Austria’s 2011 vintage, echoed across much of Europe, was characterised by a dry spring (and season overall), tricky June/July followed by a late summer but early harvest of fruit rich in phenolics (tannins), low in acidity, relatively low in alcohol, and with little evidence of botrytis. On paper then a vintage perfectly aligned for the earlier ripening varieties of Gruner Veltliner versus that of Riesling (just as Barbera seemed to shine brighter than Nebbiolo in the Langhe…)

It was a vintage that played into the hands of those whose market relies heavily on the local ‘heuriger’ tradition of drinking the freshest wine, as served in taverns across the land from the important skiing hub of Innsbruck, before the snow’s thawed, through to the swish wine bars of Vienna. Consequently many of the Federspiel-style wines are bottled barely out of the womb of the winery, from January through to March, following the September harvest; the fact that it was an early harvest proving a bonus. Indeed one of the Wachau’s leading estates, Prager, sells almost 50% of its production locally as ‘Federspiel’ (between 11.5% & 12.5% abv), while their riper ‘Smaragd’ (dry, unchaptalized of min. 12.5% abv) wines are largely exported.

Josef Ehmoser is another impressive estate that seems to do quite well out of this tradition, being located on deep, soft loess soils of the Wagram region that lies between the Wachau and Vienna. Wagram’s a new region (to me) of 2,400 ha (vs. Wachau’s 1,400ha) that seems more adept (even more than Kamptal?) at producing creamy, white flower Gruner Veltliners for earlier drinking. And if the quality being produced by young Josef and partner Martina Ehmoser is anything to go by then we shall surely hear more about the Wagram in future, especially as the loess’s ability to retain water favours non irrigation viticulture.

Branching out from the more famous zones of ‘Lower Austria’ (Wachau, Krems and Kamptal), I headed south of Vienna to N. Burgenland where along the sand and gravel ‘banks’ of the Neusiedlersee Lake, undulating with vineyards I came across a strange, cultish movement named ‘Pannobile’; named after the hot Pannonian Plains to the east and the nobility of its native grapes. The Barbera-like Ste.Laurent thrives here while Blaufränkisch struggles in the absence of clay. Ironically the ‘Pannobile’ movement, founded during the mid 1990s, is better known for producing big black, overly-extracted blended wines that pander to a mono-dimensional, international palate. No surprise then to discover that the Pannobile producers have ties with a similarly marketing-oriented, altruistic group of Piedmontese Langhe growers called ‘Insieme’, led by cantina Elio Altare. They too like to talk ‘typicity’ while producing wines that wouldn’t look out of place among the folds of California’s Sierra Nevada Foothills. The plot (and must!) thickens when one learns that a few Austrian (white wine!) producers have adopted the ‘Insieme’ viticultural practice of cutting bunches in half to achieve higher sugar/alcohol and lower acidity levels (at the expense of regional identity and balance)!

Far more convincing are the fine Blaufränkisch reds from the Mittelburgenland (c. 2,000ha) and Südburgenland (500ha) subzones an hour’s drive south. The former benefits from predominantly calcareous clay deposits to give minerally rich noble wines that really do have much in common with Piedmontese Nebbiolo. Since the early 2000s Roland Velich at Moric has been skilfully sourcing the finest fruit from the villages of Neckenmarkt and Lutzmannsburg among others, and vinifying them in a traditional manner (long maceration in large oak) to give statuesque wines.

Further south still, on the border quite literally with Hungary, is the unspoilt enclave of Eisenberg, lying at the heart of the Südburgenland zone; a viticultural zone still emerging from the shadow of former Communist Hungary nextdoor. Its steep, almost overhanging vineyards reminded me of Chablis while the green slate soil, and the lush blueberry character of their Blaufränkisch wines speak more of Central Otago! What’s more there’s a surfeit of old vines on offer as the older generation move on, a few of which are being snapped up by the likes of Christoph Wachter, of Wachter-Wiesler. He’s a young, purposeful type who’s spent his formative years exploring the various ways of vinifying Blaufränkisch to capture its regional identity, and now is content to leave the barrique behind for the botte grande!

‘Next week I’ll be reporting on how the 2009 Barbaresco and 2008 Barolo vintages are looking ahead of our September event and offer’

David Jones

The location – The Hoddington Arms in Upton Grey, just North of Farnham. Armed with a selection of carefully selected Fine Wines (having agreed a very fair corkage fee) six of Berrys’ finest settled in for a great night!

