As one at the ‘pointy end’ of the fine wine trade I am acutely aware that a speedy, well-timed release of wines from the top châteaux would be great. However, every year the campaign gets more drawn out and complicated as the wineries try to satisfy a growing worldwide demand while maximising their return on products which in many cases are seen as much as investment vehicles as bottles of beautiful wine.

For the uninitiated en primeur describes a wine bought the year after harvest but before it is bottled, and is often the only way to get hold of the most sought-after wines. Certainly it’s probably the most cost-effective way to put together a claret collection. So, laying to one side the investment-grade wines, about which everything that could be said has already been said, let’s have a look at the rest of the wines offered from the 2010 vintage.

A one word summary of the quality of 2010 Bordeaux would be ‘fabulous’. But 2009 was fabulous too, wasn’t it? Unequivocally yes, but the two vintages are very different. Unlike 2009, which was hot and dry, 2010 was really just dry. So, again unlike the opulent, almost Californian richness of the 2009s, the 2010s have a real freshness and balance that is highly appealing.

During our visit to Bordeaux in April, winemaker after winemaker told us that 2010 is truly exceptional. Across the board the levels of potential alcohol, acidity and tannins reached record levels, but crucially they managed to retain the balance I’ve mentioned. Without it the wines would have been clumsy but with it comes class and longevity. These are wines to buy in quantity and squirrel away. Especially in the lower price brackets, which may not always achieve the heights of the more exalted names, all the wines we have chosen merit serious consideration. For instance, Château Amelisse, one of Lay & Wheeler’s perennial favourites, made by star winemaker of Pomerol Denis Durantou, comes in at just over £10 a bottle and is certainly a 10-year wine.

Other picks?

• Definitely Château Haut-Batailley at £330 a case. An absolutely archetypal Pauillac, gorgeously put together and showing the famous cigar-box and pencil-lead aromas of the best Médoc wines. Tasted blind this would undoubtedly be up with the very best.
• Léoville Barton. Always a favourite among Majestic staff and always good value. We tasted the 2009 and 2010 alongside each other and, in my view, the 2010 shone.
• Grand-Puy-Lacoste. No apologies for recommending another wine made under the auspices of François-Xavier Borie (like Haut-Batailley). A fantastic expression of cabernet Sauvignon.
• Money no object? Then it has to be the fabulous Pomerol, Château l’Evangile. Incredibly precise, tightly-wound yet rich and silky. We tasted this last during an unparalleled two hours in Pomerol and I didn’t spit it out!

Jeremy Palmer
Managing Director

We had a brilliant time visiting Bordeaux and tasting the wines a couple of weeks ago – a mini heat wave and temperatures averaging 30 degrees very much contributed to our enjoyment! The main source of pleasure for us, however, was the outstanding quality of the wines in 2010, and the phrase “embarrassment of riches” has been uttered around the office quite a few times already – even the Bordelais, usually far from shy when it comes to selling their latest offering, seem almost apologetic when talking about the succession of these two amazing vintages.

2009 and 2010 are, however, very different stylistically. While the 2009s were incredibly opulent and seductive, the 2010s are concentrated and dense with much tighter tannic structure and taut acidity. In short, they are wines which will be perfect for long-term ageing, and if the fine wine market’s performance over the past year or so is anything to go by, interest will be very high indeed!

From such a widely successful vintage it is difficult to go wrong, however some particularly notable successes are St Julien’s Châteaux Léoville-Barton, Gruaud-Larose and Talbot, Domaine de Chevalier in Pessac-Léognan, Château Amélisse in St Emilion (vinified by the winemaker of l’Eglise-Clinet and great value for money), Château Gazin in Pomerol (outstanding), Château Rauzan-Ségla in Margaux, and Châteaux d’Armailhac and Grand-Puy-Lacoste in Pauillac (the latter a strong candidate for wine of the vintage!).

There have already been a handful of wines from the value for money/drinking wines end of the spectrum released and they are excellent examples of why it makes sense to “fill one’s boots” with wines from every level when Mother Nature graces us with such a stunning vintage. Particularly good are Château Montaiguillon, Montagne St Emilion, a bargain at £87.00 per case of 12 in bond, and Château Plince, Pomerol, at £258.00 for 12ib. We recently tasted a bottle of the 2000 Montaiguillon and it was mightily impressive considering its relatively modest place in the Bordeaux hierarchy: silky tannins, plummy core of fruit with a hint of winter spice and a leafy freshness on the finish.

