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Thursday 13th
April 2006 11:15am
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Today the trusty BBR laptop died. Probably too much Claret and foie gras.
Thank god for the computer at Ch. du Tertre (thanks Gaëlle). The only downside
was that French keyboards hqve the q's qnd the a's the other way round to a UK
keyboard. The w's qnd the z's qre the zrong zqy round too. Oh qnd zhere the m
should be there's q co,,q! You get into it after a while though…
The morning couldn't really have got off to a much better start as we braved
Bordeaux itself to drop in to Ch. Haut Brion. Cowering from the shock of
civilisation, the sight of more than ten houses in a row and roads that weren't
called the D2, we managed to find it this year, which was an improvement on
2004.
Dapper owner Prince Robert of Luxemburg led the tasting of his fantastic
range. Dressed in his olive green suit he was seeing us before jetting off to
Brazil for his holidays. There was something slightly surreal about being
served one of the world's greatest wines by royalty. He didn't look too
downhearted though as he told us about the unprecedented demand he had seeen
for his 2005s.
The Haut Brion was a magnificent powerhouse but with a lovely elegant touch -
maybe marginally below Latour, Lafite and Margaux in quality, but a superb Haut
Brion nevertheless. The La Mission was, as is so often the case, more
silky and feminine, but with a hidden power that experience has told us will
blossom in the coming years.
Next stop was at nearby Ch. Haut Bailly which had so impressed us on the
first day of our stay, but with hundreds of wines now behind us, we fancied
retasting it. For some of the group this was not all they fancied as the added
lure of the lovely Véronique Sanders was just too much to resist.
It appeared that we had done the wine a disservice first time round - Haut
Bailly's 2005 is not just a very good wine, it's amazing. It's as good as Lynch
Bages, Cos and Pontet Canet. Maybe it is because it was one of the first wines
we tasted, maybe it was because the sample had just come out of the barrel on
this occasion, but we all agreed that we had seriously underestimated this
wine. It is so sexy and precise, all raspberries and cream in extraordinary
concentration, with an endless finish. It has everything that the delicious
2004 has but cranked up by about 40%. Buy as much of this as you can
afford.
Later that day Jean-Hubert Delon, unprompted, said that he thought that Haut
Bailly had the finest terroir in Pessac (this in a commune that contains Haut
Brion) and this wine certainly bears out such a view. Véronique Sanders and her
innovative and talented team can be rightfully proud of their achievement.
Veronique has also chosen her friends extremely well, having called on the
retired Jean Delmas (of Haut Brion fame) to provide advice in recent months,
which has clearly done no harm at all.
We had heard a great deal about the wines of another Pessac icon, Pape
Clément, and the transformation that the charismatic Bernard Magrez
had implemented there, so we were pleased to pop in for a quick visit. Well it
is fair to say that the wine is not for lovers of austere classic Bordeaux,
that's for sure. This is a hedonistic, lavishly oaked fruit bomb of a wine that
is immensely concentrated and, as long as you aren't a member of the classic
Claret club, highly enjoyable too. New developments like hand destemming the
entire harvest (nice job for someone) have pushed quality up several notches
here.
In a region where marketing is often restricted to a photo of the bottle, or
sometimes just the name of the wine plus a price on an email, you have to
admire the efforts of M. Magrez. At the estate is a huge banner showing a
dapper Magrez standing in front of a wooden vat in the shape of a piano with
the lid open. Underneath is the tagline `Composer of rare wines'. And as a nod
to Pope Clement himself, there are two confessionals picture in the background.
It really is quite remarkable.
The last tasting of the day was at Super Second Growth, Ch. Léoville Las
Cases owned and run by the Delon family. The sight of the Las Cases
sign on the brow of the hill as you leave the village of St Julien is one of
the iconic images of Bordeaux. The enigmatic Jean-Hubert Delon is one of
the great personalities of Bordeaux. With his understated humour, sunken eyes,
and twinkling eyes, he has more than a little bit of the Godfather about him,
mixed with a dash of Serge Gainsbourg.
