En Primeur
Bordeaux 2010: Take Two
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2010 is shaping up to be one of the top three vintages of an exceptional Bordeaux decade. As with all great years, it has a personality of its own. In some ways it lies between the seductive charm of 2009 and the intense, vibrant fruit and length of 2005. The extremely dry growing season and poor flowering, which reduced yields and intensified ripeness, tannin and flavour, also allowed the grapes to retain essential fruit acidity which gives wine its life. The best wines have the remarkable complexity for which Bordeaux is famous.
An exciting result is that there are some outstanding wines at even modest price levels because the concentration of flavour helped growers all over Bordeaux. The key, as ever, is good balance.
Joanna Locke and I choose our wines as seriously as Society members expect and are spending another fully-charged week tasting and comparing at Châteaux and with merchants around Bordeaux, to fine tune our selection. First prices of some wines have emerged and we will be buying the best of these in large quantities but many class growths will take their time. We plan, therefore, to make a broad first offer in early to mid June to enable you to make a balanced selection. The most expensive wines which are likely to be released late will form a second offer when all the prices are out. This second offer, including the more famous, higher-priced Clarets and Sauternes will be delayed until late June early July. We still expect prices to be high and supply to be limited but, thanks to The Society’s long relationship with the region’s suppliers, we are in a strong position to source as many of these wonderful wines as we possibly can.
I should add that the Wine Society selection will be based on our own independent judgments, not on anyone else’s scores. I have experience of visiting and selecting Bordeaux every years since 1981 and have seen young wines develop and mature over the years, and knowing members’ reaction to them. However skilled a taster may be, giving scores out of 100 or 20 to young unfinished wine is rather haphazard and limiting. We prefer just to choose very good wine and describe the different styles of each.
Bienvenue au Cirque de Bordeaux
Posted by: | CommentsSpring sunshine and temperatures of nearly 30*C brightened the mood during the annual circus when all Bordeaux châteaux display the new vintage for the first time. We have found some outstanding wines and many good wines in 2010. The best wines are intensely flavoured with great keeping potential.
The bad news is that the top names have mostly made as much as 20% less wine than in 2009 and international interest in buying them is as strong as ever, so prices are unlikely to come down. Some will increase from the all-time high levels of last year.
The good news is that, if you look hard enough as we do, there is absolutely no need to pay top prices. We found excellent Claret to drink over the next 5 to 15 years among the properties with less fancy names.
We will return to Bordeaux later in May, when the world has gone away, to double-check the quality of our favourites and give you the lowdown in more detail.
Bordeaux 2009: A Trip of a Lifetime
Posted by: | CommentsFour lucky members and their guests joined The Society’s chief wine buyer Sebastian Payne MW and me, on a trip to Bordeaux last month.
‘We are still wondering if the events of last week were real or some sort of dream,’ was the wonderful reaction of John and Elizabeth Maycock when they got back from our mini-tour of Bordeaux in July, and I must say I share their sentiments.
Première Cru: Château Margaux
Earlier in the year we offered members who had proposed a wine-loving friend or relative as a Society member the chance to win a place on a trip to some of Bordeaux’s finest vineyards with chief wine buyer Sebastian Payne. We stayed at the beautiful Margaux estate of Château Rauzan-Ségla, who really couldn’t have done more to make our stay enjoyable.
During a whirlwind four-day trip we learned a potted history of Bordeaux wine (how the French Revolution, inheritance tax laws and scoundrel uncles are behind property divisions and châteaux name changes). We had a crash-course in viticulture and vinification (including why soggy roots make bad wines, how candles are used in racking, and how fining using egg whites explains egg-yolk-based Bordelaise gastronomy).
We explored the notion of terroir and tasted the difference between the ‘merlot queens’ of the right bank (represented by flagship examples from Châteaux Magdelaine and Bélair-Monange in Saint-Emilion, and Château Hosanna in Pomerol) and ‘cabernet kings’ of the left bank (represented by special bottles from Châteaux Lafite, Margaux, Palmer, Rauzan-Ségla, Lynch-Bages, Léoville-Barton, Langoa-Barton and Angludet).
