Bordeaux 2006 Live Report 12

The wine was actually better than expected - it was very tannic but it had some nice generous black fruit to support it. There was a hint of overextraction but it was a good, solid St Julien, especially for the vintage.

If anything is likely to make you snap out of your morning torpor it is a visit to Pauillac First Growth Ch. Latour. Few would disagree (well privately anyway) that Latour is leading the pack in Bordeaux at the moment. The whole place just oozes style and class - from the Tardis-like loo to the impeccable tasting room with its stunning view over the vineyards to St Julien Beychevelle (see below).

And of course General Manager Frédéric Engerer (left) is doing a pretty good job too, as his Légion d'Honneur at the age of only 41 testifies.

Well to cut to the chase, 2006 Latour is the new wine of the vintage. It was simply breathtaking. By comparison, the not-too-shabby Léoville Las Cases is a tart of a wine! Latour had so much depth, power and complexity, it was nigh-on perfect. Indeed if it wasn't for the 2005 we might have said it was exactly that. We tasted the 2005 and the 2004 as a point of comparison - the 2004 was more generous and appealing but not as elegant or classic, and overall not quite as good as 2006. The 2005 was simply exquisite.

The Second Wine, Les Forts de Latour, was another wine to buck our theory about lousy Second Wines in 2006. It was so good we scored it superior to the Pichons, who were actually two of the best Second Growths this vintage. Normally Les Forts and the Grand Vin are like brothers but in 2006 they were more like brother and sister; the Forts is very feminine while the Latour is more masculine and powerful.

For Frédéric Engerer, who was on excellent form, human influence was much more important in 2006 than usual. He said he had 220 pickers rushing to gather the grapes at one point because timing was so crucial. He had not aimed for power in 2006, but a classical richness and lively minerality that came from the high tannins. For him the 2006 was similar in style to the 2005, powerful yet feminine with a great core of fruit, and classier than 2004. No wonder the Zebra on the wall of the tasting room looked on approvingly.

Despite being diverted by having to look after the newly purchased Domaine Engel in Burgundy, Engerer has lost none of his sharpness about the Bordeaux market. He said that Bordeaux had to offer prices in 2006 that made sense to the customers, which seemed pretty spot on.

With her wild curly hair, boundless enthusiasm and huge smile Claire Villars is one of our favourite people in Bordeaux. This is possibly because she is so un-Bordelaise! She understands exactly what we are trying to achieve and always releases sensible prices at an early stage in the campaign. In fact her only concern in 2006 is that because she only increased her price by about 25% in 2005, when she sets the price for 2006 people will not think it is cheap enough. Given the quality of the wines, fortunately this seems unlikely.

Claire is so committed to her favourite colour, bright orange (seen just about everywhere on the estate) that you wonder what colour the wine will be when she pours it out. Claire's three wines Haut-Bages Libéral from Pauillac, and Ferrière and La Gurgue from Margaux had all received high scores from the Wine Spectator's James Suckling with the HBL in particular being marked at 92-94 points.

We particularly liked the Ferrière for its very attractive, elegant, and typically fragrant Margaux style. The HBL was richer and more powerful although still very refined - it was also a bit more aggressive with the tannins much more prominent - hopefully these will soften in time though. The La Gurgue is getting better with every vintage and even though it is still a bit rustic the 2006 showed lovely plump Merlot fruit (which according to Claire did very well in Margaux this year) and floral hints.

For Claire, her 2006s have more intensity than the 2004s but lack the ripeness of the 2005s. She thinks 2006 is a great vintage for terroir, and this is what will shine through, more than the individual varietal characteristics.

With the legendary Jean-Michel Cazes having stepped back from running Ch. Lynch-Bages, it is his engaging, cool, laid back yet sharp son Jean-Charles who is now in charge. They also have a new technical director in Nicolas Labenne who has come from Calon-Ségur where he oversaw the last 12 vintages. Certainly, everyone involved can be delighted with their stable of wines in 2006, which were some of the best we had seen.

They may have not been quite as sexy as their 2005s but they were all dense, serious yet voluptuous wines. From the great value Villa Bel Air to the very un-St Estèphe Ormes de Pez to Lynch Bages itself, the wines had big shoulders and were packed with a generosity of fruit that we have rarely seen in this vintage. The tannins are big but the concentration fully supports them. Certainly we cannot recall Lynch having been so far up the Bordeaux quality ranking in any previous year. We marked it as slightly better than the Pichons and not very far at all behind Mouton.

Yes, today was turning into a very good day. Maybe 2006 was actually better than we thought!