The wines here were every bit as good as expected, with the Grand Vin having
that wow factor that we had experienced when we tasted the First Growths. It
was a massive wine of course, with 30% more Cabernet Sauvignon (88%) than the
2004, all the power and structure that we have come to expect, but also with
freshness, harmony and incredible concentration alongside a vivid sense of
terroir. This was a delight to taste.
We are always tempted to refer to the Clos du Marquis as the Second Wine
of Léoville-Las Cases, but infact it is actually from a completely separate
plot of vines next to the Léoville estate. All this is a bit academic though;
all you need to know is that while reminiscent of its fabulous sibling it has
much more Merlot which is reflected in its rich yet wonderfully precise style.
It will be one of the buys of the vintage. Other highlights from the Delon
range were the impressive Ch. Nenin from Pomerol and the St Estèphe lookalike,
Ch. Potensac.
Jean Hubert must have read Jasper Morris's mind as once we had tasted his
sensational range of wines, he proceeded to serve us a selection of some of the
greatest red and white Burgundies ever made. This was not only a wonderful act
of generosity, but also an act of extreme kindness to our tannin-battered
palates. Taken fresh from his cellar (which as you might imagine contains the
odd decent bottle) Delon served all the wines blind. We dutifully squirmed with
indecision, but with a couple of the world's top Pinot Noir experts in the room
we even managed to get a few right. Delon was excellent company, although you
couldn't banish the feeling that one false word and you would be sleeping with
the fishes in the Gironde.
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Wednesday 12th
April 2006 11:55am
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We popped into the Margaux UGC Tasting and found that what is
normally one of the most inconsistent communes in Bordeaux, is actually
surprisingly consistent in 2005. 2005 seems to have produced great wines across
the board, but there seem to be an unusually large number of Margaux wines that
have caught our eye this year.
Ch. Margaux is the most iconic estate in Bordeaux. The long tree-lined
driveway that leads up to the magnificent château is the stuff of dreams.
Thousands of tour buses have crawled up to the barred gate over the years to
give wine lovers a glimpse of this holy grail. So for the same gate to actually
open as we approached was like entering Bordeaux's most inner sanctum.
Margaux's Director Paul Pontallier is extremely suave, very down to
earth and modest with an easy charm. He answers any question as if it was the
first time he has been asked, rather than the more likely reality of being
asked for the 500th time in three days, and listens intently to what you have
to say.
The Pavillon Rouge was extremely good: rich and seductive but with
structure and elegance. It was so good you had to wonder what the Grand Vin
would be like. The answer came soon enough. It blew the Pavillon Rouge away and
was quite simply sensational. Margaux is certainly as good as Latour and
Lafite in 2005 but it is virtually impossible to split them as it is so
different. If you put a gun to our head (not something to be encouraged when
chatting with your wine merchant) we would probably choose this as the wine of
the vintage. Its completeness is utterly compelling and the perfumed aromatics
are like nothing we had ever experienced. This was mind-blowing.
Without wanting to digress too much, we also tasted the 2004 Ch. Margaux
which was every bit as amazing as we remembered it, while the 100% Sauvignon
2005 Pavillon Blanc was wonderful too. Tasting this, you find it
difficult to believe how Sauvignon can be this good, and so ageworthy too. We
were lucky enough to taste the 1989 later on that evening and it was amazing
how fresh and complex it still was.
The evening was spent in the company of M. Pontallier and the wonderfully
friendly, bright and glamorous Corinne Mentzelopoulos, who is lucky
enough to live at the château whenever she is not in Paris. A temporary guest
joined us in the shape of Corinne's extremely cute four-month old beagle puppy,
Zorba. Unfortunately following a vicious headline-making savaging of
Simon Staples (more of a nibble actually, but possibly still an assassination
attempt?) he was banished to cause havoc elsewhere. By the end of the evening
all the problems of France and England, and possibly the world too, had been
resolved. Such is the way with Ch. Margaux.
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Wednesday 12th
April 2006 11:45am
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Off to Grand Puy Lacoste, where we found the wines to be a bit of a
revelation. With his perfectly groomed silver hair, slightly alarming dark
eyebrows and shiny white teeth François-Xavier Borie is rather
reminiscent of a catalogue model from the 1970s, but his friendly manner is
infectious, and his 2005 is just superb. The wine has muscle and charm but is
overidingly feminine and elegant - probably more than any other Pauillac we
have tasted. Borie's Ch. Haut-Batailley was also very good, if not quite
up the same standard, with a similar elegance and a lower price tag.