You can find out more about the vintage, peruse the full list of wines we will be offering and express an interest in specific Châteaux on the Lay & Wheeler website. Alternatively feel free to email sales@laywheeler.com or call 01473 313 300 with any questions you may have.

It’s managed by our en primeur specialist, Lay & Wheeler, so members benefit from unsurpassed knowledge of the best fine wines to lay down, from brilliant, sought-after growers. And storage is taken care of at Vinothèque, a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to professional storage of fine wine, for a very reasonable annual fee.

To help get your new wine collection off to a good start, we’ll give new subscribers a fantastic free six bottle case of Croix de Beaucaillou 2009, the second wine of top St-Julien property Ducru-Beaucaillou from the heavily sought-after 2009 vintage.

With all the excitement that’s building around Bordeaux 2010, now is a great time to start your plan. I’m already a member of the plan; if you’re interested in joining me, find out more at majestic.co.uk/finewineplan.

Matt Philpott, Majestic Marketing Manager

It seems that the conditions were right for the production of great Bordeaux; hot and dry at the right times, with cool nights and occasional rain, giving balance and aiding maturation. The resultant wines are said to be extremely concentrated, with huge, yet soft, tannins, giving them a plump, attractive nature, even when very young.

A joint team of Majestic and Lay & Wheeler buyers and wine consultants will be heading out to Bordeaux this week to taste and assess the vintage and we are very much looking forward to finding out if this vintage is as great as it is supposed to be.

The tastings in Bordeaux are an exciting and busy few days, when the entirety of the world’s interested wine-trade arrives in the region in a flurry of hire cars and notebooks. Exhausting, but exhilarating, this week offers the wine trade often its first opportunity to really get to grips with the vintage and draw their own conclusions about the wines they wish to recommend to their clients.

The Union des Grand Crus (the society whose membership includes most of the top châteaux in Bordeaux) run tastings of the wines from individual communes, hosted at selected Châteaux in those areas. These events are frequently absolutely packed, with wine experts and journalists jostling for elbow room to write their notes.

In addition, the châteaux themselves are open to visitors (by appointment), who wish to taste their wines in a somewhat calmer and more collected environment. These more private tastings often offer the opportunity to gain valuable insight from the proprietors and managers concerning the vintage and how they feel their wines have fared.

The team will be blogging from the tastings in Bordeaux, updating us about the wines they have tasted and their views on the vintage. Make sure you follow our blog if you want to keep up-to-date with the latest information directly from Bordeaux.

(This is a précis of more detailed information over at Lay & Wheeler’s new blog.)

Recently of course Majestic acquired the fine wine merchant Lay & Wheeler, which is one of those merchants, and has an admirable portfolio of wines from the top Burgundian producers. With the imminent release of the 2008 vintage, Lay & Wheeler are putting on a superb tasting at the Glaziers Hall in central London on 14th Jan. Many of the producers will be on hand to show their wines, and there are some real treats in store. I went as a customer last year and, like Victor Kiam, was so impressed I bought the company (note to younger readers – ask your parents …).

Tickets are available from the L&W website, or call 0845 330 1855.

Simon Smith, Manager of  our Dorchester branch takes us on a trip to Chablis.

The Vineyards

The Chablis region is over 100 km North of Beaune and so quite detached from the rest of the Côte d’Or. In rough terms, if you cross the Channel at a polite hour, Epernay makes an ideal place to stop for a midday break. You can then reach the town of Chablis by mid afternoon depending on how many courses you have for lunch.

The limestone and clay soil found at the centre of the Chablis region is referred to as Kimmeridgean, the name taken from the Dorset village of Kimmeridge which also shares the same soil type. It is one of the main factors that determines the style of Chablis and gives the wine its’ distinctive minerally character. The soil is packed full of tiny fossilised oysters and very rich in minerals. We visited Domaine Jean-Hugues Goisot in St Bris where we learnt the Latin name for these creatures is “Exogyra Virgule”. Ghislaine spent half the tasting trying to teach me how to pronounce this properly, but failed. They have a cuvée of St Bris named after this which is referred to in our house as “tiny oysters”. Much easier!

Domaine William Fevre

Despite arriving in Chablis just a few days before harvest the team at Fevre kindly showed us around and treated us to a fantastic tasting. This is one of the most historical estates in Chablis and is now responsible for some of the regions finest wines.