The pub was welcoming and homely and after a quick G&T at the bar (very important to cleanse the palate) we were shown to our table. The food at the Hoddington Arms is fairly classic in style but it is very well done and the ingredients used are clearly top class. We ordered some bread and shell-on prawns to sustain us whilst we studied the menu and cracked open the first bottle, UKC Berrys’ own Grand Cru Champagne - always guaranteed to get the evening off to a good start.

The starters arrived just in time for bottle number two, 2006 Riesling, Cuvée Frédéric Emile, F.E. Trimbach. This is a real favorite of mine, dry with rasping acidity, it’s incredibly clean and pure and was very tasty alongside my sea bass, cod and ginger fishcakes! It’s the freshness that makes Riesling such a wonderful food wine, under appreciated by us Brits I think. I must admit to food envy, the mushroom dish ordered by everyone else looked great.

Rose Veal was chosen by all as the main, a really good dish with a wonderful mushroom sauce. 2007 Nuits-St Georges, Clos St Marc, 1er Cru, Domaine M & P Rion was a great match with this, bright red fruit characters (in the typical forward Rion style) and the acidity to cut through the richness. ‘07’s are beginning to show well now and often don’t receive the praise they deserve. It’s not a vintage like ’05 or ’09 but they are pretty, fresh and very approachable now so do give them a chance.

The evening was rounded off nicely by a 2001 Ch. de Malle, Sauternes, to go with dessert.  This is a great wine for the price from a superb vintage; viscous and rich, ripe and honeyed with plenty of acidity to keep it fresh, this is definitely worth trying! The desserts were exceptionally good, I ordered a rhubarb Crème Brulee but I inevitably had a mouthful of everyone’s and there wasn’t a bad one to be found!

A great meal all in all, and worthy of a strong recommendation.

A selection of other bottles may also have bolstered the quantity consumed which goes some way to explaining my blurred vision. A shot of Sambuca for the road certainly didn’t help me either but I do remember giving David a manly hug!

Cheers Jonesy!

Bringing members together is a great way to get the discussions going so on the evening of Monday 26^th March, 100 Wine Club members and their guests were invited to the Napoleon Cellar for the annual Wine Club Walkaround tasting.

Members of the Wine Club buying team were on hand to pour the wines and talk guests through the range. It’s a great opportunity for members to speak to some of the leading lights of the wine trade (how often can you pick a Master of Wine’s brain?) but equally, it’s interesting for the buyers to hear direct feedback from members about the wines on show.

David Berry Green, one of our buyers now based in Italy seeking out new wines for Berrys, said:

‘I was really encouraged by the response to the range of new Italian wines presented to Wine Clubbers: from the sunny and salty Sardinian Altea Illotto Bianco; the peachy minerally Timorasso from Piedmont’s La Colombera; the refreshing soft berry roll of Laiolo Reginin’s Barbera d’Asti; and Puglia’s juicy fresh 2007 Primitivo Gioia del Colle from Pietraventosa. Perhaps I was dreaming but I’m sure someone said it was the best table!’

We showed 20 wines, across five tables, from the upcoming Club cases to give members a sneak preview of what to expect in this month’s delivery. As usual, the selection on show mirrored the diverse selection in each Club case, with an emphasis on the traditional wine producing regions of France, Italy and Spain.

I hope that those who came enjoyed the evening as much as I did. Chatting to some new faces as well as catching up with long standing members who attend this event faithfully each year made the two hours fly by. I managed to narrow down the 20 wines to my top five favourites on the night:

2007 Condado De Haza, Ribera Del Duero, Spain
2006 Ch. Talbot, St Julien, Bordeaux
2010 Ch. La Garde Blanc, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeax
2007 St Joseph, Silice, Domaine Coursodon
2009 Derthona, Colli Tortonesi, La Colombera, Piedmont

Wine Club events are exclusive to Wine Club members and their guests. If you’d like to discover more about Wine Club please visit our website.

• 3 things about Burgundy which particularly struck me during the trip (and why):

1. The landscape. It’s one thing to see pictures of vineyards in books but quite another to drive round them, to see how close together the villages are, how subtle the undulations of the land, and how in many instances there isn’t so much as a wall separating one vineyard from another, and no distinguishing features between the rows of vines. We talk a lot, especially in Wine School, about the top of the slope, mid-slope, bottom of the slope, and the differences between the grands and premiers crus but you only realise seeing it in the flesh how tiny the geographical differences are.
2. In contrast to the above point, the soil: books, articles, tasting notes, really don’t emphasise enough how different the soil is within a few hundred metres. They subtly hint at differences in soil, but they don’t show you red soil, white soil, brown soil, soil with enormous stones in it, fine-grained powdery soil, yellow soil etc along a road 5 kilometres in length. I really wasn’t expecting this, I thought that most of the differences in soils were below the surface and barely noticeable so it was a bit of a shock.
3. Working in vineyards is hard work; this I mainly deduced from the very rich local cuisine, clearly a by-product of a high demand for calories. The fact that despite this most vignerons in Burgundy choose to harvest by hand, prune by hand, not use weedkillers etc is testament to how much they really want to look after their vines/ the land.

