Chateau Timberlay Bordeaux Superieur has a beautiful bright deep ruby colour. On the nose, this wine is fine, intense and complex. A blend of aromas of red fruit (candied fruit), vanilla, spice, leather and lightly oaked notes. On the palate, it is soft on the attack. The wine is very round and well-balanced. Fruity with good silky tannins and a long vanilla aftertaste.

Yuck. There's often nothing terribly wrong with "value" Bordeaux, but even the great 2010 vintage can't rescue this one. It's decent on the nose, if obviously manufactured for apparently easy and broad appeal, with tons of oak, vanilla, baking spice, and black pepper, masking sweet plum fruit, but the taste is sour and unappetizing, mostly redcurrant and cherry. The dominant Merlot keeps it soft and plump, but there's almost no structure to speak of, and by the second day the nose is all rubber, the taste a flabby muddle of overripe purple fruit. Crass commercialization, plain and simple.