Winning Wine Society members with Chief Buyer Sebastian Payne MW at Rauzan-Ségla
All were brought to life by the experts behind the wines: Frédéric Lospied and Edouard Moueix of JP Mouiex; Sabrina Permet at Château Palmer; Jean-Charles Cazes of Lynch-Bages; Charles and Ben Sichel of Angludet; Lilian Barton of Léoville-Barton and Langoa-Barton and John and Delphine Kolasa of Rauzan-Ségla, who, together with Magali Puppo and team where instrumental in organising the trip. As members Barry and Mandy West so eloquently put it:
‘It was such a wonderful few days, seeing and meeting such interesting people and visiting all the châteaux – a trip that we don’t think can be repeated.’
Outstanding wines (tasting the 2009s made us all want to rush home to place an en primeur order), sumptuous food and the companionship of liked-minded members made it a never-to-be-forgotten trip of a life-time. New member Danielle Fletcher summed up her experience:
‘I didn’t even know there was a prize draw! I just proposed a friend because we have enjoyed The Society’s wines since we were introduced by another friend. But this was a very special trip. It has really cemented my relationship with The Society.’
Member the Reverend Philip North e-mailed us to say that he had to attend a parish party as soon as he returned from Bordeaux. ‘Being fed the cheapest supermarket plonk after days of vintage Bordeaux was extremely painful!’ he said. One hopes we haven’t all been spoiled for life.
Over the coming weeks I look forward to sharing our experience with you through blog posts, videos and photos. So whether you are an avid Claret fan and want to learn more about these special châteaux, or you want to discover more about the region of Bordeaux, make sure to visit SocietyGrapevine regularly. For regular updates follow us on Twitter or Facebook.
Thanks to the experts at each Château and Sebastian Payne, we all learned a lot in the four days. So, if you have any burning questions about Bordeaux, its wines or the different Châteaux we visited, please feel free to post your questions below. I can’t promise to answer all of them, but if we were taught it on the trip, I’ll try to answer.
Le Weekend des Grands Amateurs Bordeaux 2010
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Most of the current talk about Bordeaux is around the latest vintage, the 2009 Primeurs (amateurs will want to take a look at The Society’s first opening offer from Friday 28th May). Bordeaux amateurs – enthusiasts for its wines, the city and the region – might like to drop in to the imminent fifth annual celebration that is Le Weekend des Grands Amateurs, over the 5th and 6th June.
Visiting as often as we do to taste the wines, and knowing those involved in putting together this very special vinous extravaganza, means this looks like a weekend not to be missed, short notice or not.
Travel à deux, or even as a crowd, and don’t feel you all have to be wine savvy to enjoy the experience. Bordeaux is a simply beautiful city these days, easy to get around (on foot, on roller skates, or via the greater comfort of its smart new tramway), full of restaurants of all persuasions, and shopping that is tempting despite the exchange rate. And there’s always the wine…
If you go, please let us know how it went.
Bordeaux 2009: An update on an exciting vintage
Posted by: | Comments“2009 is an exciting vintage with some wonderful wines at all price levels. It is much more variable than the initial publicity has indicated with some really great successes at all levels but several well-known names which have missed the mark. Jo Locke MW and I have been spending extra time visiting many of the châteaux we regularly buy from ensuring that we only choose those wines which we know represent the best value for drinkers.”
Sebastian Payne MW
Prices are being released, so far, to the timetable we expected. This means that none of the first-growth châteaux have released any details, but we are receiving information on some lovely red wines from petits châteaux and crus bourgeois, where the best value for money can be found. We will be buying the best of these in large quantities. Details of these wines will be mailed, or e-mailed, to members in early to mid-June. As usual, any oversubscribed wines will be allocated by ballot.
The second offer, including the more famous, higher-priced Clarets, will be released later once prices are available; we anticipate late June or early July. We expect prices to be high and supply to be limited but, thanks to The Society’s long relationship with the region’s suppliers, we are in a strong position to source as many of these exciting wines as we can. Further updates will follow.
2009 Bordeaux Harvest
Posted by: | CommentsI’m keeping my opinions to myself for the time being about how the 2009 vintage in Bordeaux is going to shape up, but according to my Bordelais sources, “…the buzz has it that 2009 is going to be a spectacular year … True or not true? The climate will still decide in the couple of weeks to come for the reds, as it did in 2008 to create one of Bordeaux’s winegrowing miracles.“
