Apologies for the lack of a lunchtime blog post; today has been our busiest day of tasting of the trip. And it’s been a very interesting day. We’ve tasted most of the Médoc now, and have a far clearer sense of the vintage than this time yesterday. The wines of the northern Médoc have a [...]
Monthly Archives: March 2009
Bordeaux 2008: day one, afternoon
Monday 30 March 2009 – 17:37
This afternoon’s tastings took us to La Mission Haut Brion, Cheval Blanc, Ausone and Canon-la-Gaffelière – quite a few miles but I can hardly describe it as a chore. From this first day’s tastings it’s difficult to generalise too much because we really have cherry-picked from the very top echelons of Bordeaux. Cheval Blanc is [...]
Bordeaux 2008: day one, morning
Monday 30 March 2009 – 12:21
The morning of day one has seen us visit three first growths and two second growths – not a bad way to begin assessing the 2008 vintage. First stop of the morning was Margaux. As ever this wine impressed with a subtlety and elegance all its own. Paul Pontallier introduced the wines to us, describing [...]
Jean Claude Mas on BBC News
Saturday 28 March 2009 – 18:12
Jean Claude Mas, who produces some superb Languedoc wines for us, is featured on BBC News today discussing the difficulties French growers face with recession and in particular the weak pound – a subject I’ve already discussed this morning in the context of Bordeaux 2008. The video is on the BBC website here. Thanks to [...]
Twittering from Bordeaux
Saturday 28 March 2009 – 11:40
I’ll be reporting back on this blog from Bordeaux as often as our schedule allows next week. Exactly how frequently depends on my ability to get the French 3G dongle I have ready and raring to go working; this is no foregone conclusion but I’m optimistic! Obviously one way to keep up to date is [...]
Bordeaux from space
Saturday 28 March 2009 – 10:31
I’m sorry to re-hash something from a year ago but I still think our Google Earth file of leading Bordeaux châteaux is great fun (not to mention a good navigation aid for the directionally challenged Majestic tasting team). Unfortunately, Google’s controversial Street View service hasn’t been extended to Bordeaux yet. Surely people would rather experience [...]
Back to Bordeaux
Saturday 28 March 2009 – 9:46
Tomorrow myself and three colleagues will be heading to Bordeaux for the annual en primeur tastings. This will be the fifth year I’ve enjoyed (and blogged) about this experience. In the Anglo-Bordeaux trade that makes me a mere whipper-snapper, but I like to think I’m starting to get the hang of it now. Looking back [...]
What’s that got to do with the price of Rosé?
Tuesday 24 March 2009 – 11:55
There’s a great deal of speculation in the news that the Retail Prices Index (the government’s less “preferred” measure of inflation) will dip into negative territory when announced later this morning. The RPI is essentially a “shopping basket” used to track the price of goods and services. Obviously it’s important that this “basket” represents consumers’ [...]
Customer Reviews
Monday 23 March 2009 – 8:30
Last week our email newsletter announced a new feature on our website, Customer Reviews. I’ve been a bit slow in blogging about this, but the advantage is that I now have plenty of examples to point to! I’m going to hold up my hand and admit that we have very carefully considered this feature. Wine [...]