Since his first vintage in 1959 William Fevre has built up an enviable 47 hectares of vineyards in Chablis. The Domaine owns over 15% of the total land area of Grand Cru vineyards giving it the largest holdings. The 15.2 hectares are spread across Les Clos, Preuses, Valmur, Vaudesir, Bourgros and Cote de Bourgros. Fevre also produce a Blanchot and Grenouilles from bought in grapes. The rest of the estate is comprised of Chablis and Chablis Premier Cru.

Although the vineyards and winery are still owned by Monsieur Fevre, the business was bought by the Henriot family of Champagne in 1998. Didier Seguier now makes the wine at Fevre but continues the tradition at this Domaine for producing a terroir driven, classic Chablis. Having toured the wine making facilities I got a sense that there is real attention to detail, as well as constant innovation. This reflects well in the quality of the wines.

Winemaking

Grapes are hand picked and transported to the winery in small boxes to ensure they arrive in the best condition possible. Once there a sorting table is used to make a selection of the best bunches. A pneumatic press is used for a more gentle extraction of the juice. The stems are left on which allows faster extraction and therefore less skin contact. This helps retain the classic minerally flavour from the soil, where as skin contact would impart more of a “chardonnay” flavour.

The next stage is selection of the juice. The first 5% of the pressing has a slightly higher acidity and the last 5% is a little richer. These are vinified separately so they can be blended in later depending on the character of the wine. At Fevre they also vinify each parcel from within a vineyard separately. For example the Domaine has several plots within Les Clos. The vines at the top of the slope on poor soil have deep root systems and produce wines that are very mineral. Vines at the bottom on the richer eroded soil give fuller wines. This gives Didier more flexibility when assembling the final blend.

The use of oak, in particular new oak, has been quite a contentious issue in Chablis. At Fevre, barrels are used but only 2% are new and only part of the harvest spends time in wood. For the village Chablis, 90% is vinified in stainless steel tank and 10% in barrel. The different Premier Crus vary from between 40-60% in barrel depending on vintage conditions and vineyard. While about 80% of the Grand Crus are vinified in barrel. The benefit of using barrels is that the process of micro oxygenation helps open up the flavours and aromas of the wine. After the fermentations and some maturation the wines are returned to stainless steel tanks so no wood character is imparted and the purity of the fruit is retained. During our visit to Chablis we also tasted with Christian and Fabian Moreau. Here, we were told, there is no rigid formula for how long the wine is left in barrel before being returned to tank. The wine is very much in charge! I liked this intuitive style of winemaking which had very much in common with the philosophies at Fevre. Chablis is blessed with a unique terroir that produces wines that can’t be replicated elsewhere in France or even the world. There is no need or desire to produce a Meursault look a like here. Just a strong will to produce wines that offer an honest translation of where they come from.

Wine Tasting

During our visit to Fevre we were treated to a fabulous tasting of Chablis, Premiers and Grand Crus. This was a great opportunity to experience not only wines from different terroirs but also from different levels of the quality hierarchy.

Chablis 2008 – Pale lemon with green tinges. Concentrated nose of citrus and some mineral notes. More citrus on the palate with touches of white fruit on the finish. Good acidity and clean mineral finish.

Chablis 2007- A little less concentrated than the ’08, but still has a lovely weight of citrus and green apple fruit running through. Finishes fresh with nice mineral notes. Good quality for village level.

Montmains 2007 – Most of the fruit comes from Butteaux at the western end of Montmains. This area produces some of the most mineral wines of this 1er cru. There is a great concentration of lemon citrus and yellow fruit on the nose. The palate is beautifully balanced, with crisp fruit and lively acidity. One of my favourites of the tasting.

Vaillons 2007 – This 1er cru runs parallel with Montmains and has the same South East exposure. There is also more limestone in the soil where as clay dominates in Montmains. This has resulted in a wine which is more floral, with notes of spring flowers on the nose. The palate is rounder, with generous white fruit flavours, citrus and a fine mineral structure on the finish.

Les Lys 2007 – Named after the French Royalty who favoured wines from this northern part of Vaillons. The soil here is fine clay and the vines have a slightly cooler aspect to the rest of the 1er cru. This is much firmer than the Vaillons, with focused acidity and tight mineral structure. Really nice wine that I think should age a little better than the Vaillons.

Fourchaume 2007 – The largest of the 1er crus and one of best known. The nose offers a combination of blossom, ripe citrus and stone fruit. This has the most weight of the wines tasted so far. The vines are grown on relatively deep, rich soil and this comes through in the wine. The palate is concentrated with a supple texture and nice rounded fruit. There is still a good underlying structure to this wine but my personal preference is for a touch more austerity.