• 3 producers I visited to enthuse about (and why):

1. Domaine Vougeraie: I think here the juxtaposition of the very traditional and very modern really caught my attention and made me think. Pierre Vincent was so very enthusiastic about biodynamics, the health of the soil, his herb garden, etc and yet at the same time the winery was I think the largest and most modern that we visited, with shiny new equipment, gleaming floors, and clearly a huge amount of investment in a relatively large operation (in Burgundian terms). I had not before associated genuine biodynamic farming with (relatively) large-scale, modern wineries, except in terms of a cynical marketing ploy so it was quite an eye-opener to hear Pierre speak about it, and see that it can be done in a modern way. I also really liked the Vougeraie wines; even the ones that didn’t appeal to my taste still had a certain something about them that made me think I might in future be able to like them.
2. Benjamin Leroux at Comte Armand: M. Leroux was very welcoming, smiling and very relaxed which was lovely; some winemakers are clearly (understandably) a bit nervous having people come and taste their wines and have to explain their philosophy. He seemed very happy to answer even rather basic questions, and was very open about things he’d tried in winemaking that he had concluded wouldn’t work; eg ploughing by horse.
3. Benoit Droin: I particularly liked this tasting as it was very ordered, tasting all his wines from the same vintage in succession. It was amazing to be able to taste the subtle differences in the different Chablis 1er and grand crus, as well as to taste wines from tank. A complete contrast to, for example, Picq immediately afterwards (though tasting older wines was also fascinating).

• 3 wines I tasted (or drank) to enthuse about (and why):

1. Loichet’s 2010 Ladoix, 1er Cru, Les Grechons. I liked this wine for 2 reasons; one, because it’s quite obscure, and I love unusual wines, from lesser-known regions that are cheaper. And secondly the flavour and intensity of the aromas was wonderful; this may perhaps be because we tasted a lot (relatively speaking) of similar wines on the trip, so the Ladoix’s different character made it stand out more. That said it was from the first producer that day so my palate wasn’t too fatigued when we tasted it. I liked the exotic fruit character and a subtle spiciness that reminded me of white pepper. It was very hard to believe it was a white Burgundy and for that reason I thought it was great (breaking the mould).
2. The 1991 Pommard, 1er Cru, Les Rugiens, Domaine Joseph Voillot we had for lunch in Volnay. I’ve not tasted much Burgundy and certainly not many aged wines so this was something of a revelation as the first aged wine of the trip; the nose was amazingly concentrated and the palate completely different to all the wines we’d tasted up to then, with lovely ripe fruit and fantastic complexity and melted oak and a tiny hint of the manure people talk about in Burgundy but in a nice way. Made me understand why some people like Burgundy so much!
3. At the risk of never being allowed on another Berrys’ trip every again I think my 3^rd amazing wine from the trip was the unnamed wine we tasted in Benoit Droin’s winery that he was making in demi-johns for a friend. Obviously this wasn’t the best-tasting wine of the trip, but firstly to see him not only look at and sniff the jugs when he opened them, but also listen to them to see if fermentation had finished was quite amazing, as was being able to see that some of the jugs were cloudy while others were clear. It gave a “view” on winemaking and fermentation that you don’t get with oak or stainless steel. Secondly tasting the wine was fascinating, to be able to smell the malolactic fermentation taking place, and taste how it hadn’t quite had its full effect on the palate yet was amazing. Obviously we had lots of other memorable wines and spectacular grand crus but, though delicious, none of them scored quite such high nerd marks as that wine.

By Barbara Drew

Two issues: terroir, and in particular ‘Crus’, along with the sometimes sticky point of how to communicate the wine’s style (dry through to sweet) seem to be preoccupying the producers. The two would appear to be related: they both influence sales (or the lack of).

