Thoughts on Bordeaux

St Emilion vineyard and worker





"It has become clear that the world's wine consumers are well into a period of Bordeaux fatigue and one wonders where/when it will all stop. I've been running through future scenarios in my head - 2012 gives average quality at a low price; it offers great, classic wines at low/mid/high prices etc. - and find myself struggling to see the way ahead.


What is evident to me is that each and every collector is likely to have in his or her head a firm idea of how much Bordeaux wine is enough for his or her portfolio. Those that have been buying these wines steadily for a number of vintages were probably sitting on a fair pile of Bordeaux by the time the miracle 2009 harvest came along and I imagine that some of those decided that that year's foray would be the last of their Bordeaux investing. A number of collectors to whom I have spoken of late express their interest in diversification, rather than stockpiling more of these wines. After all, there is an increasing body of exceptionally fine wine being produced in an increasing number of countries of the world.


One hopes that a message is being sent to the Bordelais: that their position is more tenuous than assured and that over-excitement in the face of interest from emerging markets should be tempered by the knowledge that such interest can be short lived and is easily distracted. But perhaps these lessons will be learned only when the cellars of Bordeaux are filled with unsold wine and the bills are stacking up.


What is odd (and slightly sad) is that this is occurring at a time when Bordeaux is producing more exciting wines than ever before, the products of obsessive and high talented people. Denis Durantou in Pomerol, for example, is owner of Château l'Eglise Clinet, one ofthe world's great wines. Yet he also produces a spread of wines from across the Libourne that are superb drinking, some of which are priced at less than £100 a dozen in bond in 2011 (a little more in 2010). Yet these I struggle to sell in any quantity.


Château Meyney is another example. Here's the combined tasting note of Michel Bettane and Thierry Dessaneauve (two of France's most respected tasters) of the 2011:


"The most impressive of all of the non–classed growths this year, with a pure and balanced nose, notes of cedar, fresh leather, and red berries, and showing an exceptionally refined palate. Tannins nicely integrated and long: we’re on a par with the 15 best wines in the Médoc!"


Pitched at £210 a dozen in bond I consider that this makes a decent value drop. Regardless, it continues to "sit on the shelf"."


Introductory thoughts to the Bowes Wine release of 2011 Château Cheval Blanc and its second wine, Le Petit Cheval.





Catwalk Fashion: Mouthwatering Rollcall of Bordeaux Haute Couture

Somerset House in London last Thursday for the annual tasting of an affiliated (not sure how, exactly) group of Bordeaux crus classés. And it has immediately become an event I consider de rigeur for a number of reasons, not least that it offers an opportunity to taste some of the embryonic fluids sampled a few short months before in Bordeaux, just with a few short months more maturity. And believe me when I say it counts for something at this stage of development. Remember your forth birthday and thinking how grown up seemed children of four-and-a-half? Same thing here.

So, the wines. In no particular order, participants are: Smith-Haut-Lafitte, Gazin, Angélus, Branaire, Léoville-Poyferré, Canon, Rauzan-Ségla (these last two under the same ownership), Pontet-Canet, plus the vignobles Stefan von Niepperg i.e. Aiguilhe, Clos de l'Oratoire, Canon La Gaffelière and La Mondotte.

And to add extra motivation (if any were needed) for one to respond affirmatively when that yearly invitation hoves to in one's in-box, each château shows 2, 3 or 4 of the immediately preceding vintages.
As predicted, the tasting was of interest on several levels. Example: The 2011 Rauzan-Ségla in Bordeaux was having some kind of major strop. Like a hormone-fuelled teenager it was uncommunicative, surly and not remotely interested in letting on what it means to be a part of the new generation. In  London last week, its charms were much more in evidence, its quality apparent.
Yet it was another vintage of Rauzan-Ségla that most left me pondering the meaning of life (well, of claret, at least). I thought the 2008 absolutely delightful: cool, complete, scented, balanced and possessing that classicallly claretty aroma of cedar. But I was speaking about this wine to someone later in the tasting and this person stated that he'd found it a bit green. This set me athinking.

Surrounded by all those 2009s and 2010s, with their massive concentration and elevated levels of ripeness, perhaps the '08s looked a tad "subtle". Certainly, they are less ripe than their immediate descendents. Yet the great wines we know and love generally come from climates that are considered marginal for the ripening of grapes and Bordeaux without doubt falles into that category. The cedary aroma of maturing Médoc is very much a product of the marginal nature of the local climate, but I wonder whether, faced with climate change and the drive for super-ripe, ultra-concentrated red bordeaux, we might be at risk of forgetting it; worse, considering it a fault.