Vaudesir 2007 – Located at the higher end of the grand cru slope between Valmur and Preuses. We had walked around the Grand crus the previous day and noted the steepness here. Its quite a warm spot, lying in an enclosed valley which would also make for a cracking pheasant drive! The nose has subtle aromas of flowers, apple, lemon and wet stone. These continue on the palate which is rich, concentrated and has a great balance between power and elegance. It finishes bone dry, with great line and incredibly purity. Just a little more of everything when tasted alongside the 1ers.

Les Preuses 2007 – This is a blend of two parcels within the vineyard. Vines on the South East facing slope give a really mineral character to the wine. Vines on the flatter part of Preuses produce wine with more richness and weight. A hugely complex nose of lemon, lime and sea shell. The palate starts with a rich citrus character and gradually finishes with great purity and focus. Incredible elegance. My favourite of the tasting.

Les Clos 2007 – This has the reputation of being the most powerful and ageworthy of the Grand Crus. Again, it is blended from a number of parcel within the vineyard, which helps add complexity to the finished wine.  The nose offers citrus zest, crushed stone and a delicate hint of spice. There is a serious presence on the palate. Masses of fruit, a firm spine of acidity and once again, an underlying structure/minerality. The interplay between these seems to give the wine a real sense of vitality and a finish that goes on forever. Requires cellaring as do all of the above to a greater or lesser extent. 2007 does not seem as forward as the 2006 that I tasted here on my last visit, although, personally I love the style of the vintage.

Majestic periodically offer the wines of William Fevre En Primeur. There is also a wide selection available via the Lay and Wheeler broking list. I can thoroughly recommend them to you.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, Vintage Port is a great buy en primeur partly because it is only ‘declared’ in exceptional vintages, and partly because it is the most affordable way to buy wine to cellar for several decades. This also makes it the perfect wine to buy for a christening or to mark another significant 2007 event. Having said that, the elegance of these wines and suppleness of the tannins suggest they will be much more enjoyable with 5-10 years of aging than the extremely powerful 2003s.

So what to buy? Taylor, Fonseca and Graham are historically the most popular with Majestic customers and have delivered excellent 2007s; personally I think Taylor was my favourite of this trio but it’s a close call. My other tip this year is Dow – its more austere house style seemed to perfectly suit this fresh, elegant vintage, and I absolutely loved it.

Customers who have not ordered en primeur before should read our ‘What is En Primeur?’ page to familiarise themselves with how it works. Customers should also check the timetable for the campaign and our 2007 vintage report.

Château Ducru-Beaucaillou 2008 St-Julien, 2ème Cru Classé 6 x 75cl Bottles, £370

Customers should read our vintage report, and be familiar with the timetable for Bordeaux 2008 before purchasing. En Primeur wines are priced for in-bond delivery and do not include duty, VAT and handling.

For now though we have some lovely, highly-rated wines at what all look reasonable prices. Moulin-St-Georges is a great value window on the style of Alain Vauthier, proprietor of the stellar Château Ausone, and impressed us again this year. Branaire-Ducru is one of the left-bank’s more ambitious properties, which makes its £275/dozen price a good bet. Montrose is always a sought-after St-Estèphe, more restrained and classical in style (and cheaper) than near neighbour and rival Cos d’Estournel. Finally we have a simply stunning, small-production Pomerol, Eglise Clinet.

Château Moulin-St-Georges 2008 St-Emilion 12 x 75cl, £245

Château Branaire-Ducru 2008 St-Julien, 4ème Cru Classé 12 x 75cl, £275

Château Montrose 2008 St-Estèphe, 2ème Cru Classé 12 x 75cl, £500

Château l’Eglise Clinet 2008 Pomerol 6 x 75cl, £440

Customers should read our vintage report, and be familiar with the timetable for Bordeaux 2008 before purchasing. En Primeur wines are priced for in-bond delivery and do not include duty, VAT and handling.

• Only the very best vintages are “declared”; it last happened in 2003 and 2000.
• Port is the least expensive way to buy a wine that will cellar for 18 years or more – it’s a perfect christening or other gift for babies born in 2007.
• Mature vintage Port is a fantastic experience, and one of the world’s truly fine wines, but difficult to find. Buying en primeur now means that you’ll have the bottle you need for Christmas Day 2029.
• We offer all our Ports in convenient 6 bottle cases.

This afternoon I’ll be tasting the 2007s of the Taylor-Fladgate Partnership (Taylor’s, Fonseca, Croft) and the Symington family (Graham, Dow, Warre) as well as Quinta do Noval. I’ll try and tweet as I taste, and update the blog as soon as possible afterwards.

