The tasting itself was an incredible achievement in its own right. 1000 disciples with 20 glasses in front of them, a sample in each all served at the perfect temperature. Think about the washing up!
As inspiring as Bob was and how incredible the logistics were it was these “Magical 20″ (Well, 15 in my book) that had the room mesmerized. They were stunning. It’s the first time that they have been shown as most were only bottled in July and not shipped until now.

I attach brief tasting notes as I made them. They become increasingly more brief because the organizers took the poor decision to hurry the great man along. I still don’t understand why he regards some so highly and all the people I chatted to afterwards were scratching their heads as to why some were included and why there were some obvious omissions. It will cause some controversy of course and I’m certain it will have an instant effect on these wines in the Market – I can only apologize if some have these are sold out if you come back and want a case or ten but we shall do our best to source more for you.

Simon Staples

Fine Wine Director

1.Ch. Haut-Bailly 2009

Purity, intense, really beautiful. Great length. Perfect equilibrium. Totally beguiling. Delicious.

18.5/20 BBR Score

96-98+ Robert Parker

528 GBP per 6 bottle case (very limited stock)

2. Ch. Rauzan-Segla 2009

Best of all the times I’ve tasted it. Beautifully creamy. Sweet, decadent with lovely poise. Great length. I’m smitten.

17.5/20 BBR Score

92-95 Robert Parker

None available please ask if you’d like us to source for you . C.900-1000 GBP per 12

3. Ch. Brane-Cantenac 2009

Far more Margaux than Rauzan. Sumptuous really sweet with lovely balance. Need to check if I have it. Delicious.(I didn’t have any but have now!)

18/20 BBR Score

93-95 Robert Parker

255 GBP per 6 bottle case (very limited stock) then more at 282 GBP per 6

4. Ch. Malescot St Exupery 2009.

Deep, sweet but too much new oak. Best of all times tasted but still not my style.

17/20 BBR Score

95-97 Robert Parker

380 GBP per 6 bottle case (very limited stock)

5. Ch. Palmer 2009.

Amazing. Show stoppingly good. So fine yet powerful and totally seductive. If you haven’t got a case and you want the best, get this.

19.5/20 BBR Score

94-96 Robert Parker

1260 GBP per 6 bottle case (very limited)

6. Ch. Smith-Haut-Lafitte 2009.

Very dense. Inky. Massive amount of oak. Great fruit but difficult to dig down to. Great length but lacks purity.

16/20 BBR Score

96-98+ Robert Parker

480 GBP per 6 bottle case (very limited)

7. Ch. Pape-Clement 2009.

Really don’t get it sadly. Huge brooding beast with little charm or finesse. Clunky and short. No Dommy Chev or Ducru in this 20?

15/20 BBR Score

95-97+ Robert Parker

540 GBP per 6 bottle case (limited)

8. La Fleur-Petrus 2009.

Quite gorgeous, silky tannins, sexy beast. Slightly short on the finish compared with Palmer but lovely.

17.5/20 BBR Score

96-98+ Robert Parker

None available please ask if you’d like us to source for you . C.1200-1500 GBP per 6

9. Ch. La Conseillante 2009.

Heavenly. A Purity and balance that is utterly compelling. This is as good, maybe even better than the 05. Fantastic. Rivals Petrus in quality.

19/20 BBR Score

95-98 Robert Parker

840 GBP per 6 bottle case (very limited) then more stock at 894 GBP per case

10. Ch. Trotanoy 2009.

Where Conseillante is all about feminine whiles this is majestic and powerful. This is Brilliant!

19/20 BBR Score

97-100 Robert Parker

None available and I can’t seem to be able to source any. My apologies

11. Ch. Le Gay.

Again, no idea why this is in this company. Tad austere, very dry where’s the sex appeal? Short.

15/20 BBR Score

91-93 Robert Parker

440 GBP per 6 bottle case (Very Limited)

12. Ch. Léoville-las Cases 2009.

First Growth!! Truly brilliant. So complex, so utterly transfixing. I know its expensive but worth every cent.

19.5/20 BBR Score

96-100 Robert Parker

1320 GBP per 6 bottle case (Very limited)

13. Ch. Léoville-Poyferré 2009.

Wow! Really profound. Sweet but perfectly balanced. Brilliant. What a tasting!! Feeling v privileged.

