The Majestic Wine Blog

Our busiest day of tasting today, covering Pomerol, St-Emilion and Graves. Fortunately, with the 2007s being lighter in body and tannin than the last few years, the tasting is not as physically demanding as it sometimes is - our teeth are a bit less blackened than usual, and our palates are still functioning normally.

As for what we’ve learnt, the right bank seems more consistent than the left. Producers that have concentrated on producing supple, fruity wines have succeeded much more than those who have tried to overreach in such a difficult year. This was a year for lots of work in the vineyard, but a much lighter touch in the winery.

As ever, the Pomerols of J.P. Moueix were one of the highlights. Chatting to Edouard Moueix, he believes that this is a vintage for Merlot, which is the earliest maturing variety. Interestingly, he suggested that picking Merlot too late could cause problems with rot developing in the juice inside the berries. To counteract this, by mid-August, after a record 15 treatments in the vineyard, J.P Moueix had stripped their vines of virtually all foliage to give the grapes maximum exposure to the sun. The sun shone in September and this tactic worked, but when rain returned on 24 September the vines diverted their energies to producing replacement foliage and the berries stopped ripening. These non-ripening berries were the ones in danger of going off.

(If you’ve been following our blog for the last couple of days I realise this might seem to contradict our view that late picking was important. But that was on the Médoc. Cabernet naturally ripens later, and it was the Cabernet-heavy wines of St-Julien and Pauillac that impressed the most. Margaux, where Merlot is a more prominent part of most blends, that was the most disappointing.)

On the whole the Pomerols were a little difficult, with the best wines those that focused on delicacy and subtlety, such as La Conseillante and Vieux-Château-Certan. At VCC, M. Thienpont was open in saying that his wine is intended to be supple and early-drinking, not an easy admission for someone whose wines fetch such high prices.

St-Emilion was a similar story. Well-managed vineyards and a light touch in the chai were again the key to making attractive wines. Good samples include Figeac, Berliquet and Troplong-Mondot, wines which we often follow precisely because they adapt their vineyard husbandry and winemaking to suit the needs of the vintage.

Of course, money makes the world go round and those estates with not only the terroir but also the resources to react to the difficult summer conditions shone the brightest. As always there were surprise successes here and there, but it’s as much a case of the “usual suspects” on the right bank as we found yesterday on the Médoc.

This afternoon, we schlepped aross to the other side of Bordeaux to taste the wines of Graves and Pessac-Léognan. To be frank, the reds were not that exciting a bunch. For the reasons I’ve already talked about those properties with the best terroir stood out. Pape-Clément, Domaine de Chevalier, Smith-Haut-Lafitte make an unsurprising list - terroir and resources helping to overcome the difficult climatic conditions.

The white wines made a refreshing end to the day’s tasting, both literally and metaphorically. 2007 is a genuinely great year for white Bordeaux. Did I already rave about the superb whites from Haut-Brion? Today I can add wines such as Carbonnieux and Smith-Haut-Lafitte, and even what may (fingers crossed) be a great value white Haut-Bergey. We don’t normally offer many white Bordeaux en primeur but we may give it a go this year - email enprimeur@majestic.co.uk if you’d be interested.

We’ve had a few conversations (quietly) about pricing, and although we never have the luxury of leaving the tastings with a clear idea of how prices will go, we are hopeful that we’ll see some sensible reductions on 2006. The Euro is very strong against the pound, dollar and yen, and in a vintage that’s unlikely to receive the same accolades as the last two we hope that common sense will prevail.

This afternoon has seen us pay our first visit to the Graves, to taste the wines of Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion. These wines were unsurprisingly good, with La Mission the most obviously and immediately pleasurable but with Haut-Brion offering a very serious wine with enormous, long term, potential.

Interestingly, the second wine of Haut-Brion is being renamed, from Bahans Haut-Brion to Le Clarence de Haut-Brion, after the grandfather of current owner Prince Robert of Luxembourg, Clarence Dillon. The inaugural vintage is very good, with a lovely soft “warm bricks” Graves character.

We have also tasted Cheval Blanc and Ausone, St-Emilion’s superstars; both were excellent of course, although difficult to assess at such a young age.

