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2009 En Primeur Tasting Trip

Monday, 5th April 2010 by Stephen Browett

The Farr Vintners formation tasting team headed en masse to Bordeaux last week to taste the 2009 vintage. The London sales and purchasing department was joined by Jo and Jessica who arrived overnight from Hong Kong, Barry Phillips (our guru and mentor from Chilgrove) and photographer Colin whose work will shortly be illustrating our web site.

Much to our relief, our British Airways plane took off on time from Gatwick, despite the strike, and was full to the brim with the British wine trade and wine writers including Jancis Robinson. I'd estimate that at least 70% of the passengers were on their way to the en primeur tastings

A religious experience at Petrus.

Our first stop was a negociant's warehouse which had been transformed into a vast tasting room with a huge array of samples on show. Merchants from the USA, Taiwan, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland were hard at work and we were soon joined by David Peppercorn MW who is reporting on the vintage for Decanter Magazine and James Suckling of The Wine Spectator. It was a great introduction to the vintage as we spread out around the room. Our 12 person team must have tasted well over 100 wines between them within an hour. Our next visit was to Prieure Lichine which is, I believe, the only Medoc classed growth that employs right bank wine maker Stephane Derenoncourt as a consultant. He's certainly done a great job here in 2009 and this is the best Prieure Lichine that we have ever tasted.

Monday was a long day with a punishing schedule. A visit had been organised every 30 minutes from 9am until 7pm. 10 hours of non-stop tasting of raw, young cask samples. Stamina, concentration and a multi-pack of mineral water were required. We had decided to start in the North and work our way down the Medoc so our first stop was at Calon Segur. This is one of the last great family-owned, traditional Chateaux of Bordeaux. Mme Gasqueton is in her eighties but still very active. We were met by her daughter whose son Louis worked for Farr Vintners for a few months a couple of years ago. No dolly birds and flashing neon signs here (that was later), just a few pot plants by the door and a no-nonsense tasting. Calon Segur has quite a high percentage of Merlot in the vineyard but we were surprised to find a 90% Cabernet Sauvignon wine here. This was a theme to be repeated during the day - clearly 2009 was a year in which the Cabernets achieved such perfect ripeness that the "insurance policy" of blending with other varieties was hardly necessary. There were further Saint Estephe visits to Montrose (a monster of a wine) and to the breathtaking new winery at Cos d'Estournel where everything is now in place for the first 100 point Cos. It would be more of a surprise if the 2009 here didn't receive the perfect score.

Jessica at Ducru Beaucaillou.

In Pauillac we tasted Lafite at Duhart Milon - "fiche techniques" now available in Chinese! - and a great visit to Mouton where all of the wines were singing loudly. This is one estate whose 2009's are definitely above the level of 2005. A fabulous tasting here. Latour was, no surprise, a classic (90% Cabernet Sauvignon) that continues the run of brilliant wines produced here by Frederic Engerer and a Forts de Latour to rival the best of the "super-seconds". Our great friends the Cazes family were as welcoming as ever and what a Lynch Bages they have produced this year. Certainly the most powerful and concentrated "vin de garde" here for many years. It's like the 2000 vintage on steroids.

No visit to Saint Julien would be complete without seeing Bruno Borie who had once again turned Ducru Beaucaillou into a night club. The manicured lawns and classic architecture of the exterior in sharp contrast to the purple and orange walls, candles, modern art and long-legged hostesses to be found inside. The wine is magnificent - maybe the 1961 tasted like this in its youth but it is certain that the wine trade of 1962 didn't taste it in these surroundings. We also visited Lagrange where, again, we were told that the Cabernet Sauvignons were so perfect that there was no need to use any of the vineyard's 15% Petit Verdot in the final blend. This also happened here in 2000 and we can assure you that 2009 Lagrange is a classic - and, here at least, we hope that the price will be reasonable too.

The team at Chateau Margaux

In Margaux we tasted a voluptous, creamy Chateau Palmer. In 2009 it's a velvet fist in a velvet glove! At Chateau Margaux Paul Pontallier and son Thibault showed us their wine which Paul believes to be the finest Margaux in 30 years.

On Tuesday we headed to Chateau Batailley where the "Union des Grands Crus" held a spectacular tasting. Top names such as Leoville Barton, Leoville Poyferre and Pichon Baron were on show here as well as a comprehensive array of their neighbours. A great and very consistent tasting. Likewise, the UGC event in Margaux where Barry was filmed for Japanese television (not sure what they will make of the wine trade's version of Basil Fawlty). Rauzan Segla showing outstandingly well here at what was probably the best Margaux tasting we've ever attended.

The team hard at work in the tasting tent.

We then spent a few hours in another negociant's warehouse where we were treated to our own sealed-off tasting area which was like a black tent in a dark forest surrounded by pallets stacked high with First Growth claret. There was perfect service and ideal lighting here as a brilliantly organised young team ferried a constant stream of samples to our table. We were able to taste at our leisure without having to fight through the UGC scrum to reach a spitoon.

It was then over the Dordogne to the Right Bank and a visit to Le Tertre Roteboeuf which was like stepping into a cellar in Burgundy with its mud floors and rough stone walls. The wine even tastes like Musigny - if only we could buy more of it!. Then on to Ausone (guess what, it's amazing yet again) and Jean-Luc Thunevin's famous garage where a line-up of heavyweight, inky teeth-stainers greeted us from his own vines and those of his friends. The final visit of the day was to L'Eglise Clinet where Denis Durantou received us and was presented with a fine chunk of Mrs Montgomery's extra mature Cheddar by his soulmate Barry. All of Durantou's wines were fresh and lively and quite a contrast to some of the high alcohol, jammy efforts that we tried in Saint Emilion. Denis likes to pick grapes that are "croquant" so it was fascinating to find that he had picked L'Eglise Clinet nearly a month before some of the neighbours. An inspired move we think but time will tell. Finally to one more tasting and a dinner at "Chai Pascal" a great new wine bar on the main street of Saint Emilion that we would recommend highly. Pascal used to be the cellarmaster of the famous "Caves Legrand" in Paris and seems to have quite a following in the French wine trade. There was a winemaker from Sancerre and another from Condrieu sitting at the bar and both Denis Durantou and Alain Vauthier popped in for a quick one during the evening, not the kind of people who drink in my local pub.

Today we're looking through the vine leaf window...

Our final day saw yet another whirlwind trip as we visited Cheval Blanc, L'Evangile, Le Gay, Clos l'Eglise, Vieux Chateau Certan, le Pin and Petrus as well as the UGC at Gazin. Quite a morning! Our final visit was to the closest Chateau to Bordeaux's airport - Haut Brion - which is always one of the real highlights of any trip to Bordeaux.

Amazingly we still had time, amongst all the slurping and spitting, to scribble down a few thousand tasting notes between us all. I will be spending the Easter week trying to decipher them and type them up into something legible. I will also be trying to scrub 4 days' worth of tannin off my teeth. Please watch out for our vintage report - with notes and scores on all the major wines - which should be up on the en primeur pages of our web site within a week. We will also be adding recommendations and notes from the leading independent critics as we gear up to what is going to be a busy en primeur campaign. There's no doubt that 2009 is a great vintage for Bordeaux. How great? Well, a final comment from Pierre Lurton of Chateau d'Yquem - his 2009 reminds him of the 1893!

The stunning new winery at Cos d'Estournel
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