I will enjoy drinking my stock of 2009 and 2010 claret in the years to come. But sometimes I do wonder whether I will pour myself an occasional glass of 2004 or 2008 and marvel at its subtlety, elegance and freshness.

Magnificent HK F&B

The line-up!

Dinner last Thursday evening was an exciting event. It took place at Tim's Kitchen, a long-established Cantonese restaurant on Bonham Strand in Sheung Wan. I have attended meals at which European wines are paired with the indigenous food of Hong Kong in the past and find the match works extremely well, by-and-large.

My fellow diners and I had all taken along bottles...and what a line up! Food quickly started to arrive: a series of delicious dishes based on seafood or meat, with egg and rice. At one stage a blast of chilli sauce (self-administered, I freely confess) deprived me of my taste buds for a few minutes, otherwise everything was tickety-boo in the extreme!

1967 Barolo, Borgogno
I sold old vintages from this producer many years ago and they were very dry and savoury. Not so this. Touch of oxidation, but the nose becomes increasingly black and savoury; smoky, showing dry spice aromas and a hint of liquorice. The fruit here is very good, the whole delightfully fresh. There is piquant minerality. Tannin is fully resolved: just a fine dusting at the end. Finishes very smokily. Long, fresh and lovely.

1967 Barolo, Giacomo Conterno
Opened beforehand, but not decanted alas. My glass was cloudy and full of rich deposit. It seemed that the lees was giving the wine a madeirzed character that abated later and revealed how good the wine beneath really is. Broad and gingery nose. Sweet leather, with a coffee aftertaste.

1978 Château Musar
Also a big sediment here. Smoky aromas; singed hair. Resolved and orange-scented this. Nice juice at the back. Develops an aroma like sweet chestnuts. Toffeed a touch, nutty and smoky. Cold, leaf tea, with smoky length. Very toothsome and (that awful descriptor) smooth.

1981 Unico, Vega Sicilia
The first young wine! Deep red in colour. Berryish, sweet and black on the nose: pure blackberry aromasHint of sweet liquorice. This is really young and has a pastille-llike sweetness. Later, a smoky, earthy note. Tannin is mild, internalised. A long wine, very bright and pure. Real pastille fruit at the finish. Busy, with earthy grip. Later, an exotic note like mango or papaya.

1990 Costa Russi, Gaja
Aromas hard to describe: bluberry; hint of flowers. Very spicy. Tar. Rich, both sweet and savoury and increasingly spicy. Seriously suave stuff. Very black on entry. It then becomes loaded with fine, integrated, upright tannin. Very long wine. Juicy grip here. And the herbs: dried mint. Fabulous, full, intense finish. Takes on menthol.

Unico Reserva Especial, Vega Sicilia - 1990, 1994 and 1996 base
Very pungent wine, a touch animal. Creamy black plum fruit. Very bright. Hint of banana here (more exotic aromas from VS!). Very rich on entry; very plush...then compact, tight and laced with smoky, chunky, spicy, incisive tannin. Long. Did I encounter a touch of fish at the finish?

1996 Brunello Riserva, Soldera
Really complex, oxidised aromas. Very smoky, very spicy wine. The burnt crust of ginergerbread. Rich; fine.

1976 Niersteiner Oelberg Riesling Auslese, Hermann Franz Schmitt
Coffee, caramel, mocha nose. Spice; orange liqueur. Fresh ginger. This fades rather in the mouth, but the nose is an absolute delight.

Predictably, my notes become increasingly abbreviated.

All-in-all a fabulous meal. What a treat!
 

The Gironde, a Château and Its Pine Tree

Head north from Château Montrose, keeping to the estuary, and one comes to Château Meyney. From these vineyards came one of the great insiders' clarets of the 1980s. Today, the reputation of the wine is deservedly growing again under the auspices of Crédit Agricole Grands Crus, the château's owner.

The first structure you'll see is a lamprey netsman's hut, jutting out over the water, and from which large square nets are lowered - baited, presumably - to catch these parasitic, eel-like fish that are a delicacy in this region.

This is the weather we enjoyed for the beginning part of the en primeur week. Château Meyney on the hill, with its associated pine tree, looks very handsome. The open door on the right hand side of the château is the tasting room where I sampled half a dozen wines from the Crédit Agricole portfolio.

Topsoil at Vieux Château Certan

Here's that shot of the topsoil of Vieux Château Certan. It's been many years since I studied soil science, but this seemed to be to be a clay/sand mix. Due to the extreme dryness the region has been experiencing, it does come across as being rather dusty.

As I pointed out to a number of the Bordelais, when the UK is suffering drought at this time of year the rest of Europe should start feeling some concern!