18.5/20 BBR Score

97/100 Robert Parker

684 GBP per 6 bottle case (limited)

14. Ch. Pichon-Lalande 2009

Plump and proud but lacks a little compared to Poyferre and Las Cases.

17/20 BBR Score

96-98 Robert Parker

740 GBP per 6 bottle case (Very limited)

15. Chateau Lynch Bages 2009.

This is perfect Pauillac. Sends shivers down the spine. Cassis bomb but with total quality and balance. Lush.

18.5/20 BBR Score

94-96+ Robert Parker

684 GBP per 6 bottle case (Very limited)

16. Ch. Pichon-Baron 2009.

If Lynch is Grace Kelly, Baron is Marilyn. Curvy, seductive,  totally gorgeous.

18.5/20 BBR Score

93-95 Robert Parker

600 GBP per 6 bottle case (Very limited)

17. Ch. Pontet-Canet 2009

What a fabulously decadent and brilliant wine. Has been on all occasions but this is the best I have ever tasted it.

19/20 BBR Score

97-100 Robert Parker

680 GBP per 6 bottle case (Very limited).

18. Ch. Cos d’Estournel 2009.

All the debate about this should now be over. Soft. Amazing. Deep. Concentrated. Not like any of the others. I love it.

18.5/20 BBR Score

98-100 Robert Parker (His favorite wine of the night)

1290 GBP  per 6 bottle case (Very limited)

19. Ch. Clos Fourtet 2009

Again not my thing too pushed but very impressive. Apologies about speed but Bob is being pushed to speed up. Rubbish! Not the wine….the speed.

17.5/20 BBR Score

95-98 Robert Parker

440 GBP per 6 bottle case (Very limited)

20. Ch. Angelus 2009

Love the dollop of Cab Franc. Is it Bordeaux? Brilliant but a bit flash. 1 glass very happy. Impressive show winner.

18.5/20 BBR Score

96-100 Robert Parker

1388 GBP per 6 bottle case (Very Limited)

ALL STOCK SUBJECT TO REMAINING UNSOLD

Do let us know what you fancy and we shall do our best to procure it for you as soon as France opens!

We were not sure what to expect of the evening but I was promised we wouldn’t be idle and our eyebrows should be raised by close of play. They weren’t wrong!

As we struggled through Shanghai’s teeming Friday evening traffic and headed towards the famous Bund and it’s incredible light show all eyes were drawn away to the dozen or so enormous tracer lights further up stream that cut into the overcast and starless sky. Looking like a scene from the Oscars, could this possibly be our destination? As we turned into several banks of officious security guards it seemed apparent it was. We asked our jovial taxi driver to pull over his 30 year old, battled scarred Ford Cortina so we could stroll over rather the last few hundred yards rather than arrive as four crumpled messes in a cloud of CO2. We eased ourselves out rather looking like four clowns emerging from their clown mobile under the big top. This evening’s Motley BBR Crüe consisted of the ever whimsical and dapper Dan, Adam Bilbey, our Hong Kong sales manger, Geordie Willis our Hong Kong PR and Marketing genial guru, Rufus Beazley our Shanghai head honcho and secret weapon, angelic Anglo looks, Caesar buffont and fabulously fluent in Mandarin. The team was topped off by our Hong Kong Chairman and all round bon viveur K.K Mui.

As we strolled up the enormous, tealight-flanked black carpet, ranks of Chinese paparazzi blinded us with wave after wave of flash bulbs, beckoning us to look at them. Most of the team went a bit British: head down, crack on. Billboard Bilbo went for a wave or three and I’m convinced I saw him make a phone sign to one particularly attractive lady and a cheeky wink. He was in his element. It has to said as we left several hours and a few glasses of champagne later we greeted the ranks with far more exuberance, en masse behaving more like Take That taking their final curtain call. Lushes that we were!

The venue the Vertu team had chosen was, 2 days previously, an empty 20,000 sq feet warehouse on the river. What they had created within was quite remarkable. It was almost a mixture of sophisticated night club, modern and chic museum with the fun and frivolity of a ride at Disneyland. Guests, starting with almost 200 journalists from Asia’s finest publications, were led through the whole “journey” that Vertu had created. This was so much more than the launch of a new very snazzy phone. In some ways the phone is almost secondary to what Vertu want to do. Their essence is to offer to make people’s lives easier and to try to enhance it as well. Their core, and fundamentally what attracted us to become partners with them was they live and breathe good old fashioned customer service.

