I am normally suspicious of those machines that serve fine wine by the glass, replacing dispensed wine with nitrogen gas.
However, I finally gave in and went to a place I would now recommend to wine lovers who come to Bordeaux:
http://maxbordeaux.com/index.php?lang=en
Max Bordeaux is located in a beautiful building on the Cours de l’Intendance in the city center. The decor is a successful blend of classical and contemporary styles.
The serving system is entirely automatic. You buy a smart card (minimum value: 25 euros), put it into one of ten dispensing machines, and serve yourself.
Tastes come in 3 sizes. The smallest is either 2 or 3 cl. The cheapest taste is 1 euro (2006 La Goulée, a wine from the northern Médoc produced by Cos d’Estournel) and the most is about about 12 euros.
They had 5 first growths on offer when I went there (all from the 2004 vintage), and most of the other wines were 2006s. Virtually all the wines were in the cru classé category.
Curiously, there were very few wines from the Right Bank, and even fewer whites.
Anyway a friend and I stopped by yesterday afternoon and compared three great Pomerols from the 2006 vintage. Sorry for the sketchy notes that follow.
All wines were good. La Conseillante was the most forward, with a juicy, raspberry nose and a lively palate with fresh acidity. L’Evangile was the most reserved and the most tannic. We felt it was the second best of the series, but that it might be a different story in 10 or 15 years thanks to the wine's long, assertive aftertaste that bodes well. Finally, our clear favorite was the Vieux Château Certan, a wine with a wonderfully suave bouquet (I’d say vanilla from well-tempered oak ageing and almond from the Pomerol terroir) and the kind of round, sophisticated tannin one dreams of finding in that appellation.
Best regards,
Alex R.