The Union des Grand Crus Tastings (known simply as the UGCs) are an
excellent way of sampling a range of en primeur wines from the same commune all
in one venue. They are a great concept in theory but the problem is that they
tend to be overcrowded, the samples are too warm and often a bit tired, and you
are unable to concentrate due to the pleasant bonhomie of the wine trade. It
doesn't matter how good or experienced your palate is, when you taste 40 or 50
en primeur samples in a row you are not going to be able to make as good a
judgement as if you taste them in the château. Since this is where most people
taste, you the wines often come out of it all less well than they should.
Holding the events for more than 3 days and limiting the number of people who
attend, would be a good start.
Owned by the delightfully irrepressible Claire Villars, Ch. Haut
Bages Libéral - the venue for the well-organised Pauillac UGC (exception
proving the rule)- boasted a cuverie that looked different to most as Claire
has painted large areas of it bright orange. It is her favourite colour
apparently, which seems quite fitting. Walking in to the grounds under
lugubrious skies you had the feeling of entering a wild west town - you often
get this when you are in the Médoc - with cactus-like plants, wide
limestone paths, and the odd barrel blocking your path. There were a few
cowboys around the place too. After three solid days behind the tasting tables
being asked pretty much the same two or three questions ad infinitum, it was
unsurprising that the poor souls pouring the wines had a slightly glazed look
about them.
What stood out in the Pauillac wines, apart from emphasising the quality of the
2005s, was that there were all very different. We had originally thought that
the 2005s emphasised each commune's terroir but this tasting showed that it is
more that they reflect the individual character of each château, which in many
ways is even more interesting.
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Wednesday 12th
April 2006 11:30am
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Following in Jean-Michel's footsteps, Sylvie Cazes has always been
very much a team player in Bordeaux. The magnificent châteaux apart, the Médoc
is truly one of the darkest and most backward wine regions in the world, and in
an attempt to drag the Médoc into, well, the 20th century at least, Sylvie has
just opened a very swish new café in the hamlet of Bages. This is in addition
to the fantastic two-star Michelin restaurant and hotel Cordeillan
Bages, located next to Lynch-Bages, that the family owns. Sylvie is
infact looking to redevelop the whole square in Bages, so at the moment the
café is like an oasis within what is pretty much a building site. A Lynch-Bages
sign sits against a wall pointing slightly disturbingly to a pile of
rubble.
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Wednesday 12th
April 2006 11:00am
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When we got to one of our most eagerly-awaited visits, Ch. Lynch
Bages in Pauillac, we were gleefully informed that we were the first
merchants who had arrived on time all week. From the look on the faces of the
team there, you just knew that this was going to be something special: The big
guns were out in force to greet us, like a guard of honour: the legendary
figure of Jean-Michel Cazes was there along with his son
Jean-Charles, Jean-Michel's younger sister, Sylvie Cazes, who
manages the estate, and outstanding technical director Daniel Llose.
We had been trying all week to stop ourselves telling producers how good
their 2005s are; after all the last thing you want to do in such a climate is
encourage them to set their prices even higher, but when you are faced with
something as good as the 2005 Lynch, we really couldn't help ourselves.
This is a powerhouse of a Lynch, as good as Cos, and even more classically
Pauillac than Pontet-Canet. It starts very slowly and just gets more and more
complex before exploding with intensity. This seems to be common feature in the
top 2005s, and not something we have ever seen before. Daniel Llose half-joked
that it reminded him of the 1848, which if he was around to taste en primeur,
we should all be drinking some.
More realistically he said the 2005 was like the 1989 but with more
flesh, and like the 1982 only more classic with greater freshness and
density. The rest of the Cazes range from Villa Bel Air to Ormes de
Pez, to the Second Wine, Haut Bages Averous, were extremely
impressive and will be ideal to drink while you wait for the Lynch to
mature.