Tomorrow we have a full day on the Médoc, so should have a much clearer picture of the vintage on this side of the river (I am typing this on an unfamiliar ‘azerty’ French keyboard in the bureau of Chateau Caronne-Ste-Gemme right now) to report back on by the end of the day.

Keep your comments coming if you have questions…

We’ve put together a Google Earth file with the locations of Bordeaux’s leading properties (plus some of our favourite smaller châteaux), so you can get a bird’s eye view of this fascinating region.

If you’ve got Google Earth installed on your computer, just download the KML file and enjoy. If you don’t have Google Earth installed, it’s free to download, or if you prefer you can just browse the satellite images online using Google Maps.

It’s great fun to play around with - here are some of the more interesting things to look out for:

• Château Haut-Brion - you may have heard how this first growth has been all but swallowed up by Bordeaux’s sprawling suburbs, but see for yourself from space!
• Château Montrose - check out the helipad at this ambitious St-Estèphe property.
• Château Cos d’Estournel - you can just about make out the elaborate oriental pagoda at this fairytale property.
• Château Latour - the Médoc’s most famous vinous landmark is actually just a little folly, and not much to look at from space!
• Château Margaux - you can clearly make out this grand old château building.
• Château Cheval Blanc - right on the edge of the St-Emilion appellation, you can see just how close it is to the neighbouring Pomerol properties La Conseillante and Evangile.

We’ve tried to position the pins in the middle of the château buildings, although with some (for example Mouton-Rothschild and the Léovilles) it’s a little difficult to pinpoint a central point.

It’s that time of year again. Next week, thousands of wine trade types from across the world will descend on Bordeaux for a week-long, stamina-testing series of tastings of the new vintage. As ever, Majestic (yours truly included) will be there, and we’ll report back via this very blog in as much detail as our schedule will allow.

And make no mistake, it is hard work. I have no doubt we’ll be keeping you far more informed than you would normally care for about the palate-jading effect of tasting so many tannic, acidic, infant samples. The law of averages dictates that at least one of the main tastings will be held at a château woefully ill-equipped to deal with the number of tasters, which we will also feel obliged to comment on. And despite my very best intentions, sadly I doubt I will be able to shield you from the occasional spectacular misadventures that result from fine wine buyer Nick Dagley’s attempts at operating a French sat-nav system.

However, I for one am determined not to slip into cynicism about the annual en primeur tastings. As a customer, you should expect your wine merchant to be excited by the prospect of a 9am appointment at Château Margaux; to look forward to the climb up the hill from the car park to be welcomed at Château Ausone; to relish unearthing a surprise success from among the massed ranks of crus classées. And I’m very pleased to say that everyone on the Majestic team is.

So, how do the en primeur tastings work?

First, there are the tastings organised by the Union des Grands Crus, the main association of Bordeaux’s leading properties. In each commune, one château has the honour of hosting the local tasting, with all the other producers attending with their samples. These massed tastings are open all day for three days from Tuesday to Thursday, and depending on the facilities of the host château and the fame of the commune, they vary from civilised, peaceful tastings to out-and-out bun fights, but either way are the principal and best way of tasting most of the classed growths and top crus bourgeois. A similar tasting is organised by a group of right bank properties, the Cercle Rive Droite.

Some of the more exalted properties prefer not to show their wines at the UGC events, instead showing their wines privately by appointment. These include the first growths, the leading super-seconds and top properties on the right bank. These visits certainly rack up the mileage, and make comparative analysis across the properties difficult, but we’ve become fairly adept at managing our schedule to minimise the time between appointments, and these individual visits do allow us to taste these properties’ (often very good value) second wines as well as their grands vins.

Finally, we also visit several of the major negoçiants, who show a range of properties from their portfolios. In some cases this is the only way to taste certain prestigious wines, such as the famous Pomerol properties of J.P. Moueix, but more often than not is a useful opportunity to re-assess wines we’ve tried at the UGC tastings, or to sample some of the lesser properties in the hunt for bargains.

We fly out on Sunday and will be in Bordeaux all next week, so check back regularly to catch up on our experiences. As well as the new Bordeaux 2007 area on the website, we’ve set up a special Bordeaux 2007 RSS feed which will include all of our reports from Bordeaux, information on the market, and of course announcements of new releases as they happen.