One further new release today is Yquem, which is only available in miniscule quantities for £920 per case of 6 bottles or 12 half bottles; it’s not available online, but if you are interested, please contact us at enprimeur@majestic.co.uk.

Château Figeac 2008 St-Emilion, 1er Grand Cru Classé 12 x 75cl, £485

Château Pichon-Longueville-Baron 2008 Pauillac, 2ème Cru Classé 12 x 75cl, £500

Customers should read our vintage report, and be familiar with the timetable for Bordeaux 2008 before purchasing. En Primeur wines are priced for in-bond delivery and do not include duty, VAT and handling.

First up are two well-priced classed growth properties: St-Julien’s acclaimed Lagrange, and Margaux’s reliable Durfort-Vivens. Star of the show though has to be Fonbel, from the Vauthier (of Ausone fame) stable – at £10 a bottle in-bond it’s an absolute steal, garnering 16.5 points from Jancis Robinson.

We also have a range of wines from J.P.Moueix, with Grand Cru St-Emilion La Serre (another Jancis 16.5 pointer), established Majestic favourite De Sales, and Plince, a great value Pomerol that offers a glimpse of the style of Moueix’s wines at a fraction of the price of the likes of Trotanoy and Pétrus.

Château Fonbel 2008 St-Emilion 12 x 75cl, £120

Château de Sales 2008 Pomerol 12 x 75cl, £130

Château Plince 2008 Pomerol 12 x 75cl, £195

Château Durfort-Vivens 2008 Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé 12 x 75cl, £195

Château la Serre 2008 St-Emilion, Grand Cru Classé 12 x 75cl, £235

Château Lagrange 2008 St-Julien, 3ème Cru Classé 12 x 75cl, £260

Customers should read our vintage report, and be familiar with the timetable for Bordeaux 2008 before purchasing. En Primeur wines are priced for in-bond delivery and do not include duty, VAT and handling.

In addition, we have some of Haut-Brion’s stablemates. Le Clarence de Haut-Brion (the second wine of Haut-Brion) is a successfully sleek and polished 2008, whilst La Mission is simply delicious. This wine has been of first growth quality in recent vintages, and priced accordingly; whilst by no means cheap, £660 for 6 bottles represents a significant price cut, so we expect demand to be high and quantities are limited. We also have tiny volumes of the rare-as-hen’s-teeth Haut-Brion Blanc and Laville-Haut-Brion Blanc.

Le Clarence de Haut-Brion 2008 Pessac-Léognan, Second wine of Haut-Brion 12 x 75cl Bottles, £420

Château La Mission Haut-Brion 2008 Pessac-Léognan 6 x 75cl Bottles, £660

Château Margaux 2008 Margaux, 1er Cru Classé 6 x 75cl Bottles, More stock secured

Château Mouton-Rothschild 2008 Pauillac, 1er Cru Classé 6 x 75cl Bottles, SOLD OUT

Château Haut-Brion 2008 Pessac-Léognan, 1er Cru Classé 6 x 75cl Bottles, SOLD OUT

Château Laville Haut-Brion Blanc 2008 Pessac-Léognan 6 x 75cl Bottles, £1295

Château Haut-Brion Blanc 2008 Pessac-Léognan 6 x 75cl Bottles, £1495

Customers should read our vintage report, and be familiar with the timetable for Bordeaux 2008 before purchasing. En Primeur wines are priced for in-bond delivery and do not include duty, VAT and handling.

Also released today are Palmer and the second wine Alter Ego de Palmer. At £1000 a case for the grand vin and £275 for Alter Ego, we feel that there are better value wines available this year, although the wines are delicious and available for those who are interested.

Château Beychevelle 2008 St-Julien, 4ème Cru Classé 12 x 75cl Bottles, £294

Château Calon-Ségur 2008 St-Estèphe, 3ème Cru Classé 12 x 75cl Bottles, £297

Customers should read our vintage report, and be familiar with the timetable for Bordeaux 2008 before purchasing. En Primeur wines are priced for in-bond delivery and do not include duty, VAT and handling.

In value terms we like the look of d’Armailhac a lot, with a really approachable, ripely-fruited, modern style that’s a very impressive buy at £230 per case. From St-Julien we have Léoville-Poyferré, a savoury, meaty wine that we tasted several times during the week with consistent, and impressive notes. Gruaud-Larose is a more subtle expression of St-Julien, very classical, elegant and pretty. Both these wines have good followings among Majestic customers en primeur.