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Wednesday 12th
April 2006 10:15am
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Awesome. Showstopping. Remarkable. Yep, Ch. Palmer, has made a pretty
amazing wine in 2005. Often a little disappointing when tasted en primeur, this
is as grand as the château's striking turrets, and every bit as delicious as we
had all hoped.
What is becoming increasingly clear is that the great wines in 2005 are truly
astonishing and will go down in history as legends. Palmer 2005 definitely
falls into that category. The 78-year-old former winemaker said the only
vintage of Palmer he had tasted that compared was the 1945. In his view the
2005 surpasses the legends of 1961, 1983 and 1989 at the
same stage. Palmer is not going to be cheap and quantities are going to be
tiny, but this is going to be worth every penny.
Tasting at Ch.Palmer, with its incredibly low yields of 32hl/ha, reminded us of
a comment that Jean-Guillaume Prats had made earlier in the week. When asked to
compare his wine to the outstanding 1982 he said that in 1982 the yields
at Cos had been 80hl/ha, while for the 2005, yields were only 40hl/ha. An
extreme example perhaps, but indicative of the way that the
quality-at-any-price approach today has given a great vintage like 2005 every
chance of producing wines that really are better than ever before. The prices
are likely to be a bit higher than in 1982 though.
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Monday 10th April
2006 6:15pm
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Our 2 esteemed Masters of Wine who were tasting in Bordeaux have given their
assesments of this extraordinary vinatge. Alun Griffiths MW writes that "the
combination of excellent maturity, correct acidity and ripe tannins has
produced wines of quite exceptional quality."
Read
Alun Griffiths MW Report
Jasper Morris MW - usually more at home in the Côte d'Or rather than the
Médoc - was bowled over by the quality and class of the Bordeaux 2005s.
Read Jasper Morris
MW Report
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Friday 7th April
2006 8:13pm
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Huge wealth of tastings today, a fabulous range of wines from almost twenty
of Bordeaux top producers from Cos to Rieussec, all the notes are here. Well
we're all exhausted but the level of animation and anticipation seems, if
anything, to be escalating. There is definitely an undercurrant of excitement
at all levels in Bordeaux this year from the pickers in the vineyards to the
Bordelais squirearchy - a prevailing sense of the best use of a stellar vintage
- a good job well done!
We're back at Chateaux du Tertre now, just time to send back todays tasting
notes, a quick bite of supper then to bed. We'll finalise our report of today
and indeed the week on the plane on Sunday and upload it here ready for next
week when Berrys' second tranche of experts will be flying down to
Bordeaux.
Until then.
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Thursday 6th
April 2006 6.30.pm
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The last tasting of the day was at the legendary Ch. Latour. Where
the château at Lafite was all resplendent opulence, this was all minimalist,
stylish, modern elegance. The ultimate tasting room had all you could ever want
from such a venue, including striking light balls hanging above the tasting
bench and, less conventionally, a picture of a large zebra on the wall, chosen
apparently by the shareholders to liven the place up.
2005 is a year when the volume has been turned up on all the elements of the
wines - in 2005 Latour saw their highest levels ever of tannins and acidity,
and some of their ripest fruit ever.
The wine itself had what Simon Staples described as `massive elegance' - it was
immensely concentrated and intense, and at the same time incredibly fine.
Frédéric Engerer called it `a more intellectual Latour', adding. `It is
at the crossroads of elegance and refinement and power and richness.'
What is ironic in 2005 is that Lafite seems to have made a wine more towards
the masculine style of Latour, with surprising power, and Latour has made a
wine more towards that of Lafite, with restraint, intelligence and even a
certain femininity. Both however are sensational which is why we had to give
them both 20/20.
The Les Forts de Latour, which has famously been marked 95-100 by the
Wine Spectator's James Suckling, was indeed very special with the most amazing
finish we had ever seen on a second wine. It was so good you almost knew what
Suckling meant, but it was still blown away by the Grand Vin.
Frédéric Engerer has a reputation for being a pretty tough cookie in Bordeaux,
and despite a look of some intensity, which you felt you wouldn't like to be on
the receiving end of if he was displeased, we found him informal, intelligent,
warm and welcoming, with a wonderfully refreshing open attitude to discussing
Bordeaux and Latour.
