100% Merlot offering from yet another of Bordeaux's undervalued regions. You can find effussive praise for it (and for what it's worth, a 90-point rating) here; I'm just going to say it's yummy and leave it at that!