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…