What was also rare is his innovative activities to increase loyalty amongst his
customers and to engage those who are not currently Latour-lovers. Seeking such
a relationship with the people who end up drinking his wine sounds simple and
obvious, but it is rarely seen from the top Bordeaux chateaux.
The selection of wines that he served us summed up the man's generosity and
reflected his absolute love of Ch. Latour. One that it is hard not to share,
especially when he is producing such amazing wines.
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Thursday 6th
April 2006 7:22am
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A trip to the Bartons (Léoville and Langoa) is always a delight.
Lillian Barton seems to bestow the place with a party atmosphere, and
you just know that the wines are going to be good, and well priced too.
Some Bordeaux proprietors think that the Barton's sensible pricing policy from
vintage to vintage is insane, but the goodwill that such a policy brings is
enormous. We can never get enough of their wines. Whether it is a top vintage
or a lesser one, you can bet your cellar that Barton's wines will sell
out.
Our only regret was that the Bartons' enthusiastic winetasting dog was not in
attendance this year. A canine of legendarily good taste he was left in the
office this year sulking, unable to splash wine over the legs of the world's
finest tasters. If he had been we hope he would have agreed with us that the
Langoa was very good, but the Léoville was seamlessly sensational.
Yesterday we lunched at the favourite restaurant of Bordeaux wine merchants,
the Lion d'Or in Arcins, and Lillian was generous enough to let us have
a bottle of Langoa Barton to prevent us dying of thirst. Lillian, if you're
reading this, thank you very much, it was delicious!
The Lion d'Or is run by a legend of Bordeaux known simply as Barbier.
His cooking is exquisite - some of the best meat you'll find in Bordeaux with
rarely a vegetable in sight.
There is a wonderful story of an American diner who was lunching on a chicken
that had spent a happy life running around the Médoc before reaching Barbier's
ovens. Consequently it was packed full of flavour but of a very different
character to what this particular diner was used to. He complained that the
chicken was not fresh, and in a flash Barbier had come to the table with a live
chicken and cut its throat infront of the American, saying that if he wanted
fresh chicken he could have it. It is believed that the party left fairly
shortly afterwards.
This sums up the character of the great man. It is an essential place to visit
on any trip to Bordeaux, but just don't complain that the meat is too old….
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Wednesday 5th
April 2006 11:30pm
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When we visited Gruaud Larose last year we were in unanimous
agreement over the quality of the fabulous 2004. We then discovered that almost
everyone else in the world (including Mr Parker) seemed to think it was pretty
ordinary. This kept the prices down and we think our customers got a cracking
bargain. Well we tasted it again today, and we still think it's fantastic.
18/20, for the record.
And the 2005 is even better. The second wine Sarget de Gruaud Larose was
so good that several of us thought for a moment that we were tasting the Grand
Vin. When we did taste its big brother we certainly knew about it. Its
incredible richness and energy blew us away. This was a Grand Vin in every
sense of the word.
We took a quick visit to Ch. Talbot which we found to be atypically St
Julien - more like a Pomerol of the Left Bank, with it luscious fruit - but
absolutely delicious. We then headed to the château and gardens at St Julien's
Ch. Beychevelle. These are arguably the most magnificent in Bordeaux,
with a view reminiscent of a miniature version of the palace of
Versailles.
The wine is very good - pure, fine and well constructed - and if it is not
quite as grand as the château in recent vintages, we are not expecting the
prices to be at Versailles levels either, so this could be a canny buy.
For those looking for the next big thing, you could do worse than take a peek
at Ch. Branaire Ducru, where President Patrick Maroteaux seems to
have presided over a mini-revolution. With a dash more Cabernet than they used
to have, the 2005 (and indeed the 2004 and 2003 too) was very impressive
indeed, combining richness with precision, and perfume with power.
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Wednesday 5th
April 2006 6:35pm
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One of the strange things about 2005 is that rarely, if ever, are we finding
in our tasting notes the words `overoaking', or `tar'. It is true that we
haven't been to St Emilion yet but 2005 is clearly a year of wonderfully
concentrated fruit.