They offer the ability through their touch screen apps and Concierge service to get into the most exclusive events, concerts, restaurants in 200 key cities in the World. If you’re not busy one weekend at the touch of a button you organise a private jet to take you on a personal tour of Opus One in the morning, table at the French Laundry for a leisurely lunch (wear a jacket or they won’t let you in… don’t get me started on that!) then get the jet to drop you down to LA for the Oscars and Elton’s after show jamboree. No. Really.

Having trouble getting the real low down on the oligarch you are are trying to do a deal with, or stuck in an explosive situation where a country erupts overnight in civil war and BA decide to pull the flight? Vertu can get you out. Now these services will cost a tad more than a £15 top up bought from the local newsagent as it is by no means for all, but they can do it.

What are BBR and Vertu doing then together then? I can see that you wouldn’t believe it would be me dangling from a black ops helicopter, on the end of a winch scooping you off a roof of an Embassy in Tripoli as the bullets rained in, with a sarcastic remark and a waiter’s friend to fend off the hordes. You’d be right!

We have been working with Vertu for almost a year on developing what I believe to be the most intuitive and useful wine app out there. Not only can you view all the information on your favorite wines, vintages, producer profiles, ratings etc, but through a very user-friendly series of on-screen selection wheels highlight a wine, whatever vintage and quantity you fancy, and that request goes immediately to one of our teams in the UK, Shanghai, Hong Kong or Japan, and we’ll return availability and price as soon as possible. This is fluid and easy to use and is backed up by another part of the app which is through the phones camera. Now this is funky.  How often have you had a cracking bottle in a restaurant knowing that most restaurants make, er, a healthy margin on the vino and you wonder how much it really is!  Your wine woes are over. Take a photo of the label and through some technology I don’t understand it recognizes the label, whizzes it through to us and we have endeavored to get back to you with availability and price “before the bottle is empty”.  Now that’s rock n roll wine merchanting at its best !

Our part of “the journey” was a spectacular black void filled with an incredible fifty foot high mobile of white wine glasses hanging from the ceiling with thirst-enhancing Champagne bubbles projected onto them. Dozens of cleverly mounted LCD tv screens projected not only beautiful images of the new phone with our app on but also the BBC documentary “The Firm” that was made a few years ago running on a constant loop. This was somewhat disconcerting that every now and again my fat face would pop up and completely throw me off my stride when I was talking to a journalist or excited member of the elite guest list. Group after group of the press were funneled through to us and always-ready Rufus was on hand to entertain and enlighten. His fluent Mandarin received with rapturous applause and huge beaming smiles.

As 9 o’clock approached we were all hurried into the venue’s largest room. Almost 1000 people dressed to the nines, quaffing various exotic cocktails and Veuve Clicquot (we cracked on with our rather delicious 2004 Brane Cantenac that we’d brought along “just in case”!) The walls and ceiling were covered in projected stars to represent “the Constellation” and in the center of the room, towering over the throng was, what can only be described as a gigantic graphite, hollow meteorite, housing 3D images of the new phone.

The lights dimmed and dramatic music enveloped the hushed crowd. A male and female hologram walked across the stage with virtual thoughts drifting from their minds; exclusive hotels, in the pits with Ferrari, behind the wheel of a Lambo, dinner in BBRs cellars ( a small whoop from our gang) etc. The people turned into 10 feet high virtual phones and their touch screens “played with” by members of the crowd. The finale was the head honcho of Vertu, Perry Oosting and 5 Chinese celebrities (who I sadly did not recognize) but the crowd went wild. As the applause reverberated around the enormous hall, there was a thunderous explosion and one wall, which was actually a 100 meter long curtain dropped to reveal the spectacular cityscape of Shanghai. More whoops of glee and excitement  and then a DJ hologram emerged from centre stage and the evening really started, well for the party revelers. I have to say that the emergence of any DJ, real or not, has always been my cue to leave. I suggested a hasty exit to my merry amigos and they rather surprisingly agreed and we headed out into the cool Shanghai night, somewhat blown away by our new partners professionalism, creativity and flair. Bravo Vertu! It might take me a few years to save up for one of their marvelous phones but I have to say I’m sorely tempted… they are beautiful. Right then, off to Hong Kong for a few weeks to attend two huge trade fairs. Even Big Bob is there for the first time. Will keep you posted.