Château d’Armailhac 2008 Pauillac, 5ème Cru Classé 12 x 75cl Bottles, £230

Château Gruaud-Larose 2008 St-Julien, 2ème Cru Classé 12 x 75cl Bottles, £280

Château Léoville-Poyferré 2008 St-Julien, 2ème Cru Classé 12 x 75cl Bottles, £306

Customers should read our vintage report, and be familiar with the timetable for Bordeaux 2008 before purchasing. En Primeur wines are priced for in-bond delivery and do not include duty, VAT and handling.

Anthony Barton told us he planned to release early, and true to his word we also have Léoville-Barton, a perennial favourite thanks to its reliable quality and sensible pricing. The 2008 vintage is a big, chunky, classic Léoville-Barton that is sure to be popular.

Les Forts de Latour 2008 Pauillac, Second wine of Latour 12 x 75cl Bottles, £560

Château Léoville-Barton 2008 St-Julien, 2ème Cru Classé 12 x 75cl Bottles, £330

Customers should read our vintage report, and be familiar with the timetable for Bordeaux 2008 before purchasing. En Primeur wines are priced for in-bond delivery and do not include duty, VAT and handling.

Château Latour 2008 Pauillac, 1er Cru Classé 6 x 75cl, £795

94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 0.5% Petit Verdot, 0.5% Cabernet Franc. That very high proportion of Cabernet demonstrates just how successful Cabernet was on this famous terroir, and also how selective Latour have been this year – only 40% of their production has made it into the grand vin. The resulting wine is closed and brooding at this stage, with a nose of cassis, berries, spice and cedar. There’s great depth and class on the palate, with pronounced but extremely fine tannins. With lots of structure and body, this is definitely a classic Latour for the long haul, and should cellar into the 2030s.
Majestic: 18.0, Suckling: 91-94, Steven Spurrier 19.5

Customers should read our vintage report, and be familiar with the timetable for Bordeaux 2008 before purchasing. En Primeur wines are priced for in-bond delivery and do not include duty, VAT and handling.

As I write, we have not yet finished our full vintage report, which we will make available by Tuesday lunchtime. We are keeping a careful eye on pricing, and as ever we will only buy those wines we are confident in recommending as good value en primeur.

En Primeur wines are priced for in-bond delivery and do not include duty, VAT and handling.

Château Hosanna 2008 Pomerol 6 x 75cl – £315

Château Angélus 2008 St-Emilion, 1er Grand Cru Classé 6 x 75cl – £360

Château Certan de May 2008 Pomerol 12 x 75cl – £575

Château La Fleur Pétrus 2008 Pomerol 12 x 75cl – £575

The quality of the wines has remained pretty high. There are hopefully going to be some good value cru bourgeois wines to be had from the 2008 vintage, and several Pessac-Léognan properties have also delivered.

The Sauternes tasting was interesting. The wines are perfectly nice, but suffer in comparison to last year – less acidity and complexity, with an aroma of canned pineapple that is remarkably consistent across the properies.

I have to keep this short because our flight is about to be called, but just to round off I should mention that we are quite confident this will be a short, swift en primeur campaign. Of course, we’ve heard this before and been disappointed, but all the signs are pointing that way.

In St-Emilion, the large Union des Grands Crus tasting was a typically mixed bag, but in general we were pleased. As with the left bank the day before, there was a generally good purity of fruit, the primary difference between the successes and failures being handling in the winery; we bang this drum every year, but some wines are still being extracted too hard making disjointed wines with hints of bitterness. The best wines had a lovely lushness, ripe fruit and good refreshing acidity.

We  also visited a few top producers individually. Pavie will likely divide opinion again, being back to the super-concentrated, full-on style which has proved so controversial in previous vintages.

Many of the Pomerols were lovely as well, with the lushness that is typically associated with this appellation clearly in evidence. We spotted a few potentially good value wines at the UGC tasting and enjoyed rewarding visits to Vieux-Château-Certan and my personal favourite Clos l’Eglise.

We also had a terrific tasting with Christian and Edouard Moueix. Their suite of properties have again delivered, with a signature elegance and lightness of touch clearly in evidence. La Fleur Petrus and Hosanna are wines we follow year-in-year-out and that are lovely again. Certan-de-May stood out with a richer style and will please fans of the property.

Our final day tomorrow sees us finish off with Graves and Sauternes; updates during the day on Twitter and I’ll try and post a complete wrap up from the car or the airport in the afternoon.