This was true too of Didier Cuvelier's magnificent
Léoville-Poyferré which is at least as good as the wonderful
Léoville-Barton. Alun Griffiths summed up Léoville-Poyferré perfectly -
he described it as quintessential St Julien - like a well-tailored Savile Row
suit. It's got breed and elegance with everything perfectly in
proportion.
Cuvelier had that same look that we have seen on the faces of several
proprietors around the region: not arrogant or boastful but simply a contented
look of calm confidence.
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Wednesday 5th
April 2006 4:00pm
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It is true some of Mouton-Rothschild's critics may have been driven
by jealousy or perhaps schadenfreude, but it cannot be denied that this most
famous estate in Bordeaux, and possibly the world, has just not been good
enough over much of the last decade. So it was nice to see the looks on the
faces of the Berrys' team as they tasted (with some trepidation) the Mouton
2005.
Sheer surprise was followed by a smile of recognition. Mouton was back on form.
Yes, it's still exotic and opulent but there was so much more depth, complexity
and restraint this year. This is the best Mouton for years, and certainly
superior to their 2000.
The hosts at Mouton casually mentioned that they might, just might, release the
second wine Le Petit Mouton en primeur for the first time ever this
year. If they don't do so in a year like 2005 you rather wonder when they
would. Watch this space….
The other Baroness de Rothschild properties also showed well:
d'Armailhac was very seductive while the more serious Clerc Milon
was particularly good. We also popped in to Batailley to have another
look at their 2005, which we were delighted to see was still tasting delicious.
This will definitely be one of THE bargains of the vintage.
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Wednesday 5th
April 2006 2.35pm
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A lot of producers are asking us about what we think the effect of how
prices in the 2005 campaign might affect the market for En Primeur Bordeaux in
general. For the top wines particularly a high price will not necessarily stop
them selling their wine in the short term but it will cause problems in the
longer term as there will be no goodwill for the 2006 and 2007 vintages.
The buyers of 2005 are also likely to be different to before if the prices are
very high. Producers quite rightly love the idea of loyal Bordeaux lovers
buying their wines, but if the prices are too high, many of these will be
forced to give this year a miss, and instead you will see more investors and
those who treat wine more like a trophy or commodity coming into the
market.
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Wednesday 5th
April 2006 11.35am
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The first stop of the day on Wednesday was at Bruno Borie's
rejuvenated Ducru-Beaucaillou estate. He has not just sexed up the wines
here, giving them a highly attractive modern polish, but the whole estate. The
golden tasting room is simply incredible, adding an added bit of glamour to the
whole Ducru experience.
With its rounded ceiling, long thin shape and sliding copper doors, you cannot
help but feel that if Louis Vuitton were ever to build a first class tube
carriage it would look something like this.
Borie has introduced new packaging too, with a heavier, more old-fashioned
bottle and a new label adding a nice retro flavour to the final product.
The wine itself is very impressive; not as showy as many expected but with
enormous class and elegance, albeit with a very seductive edge to it. The
second wine Le Croix de Beaucaillou was also excellent - probably the
equivalent of a Fifth Growth in quality.
Whizzing back up to Ch. Montrose in St Estèphe, we were pleased to see
that Philippe de la Garrigue had made another tour-de-force in 2005. He
was looking slightly nervous but this is hardly suprising given the lofty
expectations of this vintage.
It is a monster wine that looks set to last for decades, but it is far from
being a tannic brute, it has grace and real class.
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Tuesday 4th April 2006 11:35pm
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The clock had just struck 8.00am - a time at which even most chronic
alcoholics would refuse a drink, particularly of very young, fine Claret.
Glorious sunshine greeted us we approached our traditional benchmark for the
week: Ch. Calon Ségur. Hot on the sun's heels was the remarkable
Madame Gasqueton, still as lively and as canny as ever, trotting out to
say hello. There is something refreshingly simple about the whole Calon
experience: you taste only one wine, ask a couple of questions, and that's it.
With a flash, Madame Gasqueton has disappeared off in a puff of smoke
(or rather Mercedes exhaust fumes). For the record the Calon was very
special, even more so than usual. Firm, structured and tannic, it was
incredibly concentrated with wonderful purity and minerality.