 Now we have all the cards on the table…let the games commence!
 
Ok so what do we know?
 
1. We LOVE  2010  Bordeaux (reds only really. The dry whites are a tad too puppy-fatty and the sweeties are just not that exciting, as general rule of thumb.) As a vintage 2010 is on a par with 2005 and, across the board, better; it’s more defined and more exciting than 2009 and the quality level goes far deeper and further down the hierarchy than last year. In the whole panoply of greatest vintages, 2010 is up there and proud. In my opinion it can hold its own with 2005, 1982 and 1961 (below). I have very little experience with fabled vintages like 1947, 1945, 1928, 1929 and 1900 but you have to believe with the care that is taken now, in the vineyards and Chais, and the technology that’s available now, these modern wines have to be at least as good, if not better.

2. Robert Parker has finally seen the light and agrees with us on his opinion of the 2010′s!*
” I have tasted enough wines from 2005, 2009 and 2010 to realize that these may be the three greatest Bordeaux vintages I have tasted in my career”. This will only drop blood in the water for the chateaux to seek out and feed upon.
 
3. There is very little Bordeaux stock in Bordeaux and even less at the chateaux (apart from a few notable exceptions last year who pushed their prices up beyond what the market could bear!) and therefore the Negociants need to stock up – and the only place than can buy is the chateaux.
 
4. Hong Kong and China did buy a huge volume of en primeur last year (a third of our entire campaign by value and 10% by volume) and they would have taken at least double IF we could have bought more.  The doomsayers believe this new market only wanted physical stock and that en primeur wouldn’t work there yet, but I think that this market will buy 2010 and even more than last year.
 
So with these things in mind I can’t see chateaux who sell at less than £1500 per case dropping their prices too much on 2009 and, given the quality, in many ways I’d have to agree with them. Shhhhh, keep that between us! However, with less hype than 2009, the world is not in quite as good a mood as this time last year and the fact that last year was also great, with the most expensive prices ever… I have a theory that those chateaux, even the First Growths, selling at c.£1500+ will think they’ll sell because the pre-£1500 per cases have sold, but will flounder a little on release and end up having to be slightly cheaper than 2009 in order to sell. It’s only a theory so please don’t shoot the theorist if it’s not the case.
 
Every time, in recent memory, that the vintage following a great year has been priced incorrectly ie. 1997 after 1996, 2001 after 2000, 2006 after 2005 and 2007 after 2006, the follow-on vintage hasn’t been as good. Can we have two incredible vintages back-to-back and at incredible prices? It would be unprecedented. Is the market big enough? Thirsty enough? I’d be really surprised if this is the case but we’ll know by the time Bordeaux shuts at the beginning of July. All I am certain of is that the wines are brilliant and there will be a lot of blood, sweat and tears shed over the next six weeks or so…..all I can hope for is that they won’t all be mine!

*Apart from Ch. Margaux, where he clearly left his tastebuds at the previous Chateau!

Find out all the latest updates from the Bordeaux 2010 campaign, including email alerts, new releases and wishlists.

Meanwhile, I see the annual fun and games have started already. As reported by Decanter.com yesterday, French wine critic Michel Bettane is threatening to boycott the primeurs unless ‘other’ critics are told to hold back on their scores before the main tastings. But one less body in Bordeaux next week won’t be a bad thing at all to be honest. We shall miss him. Consumers are a savvy bunch and they will wait until all the critics and dare I say it, even the little wine merchants, have their opinions in. They will triangulate their favourites, make their minds up and then sit back and watch the never ending tumbleweed of indecision as we all wait for the prices to be released.

But we all know nothing will happen until Big Bob unleashes his scores at the end of April so we all have plenty of time to twit/blog/face/flic/pigeon our ramblings back to HQ. Oh and please don’t take away Mr Suckling’s critique….priceless. 2010 BDX…Bring it on!

For the inside track on our thoughts and opinions, you can follow our progress during the week on Berrys’ Wine Blog and get up-to-the-minute reactions from me and the gang on Twitter @BigSiTheWineGuy as we leave each château.