The first has arisen, as one of the above pointed out, because of the simple fact that Alsace Grand Crus are not selling out. Everyone knows that when the Alsace Grand Cru system was created in the 1980s it was a botched job that ridiculed the otherwise serious French notion of what a ‘Grand Cru’ meant. Doomed from the start as negociants. Hugel, Trimbach et al. publicly scuppered the process, it played into the hands of the dominant cooperatives who wanted to have their cake and eat it. But then as Severine Schlumberger neatly put it: Alsace effectively missed the ‘train of fame’ (the ‘gravy train’?!) that had already called in at other stations, notably Bordeaux and Burgundy in the early 20^th century. Alsace caught a later (delayed) one during the 1960s by which time it was all about supplying the (domestic) market with volume. Today, of the 6000 domaines only 250 bottle their own wine, yet the domestic market has changed & the cooperatives have been slow to adapt to a new, export world where quality is valued over volume.

Encouragingly, moves to improve the overall quality of Grand Cru wines are in swing, even if the Syndicates of growers overseeing each of the 51 Crus are slow to change. Yields are now at 55hl/ha or 61hl/ha, down from 66hl. Last year, the President of the GC Association, Olivier Humbrecht MW, persuaded its members to accept a ban on acidification and chaptalisation; this has just been agreed by the AVA (Association des Vins d’Alsace) so now must be presented to the INAO before becoming law. Olivier and others are also considering the legalities and technicalities of producing single vineyard or ‘lieu-dit’ wines, whose yields are currently fixed at 68 hl/ha, with a view to creating a Premier Cru classification.

Winegrower, and ex-President of the Grand Cru Association, Jean-Michel Deiss has been banging the terroir drum for thirty years, championing the superior expression of the single vineyard, lieu-dit or Cru over that of any one grape. His range is thus split between single grape AOC Alsace wines, ‘Premier Cru’ (currently illegal!) and Grand Cru; the Crus being blends of grapes (‘complanted’) that since 2005 do not need to be written on the label. Others haven’t been quite so provocative yet it was great news to hear that two leading negociants, Trimbach and Hugel now plan to release single vineyard Grand Cru wines; with Etienne Hugel putting the change of stance down to the change of generation.

From a buyer’s (and seller’s) perspective I would welcome a shift of emphasis in Alsace from that of the grape back to the vineyard (Cru); especially when one considers that the law promoting single variety wines was only passed in 1975.  Take for example the fine Kitterlé vineyard, owned by Schlumberger and Dirler-Cadé among others. I recall tasting Schlumberger’s Gewurztraminer and the Riesling versions but taking away with me only this image of Kitterlé as a great, minerally-pure vineyard; not whether the Gewurztraminer example was better than the Riesling. Logistically, you could thus argue that  there’s sense to wrap all one’s grapes under the same vineyard bottling (rather than split them up between different single varieties) to ensure you’ve a sufficient quantity to vinify; from a tasting perspective I would welcome fewer wines to sample at each property, focussing more on the vineyard attributes; and for sales, surely having fewer labels to sell, as one emphasizes the vineyard before the grape would make for a more effective offer (and year in, year out too!)? Grape labelled wines, or ‘Vins de Fruits – Vins de l’Instant’ as Deiss (and Ostertag) refer to them, would still have a role where blending is required across different terroirs (for volume and early drinking).

The issue of communicating wine style (dry to sweet) still dogs the region. The promoting body CIVA (Conseil Interprofessional des Vins d’Alsace) favours a 9 point scale while the likes of Zind-Humbrecht and Josmeyer favour 5, taking into consideration the combined effects of residual sugar, alcohol, acidity, and pH on the actual (organoleptic) taste of the wine. Makes sense doesn’t it? But then how does one explain to a customer that a young wine showing ‘moelleux’ on its label will in fact be ‘dry’ come the time to drink it, following your advice to lay it down in the cellar!?

Finally, four words about the 2010 vintage: small crop, excellent quality!

Next week I’ll be reporting the latest news from Austria

Elegance and subtlety are key; the courtesy and patience of the people is reflected in their vinous tastes, itself echoed in the local cuisine and the attention paid to the finer points of detail.  I now think that some of the more powerful of our Rhône wines may not necessarily have the same impact as the most elegant of Burgundies. It is supremely logical that the fine weave of a Blanc de Blanc Champagne from R & L  Legras, or a crisp Barbadillo Manzanilla sherry should find favour. Indeed it was slightly intimidating to be presented, at the beginning of a seminar on sherry, with a complete book on the subject written by one of the participants. I have absolutely no doubt that his knowledge on the subject far exceeded my own, yet he was careful not to show it and we had a very interesting discussion on the merits of  En Rama styles, of aged sherries and on the development of the Almacenista category.