Arriving at St Estèphe 2nd Growth, Cos d'Estournel we were greeted by
a couple of well-groomed hosts dressed all in black and white. They looked a
touch flummoxed to see us, possibly because we were driving a Renault rather
than a Mercedes or BMW, but still welcomed us on to the red carpet equivalent
at Cos - beautifully white raked gravel.
Having tasted Cos d'Estournel in February and been flabbergasted by
the quality, this was one of our most keenly awaited visits of the week. The
good news was that we found it even better this time round. It was less
flamboyant but the volume on every other element had been cranked up - the
body, the concentration, the complexity - all set amidst majestic
restraint.
General manager Jean Guillaume Prats was refreshingly self-effacing
about his wine, claiming that we would find 25 wines as good as Cos
during our tastings, such was the quality of 2005. If that's true then we will
be astonished as this stunning wine (better than the 2003 in our humble
opinion) has to be one of the candidates for wine of the vintage.
The Médoc is such a region of contrasts: on the one hand you have the
ceremony and polish of Cos d'Estournel, and on the other you have the
personal low key approach of Calon. And then to go from the sublime to
the ridiculous, just after we left Cos, we saw a woman walking down the
road in her slippers carrying a fishing rod. Only in the Médoc.
We popped into the two Pichons (Baron and Lalande), and found both to
be very impressive, with Baron just shading it although the beguiling Lalande
is often slightly underwhelming at En Primeur time before rising to the top. A
quick sip of the Pichon-Lalande 2004, for example, showed it to
be absolutely delicious.
Back in St Estèphe we tasted a surprisingly good Ch. Phélan-Segur.
This led Sales Director Simon Staples to wonder aloud about the danger
of the mid-tier châteaux setting their prices too high for this year. If they
have the luxury of a high Parker score they may well get away with it
and sell through, but if not, then they could just sit there unsold. Owners
need to realise that just because the First Growths can get away with setting
their prices high (within reason) it doesn't mean that everyone will.
Our first opportunity to get a good overview of the vintage came at Ch.
Belgrave, next door to Ch. Lagrange in St Julien. Organised
by negociants CVBG, the tasting featured about 120 wines from all over
Bordeaux, from Angélus to (Labegorce)-Zédé. All were arranged in
half bottles around two tables facing each other like miniature armies ready to
go to battle. It was invaluable in revealing some initial trends: an incredible
fruit concentration, crisp acidity, freshness, purity and consistent
excellence. What is more interesting is a prevalence of minerality in many
wines, not something that is normally found in Bordeaux, and also a fantastic
terroir expression. This is in contrast to a year like 2000 or 2003 when it was
the vintage that seemed to characterise the wines rather than the site.
However sure you are about something you always have the odd moment of
doubt, and ours came this afternoon as we began to wonder if 2005 really was as
amazing as we had hoped. Five minutes spent in the company of Alfred
Tesseron at Ch. Pontet Canet in Pauillac, however, completely
banished any such doubts. The tanned and relaxed Tesseron beamed with
pride. His 2005 is quite remarkable. The excellent 2004 had hinted at what was
to come - but noone could have dreamt that it would be this good. We marked it
at 19/20 and even then felt rather churlish for not giving it full marks. It is
not overstating the case to say that everyone in the room felt privileged to
taste such a wine.
Tesseron has worked hard over the last decade with his team to
transform the wines at this estate. He says that most of the improvements are
down to improving the vineyards, including some novel (and a little bit secret)
techniques not normally seen in Bordeaux. He has also rebuilt his cuverie.
Proudly showing us his new concrete vats was a little disconcerting; no
romantic oak, no special heat-controlled lining, just good old fashioned
concrete. Odd they may have looked, but you certainly can't argue with the
quality of the wine that has come out of them.
The word in Bordeaux was that Ch. Lafite was something special and it
did not disappoint. When we left Pontet Canet we wondered if it could be
topped by anything on this trip, but a mere hour later Ch. Lafite
managed to do exactly that. Before we tasted the Grand Vin we were guided
through some of the other wines from the Domaines Rothschild portfolio.