Highlights of the week included watching the harvest come in, tasting the juice and hearing what the châteaux owners are predicting for Bordeaux 2010.

It was only the second year I have ever been asked to taste the new juice and we tasted 2010 from Palmer, Ducru, Cos, du Tertre and Giscours. Our customers, who are not used to tasting wine at this early stage, were blown away by the quality and richness and the enthusiasm of the châteaux owners was infectious and certainly rubbed off on them.

The Bordelais are obviously delighted with the vintage and very chuffed they are onto another winner. For me, stylistically it’s too early to say but it could be closer to 2005 than 2009 – cooler than the exuberant style of 2009. However, some châteaux owners were holding off picking and with the temperature up at 27 degrees last week some might have a problem with the alcohol levels in the wine being high.

Price of the 2010s was mentioned. Historically after an incredibly good vintage the Bordelais never get it right, as we saw with 2006 which was way too high and didn’t sell as well. It is early days as the wine is still fermenting in tank but one property owner told me they have had 600 Chinese visitors through the doors in recent weeks, so they know they will have a buyer whatever the price!

As well as the new vintage, we tasted lots of wines from 2008 and I was astonished how the wines have come on since my original tasting – they are much better than I remember! There was more weight and richness and, in particular, the Mouton-Rothschild stable (Clerc-Milon, Le Petit Mouton et al). With the rise in demand of Carruades de Lafite I can sense these wines will go the same way – so buy them while they are still cheap.

My next visit to Bordeaux will be in February when we will get a much better idea of the 2010 vintage. Meanwhile, Bruno Borie from Ducru popped into our Hampshire cellars this week for a staff tasting. Watch the video for his thoughts on the new vintage.

So I see the prices of the 2009s as very high but sustainable and likely to rise in the short-term, as supply is minuscule and demand at fever pitch. There are several major reasons why I don’t see them subsiding: Firstly, the technology advantages are helping make far better wines than in the past; Secondly, the châteaux are holding far more stock back and dripping cases on the market rather than a deluge and, of course, why would they crash their own wines’ value? But probably the most significant factor is that in 2005 we did not have China as a massive player in the fine wine world, as we do now. What is slightly scary to me, as a wine-lover as well as a merchant, is that we have not even seen the tip of the iceberg of demand from this incredibly exciting market yet. If you think that the top 100 “brands” of Bordeaux only produce a tiddly one million cases and are actually making less year-on-year as they try and improve their already exceptionally high quality……..we ain’t seen nothing yet!!!

We still have about over 60% of the wines to release their prices. Also let’s face facts, they are getting pretty chunky on price now and this tactic is only partially working – eg. Calon Ségur released its price 110% up on last year today and sold out in minutes. Prieure Lichine came out at the négociants 50% more than last year and not a case sold so far. My fear is that as the Bordelaise try to cram all the releases in before July we shall have a huge “bus effect” which doesn’t help you very much as you are bombarded by tedious emails from your account managers and makes buying a nightmare.

It has always been a strange phenomenon that the châteaux’s reluctance to just “get on with it” and bring a price to market is in part economics but mainly because they can’t be seen to be cheaper than their geographical neighbour. I do see it from the châteaux’s point of view of course: if you make 30,000 cases of a top Médoc, a few Euros either way is a large amount of cash, HOWEVER it should never take this long to take that leap of faith.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings, here comes another bus…..what a shocker! We can’t get enough people aboard…..ie. not enough allocations!! Don’t get me started……..Keep an eye out for your account managers’ emails and the homepage updates. It’s going to get pretty frantic from here on in…

However, as we have always maintained, Parker, although a great critic and undoubtedly one of the most influential men of our times, is simply one man.  One man who’s opinion affects an entire industry, so when he gives the brilliant 09 Ch. Latour 98-100 points but, in the next breath, awards the same status to certain Right Bank wines which were, in our (team’s!) opinion, over-extracted, over-alcoholic and stand-your-spoon-up-in-them thick, we can’t help but wonder whether being all things to all men is simply not a sensible tactic (the wines we are talking about shall remain nameless). The sad fact is that most people don’t read Parker’s notes, they just care about the score, so if they enjoy the classy, subtle elegance of Ch. Latour and then decide to try another of his more “exotic” 100-pointers, they are bound to be disappointed, and vice versa of course. To me it would seem very helpful to the reader that he identifies the “pea soupers” (PS?) as Modern Style (MS) perhaps. Anyway, enough rambling on, the report will only add fuel to the 2009 fire. Message to Chateaux….Come on ….let’s get on with it!