Clip Shot Outside Vieux Château Certan

Those who haven't visited Pomerol are often amazed that there is a diversity of terroir under this flat, featureless appellation. The differences are all underground, of course. This shot is taken in Pomerol's "golden triangle", an area that includes not only Vieux Chateau Certan, but Evangile, Cheval Blanc, Petrus and Figeac.

The first building in the shot is Vieux Château Certan itself. The next cluster of buildings and cars is Château l'Evangile and one can just make out the roof of the château, grey tiled, above assorted other structures. 'Round yet further and somewhere behind the tractor is Cheval-Blanc.

Note the flatness of the landscape and the herbage growing between the rows of vines. In another shot (which I will post in due course) I crumble a handful of the topsoil: a sort of light clay/sand mix.

Top Thoroughbreds and Golden Livery

The moat at Chateau Beauregard, where the Union des Grands Crus held its Pomerol tasting today

I always leave too much time to to get to St Emilion and this morning was no different. I found myself on the town's outskirts with half-an-hour to kill before my appointment at Chateau Ausone, thus I gave a left hand down and turned into the gateway of the cluster of buildings that make up Chateau Canon La Gaffeliere where, every year, Count Stefan von Niepperg permits the visiting taster to sample a range of his wines.

I was on the hop and tasted briskly. Chateaux Cap de Faugeres, Faugeres and Peby Faugeres followed a welcome look at the dry wine of the Sauternes property Chateau Guiraud, again very good indeed this vintage. The Faugeres team were very good, although the Faugeres itself was pretty swingeingly tannic in its youth.

Then, moving on, I took in a couple of new Niepperg wines before promoting myself to the top table laden with the Niepperg stable's top thoroughbreds: Clos Marsalette, Aiguilhe, Clos de l'Oratoire, Canon La Gaffeliere itself and the mighty La Mondotte. These I admire very much this year. They seem to have an extra slice of seriousness about them: more restraint, better freshness, less (in modern parlance) bling.

Up to Ausone. Why to I always insist on driving up to this property, pointing the car up the impossibly steep single track road, meeting descending vehicles and the ensuing complicated manoevering the likely outcome? I would be better off to leave the car below and utilise shanks's pony.

In any event, wines here are now made by Alain Vautier's charming daughter and I find them pretty ravishing. On mademoiselle's watch, they have become increasingly elegant. Ausone and its second wine Chapelle are sheer class in '11.

From Ausone, to Vieux Chateau Certan. Staggeringly beautiful wine here. Cabernet Franc was a resounding success, thus Alexandre Thienpont upped the propertion of this grape in the final blend. Boy, is this super-fine.

Girding whatever strength I could, I headed for the UGC St Emilion tasting that, this vintage, took place at Chateau Soutard. This event is always hard graft and so it was today. The level of tannins in some of the wines adheres to one's palate and can cloud one's judgement of the next sample. Regular nibbles on a piece of baguette are required to mop up this purple detritus. Still, I think I came away with a fair idea of where the quality lies. Frustratingly, there are proprietors in this appellation who pick too late and still one finds flat wines that'll only ever be flat and dried out.

The Pomerol UGC at Beauregard followed (stars: Conseillante; Gazin; Clinet; La Pointe; Beauregard itself), then a side-trip to Chateau Canon, now refusing to show at the UGC. This is no great hardship, as the property is easy to get to and absolutely beautiful. The wine in '11 is a luminous stunner.

From there, I headed back down town to the tastinbg of Jean-Luc Thunevin, a man who consults at a great many properties in the Libournais and beyond. I reallly went to taste the 2010 Meursault of Buisson-Charles, an estate from which we buy each vintage and, happily takes a table at this tasting. The 2010s are absolutely fabulous and we still have a few cases remaining. Ask if interested.

And last of all, but far from least, Cheval-Blanc. A new St Emilion chateau has been acquired: Quinault l'Enclos. We tasted this first, moving on to La Tour du Pin, Petit Cheval and the grand vin. Engaging, wonderful elegance is the style this year. This was a very beautiful set of wines.

Finally, into an ante-room and there, resplendent in its golden livery, a sample of 2011 Chateau d'Yquem. It's fascinating to see the changes in style that each vintage bring to this wine and this year, we have a super-sweet example (more than 140 grams per litre of residual sugar), yet a wine that is all its parts - botrytis, minerality and that fruit - are uber-clean and clearly stated. To sip 2011 Yquem is to ingest sunlight. How can one avoid moments of happiness in such a situation?

Off to dinner now, and tomorrow I will rise and drive east once more, stopping at Chateau Teyssier in St Emilion on my way to Bergerac airport and the flight to Southampton. I am looking forward to hearing about the excitement experienced here when Robert Parker's vastly elevated recent scores for their 2009 vintage were announced. Maybe they'll hvae a few back vintages open for sampling!