The Merlot-dominated Ch. l'Evangile was one of the first Pomerols that
we had tasted, and what a place to start. With its wonderfully perfumed nose
and voluptuous black cherry palate, this provided ample proof that Pomerol has
produced wines every bit as good as the Medocs. This is wonderfully
hedonistic.
The biggest shock of the tasting was the sheer quality of Lafite's
second wine, Carruades de Lafite, which tasted like a Grand Vin from a
good 2nd or 3rd Growth. It simply oozed class and gave a good indication of how
good the Lafite itself would be. In a vintage like 2005 you find
yourself groping for superlatives at times to describe the wines you are
tasting; Ch. Lafite used them all up. It has an endless complexity,
alongside exquisite balance, immense concentration and aristocratic
structure.
The circular cellar at Ch. Lafite is one of the wonders of the wine
world - it is like finding the hidden treasure in the tomb of Tutankhamen.
Barrels are stacked high in a series of concentric circles at the middle of
which lies an area like a stage in a Roman amphitheatre. The jovial technical
director, Charles Chevallier said that they sometimes hold classical
concerts here which are apparently amazing, adding with a glint that maybe they
will try techno and rock some time in the future.
Chevallier entertained us over dinner at the château itself amidst
opulent surroundings that would have done Louis XIV proud. It is hardly
surprising that owner Baron Eric de Rothschild enjoys popping down here
on a regular basis. What's not to like?
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Monday 3rd April 2006 3pm
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An incredible 5000 wine professionals are due to descend on Bordeaux for the
En Primeur tastings that take place this week to sample the fabled 2005.
The 13.30 flight from Heathrow contained a who's who (and indeed a who was
who) of the UK wine trade, chomping at the bit to find out if 2005 really was
as good as people said it was. The atmosphere was like the build up to a prize
fight only with - by and large - rather paler, fatter and older
protagonists.
The first sojourn for the Berrys' team was to the beautifully renovated
château of Du Tertre situated on the highest plain of Margaux. `Highest'
is a relative term in these parts, and while extremely pretty for the dour
landscape of the Medoc, you hardly find yourself gasping for oxygen. Run by the
extremely amusing and intelligent Dutchman Alexander van Beek (who
incidentally is married to one of Bordeaux's nicest women, Veronique
Sanders, from Ch. Haut Bailly) this château and its sister estate,
Ch. Giscours, has come on leaps and bounds under his stewardship.
The 2005 Ch. du Tertre was a highly encouraging start to our tour of
the vintage - packed full of fruit, it was rich and ripe with fruitcakey
flavours all wrapped up in a lovely feminine Margaux package.
The more serious and masculine Giscours was even better, with that
cracking combination of super-concentrated black fruit, great structure and
vigorous acidity that looks set to mark out the best in this vintage.
Since Veronique had patiently looked on as we raved about
Alexander's wines it only seemed fair to taste the Ch. Haut
Bailly as well. This was arguably the best of the three. Very different to
the Margaux, and characterised by that lovely Graves minerality, everything was
in harmony and balance. This was an absolute cracker and it was hard to argue
with Veronique's assessment that this was the best wine they had ever
made.
As if to prove how well these wines age we enjoyed with dinner the
wonderfully fragrant 1986 Ch. Haut Bailly (interestingly made from 100%
Cabernet Sauvignon) and the legendary almost Port-like 1970 Ch. Giscours
which was still as fresh as a daisy. If you have either of these in your cellar
you are very fortunate indeed.
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Sunday 2nd April 2006 12pm
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It has often been said that every vintage in Bordeaux is labelled `Vintage
of the Century' or the `Best year ever!' And so it has been so far with 2005.
But 2005 is a bit different. There is a buzz about it not seen since the
dazzling campaign of 2000. And what is more there is universal agreement that
it is well, exceptional.
Bordeaux expert Bill Blatch, whose eagerly awaited annual vintage
report always provides a sensible and detailed analysis of the year, described
2005 as `a truly extraordinary year…' and `…the most perfect year we could
imagine'. He added `If any growers have made a sub-par wine they only have
hemselves to blame. And if any have made a vegetal wine they should be lined up
and shot at dawn.'
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