Find out about Jancis’ top three value tips for Bordeaux 2009, which was the best wine I have ever tasted en primeur and what wines I plan to buy. Also hear more on what effect social media is having on this year’s campaign.

For  more information about Bordeaux 2009, including a full list of tasting notes and how to sign up to receive email alerts, visit bbr.com

Let me briefly explain the process that we have at BBR when we are buying En Primeur Bordeaux. Essentially, there is the same core to our buying team of six as there was 10 years ago (above); Alun Griffiths MW (Buying Director), Nick Pegna (MD of BBR Hong Kong) and myself are still hanging on in there (just!), but aided in the last few years with the new blood of Max Lalondrelle (BBR Bordeaux Buyer), Mark Ross ( BBR’s Commercial Manager) and the long-suffering Catriona Felstead (Manager of our Marketing Department and Studying for her MW) .

It really is a team effort, we all write about each wine, each give it a score out of 20, and if it gets an average of 15 or more it’s a potential buy. The buying decision is then based on how much it costs and, in a year like 2009, whether or not can we find the wine.

Bordeaux works in a very strange way, in that if we have not bought a wine the year before, we may be unable to source any this year if other merchants follow their “allocation”. There are numerous chateaux this year that we have not bought before and we shall do our best to secure them, but sadly there are no guarantees – but I’d prefer to tell you about wines we think are great rather than just what we should be able to offer!

The dynamic of the buying team works remarkably well. I think we agreed with each other on 95% of the 300 or so wines we tried last week. Now, I’m not saying six experienced pallates are collectively better than one American critic of course………………..but it’s a lot more fun and I’d hate to do it on my own. We also try and get to make personal visits to as many chateaux as six days allow; I think it was 55 this year. Here you get to taste with the wine maker, ask questions, understand the philosophy of the maker, hear about new techniques, processes etc. rather than tasting them en mass in a room with hundreds of samples. It really does focus the mind on the few wines that the Chateau has to offer. We tend to just stick to the vintage of the time, even when glorious older wines are offered (that’s tricky to say no to!) but that really does take you off-piste and doesn’t help your fatigued palate.

Right, enough waffle. 2009 is brilliant! There, that was easy, I don’t know what I was procrastinating about. Is it better than 2005? Across the board? No. The dry whites are a little too generous, plump if you will; delicious to drink this summer and next but I’d be concerned about their freshness beyond that. The Sauternes are generally a little light, with a few exceptions, and quite a lot of the Merlot-dominant wines of the right bank, who left their grapes on the vines a tad too long, are off balance with very harsh, high alcoholic levels. Also the lesser red wines of 2009 are not as soft and yummy as their counterparts from 2005. However, and this is a HUGE however, having said this, certain chateaux have crafted some truly exceptional wines that match, top and, in a few cases, eclipse their amazing 2005’s. In many cases 2009 will be the finest vintage certain chateaux have ever made.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m not certain, but my instinct says that this is not going to be a swift, painless and cheap few months that lie ahead of us all. I say this as a wine lover and as a merchant. Virtually every Chateau will await Parker’s declaration at the end of this month (don’t get me started on this debacle!!) and the very best will await the unveiling of their new babies at VinExpo held in Hong Kong at the end of May. Some will get it spot on, others will completely miss their price and timing of release slot, and others will release at the right price and double it overnight. It’s going to be a blast. What I do know is that whatever happens, those who buy will end up with some totally sublime wines in their cellar and at all price points. I have compiled three lists of wines from our endeavours:

• Our collective BBR Best Wines from a qualitative point of view ….The Best of the Best
• Our Best Value Wines to buy from 2009 (where we feel prices won’t be bonkers)
• What I want to add to my cellar ISP (‘If Sanity Prevails’!!) on a reasonable budget

Full tasting notes for each of the wines will be up on bbr.com over the next few days (watch this space). If a wine you like is not on the list we may not have tasted it or it didn’t make the cut, but please let me know and I can check our collective notes.