No shortage of expertise then, but was it to be isolated and restricted to one or two sommeliers and aficionados? My over-all impression is that this does not appear to be the case; the guests at the dinners and lunches were mainly from the burgeoning ranks of BBRJ private customers and their enthusiasm and interest was more than impressive. The 20^th floor of the smart Ark Hills Club is decorated by an unrivalled collection of Le Corbusier water-colours, originals needless to say, and, dare I say it, standing the test of time more than some of his more famous buildings. An impressive location, then, for a Dinner where we tasted Champagnes from the suitably regal 2002 vintage. The marginal victory, amongst the wines, of the Cristal Rosé over the Bollinger and Pol Roger Rosé entirely matched my own preferences.  Later in the week dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel was a memorable moment to introduce the charms of older White Rioja, in this case the 1987 Tondonia Reserva, in addition to the great Hermitage of Jean-Louis Chave. It came as no surprise that one of the guests had a comprehensive vertical collection of this wine and had, a month before, visited the great man in Mauves. Photographic evidence of the encounter was also provided, needless to say. The Dinner was even more memorable to me, as I experienced my first earthquake; the epicentre was not that far away, and as it touched 6.1 on the Richter scale, it was officially the second most significant of the year… and a poignant reminder of the terrible events of almost exactly twelve months  previously. Despite being on the 31^st floor and despite what I considered to be significant strong motion, I seemed to be the only one visibly and literally shaken by the tremor.

So, all in all, a memorable visit. I may have missed the cherry blossom by a couple of weeks, but the city was a feast of warmth and colour. A moving experience in so many ways.  As I sat next to the bed at three in the morning, a latter-day Bill Murray in hotel slippers and kimono, deprived of sleep and wondering how much I really knew about Montilla Moriles, I was more than surprised not to be overwhelmed by a sense of bewilderment and fatigue, rather a gentle elation at the privilege of being able to discover a new culture and its charming people.

Olivier’s confidence has grown noticeably over the four years we have been dealing with him and his wines, and with good reason. He knows that he has filled his boots with a superlative range of wines in 2010, with his usual hallmarks of seductive rich fruit nonetheless faithful to each terroir, but now with an extra degree of refinement. As well as his own confidence – and mine – in the wines, he is happy too with the reaction of the international press, notably Allen Meadows, Steve Tanzer and Jancis Robinson.

The recipe begins with close management in the vineyards, where almost all the plots enjoy the benefit of old vines, from 40 years old for the Meursault and Puligny to 80+ for Gevrey-Chambertin Cazetiers and Mazis-Chambertin. Olivier pays according to the maximum permitted yield from a given plot, rather than the low crop level which is actually set. During vinification the wines are very lightly handled, with a good proportion of stems included to maintain a lively thread throughout, while the barrels are made to order by master cooper Stéphane Chassin, who comes to taste the new vintage before deciding what type of toasting will suit each individual wine.

It is hard to pick particular favourites, but as well as the wines mentioned above I really enjoyed the dancing elegance of the Chambolle Lavrottes, the suave and sensual Gevrey-Chambertin les Champeaux, and similarly among the grands crus the precision of Clos de la Roche and the velvet Bonnes Mares. All three whites showed a fresh dramatic tension which sets them apart from earlier vintages.

This morning we spent our last day of Bordeaux 2011 En Primeur week with a 9am start at Ch. la Mission Haut-Brion, tasting both the Grand Vin and La Mission itself. We’d spent the journey from Margaux to Graves preparing ourselves for the final First Growth and discussing that there have been three or four wines that we are really impressed with this week – and that rival some of the Firsts in terms of quality. Ch. Haut-Brion’s viticultural history can be traced back further than its Médoc First Growth counterparts and the wine this year was notably fragrant on the nose and suitably fresh. Interestingly, we also felt La Mission’s deep black cherry and cassis aromas were all nicely balanced and the nose particularly charming. It is certainly one to consider. Haut-Brion found that the Cabernet Sauvignon suffered with the heat and drought in spring which necessitated strict selection in the vineyard and the crop was further reduced by the optical sorting machine which removed an extra 5% of the volume. The properties new wine, Quintus, was well thought of too and as the winemakers start to learn about this different terroir just 20% of the yield was included in the first blend.

The penultimate property we took in on our trip was the wonderful Domaine de Chevalier, who are one of the few properties in Graves to produce both reds and whites – even if reds do account for 80% of the production. The 2011 red Grand Vin is simply oustanding, glorious silky tannins, seductive, silky and a razor-like precision. Really seductive, beautiful Claret and without question one of the wines of the week, a feat we would also bestow on the marvellous wines of Ch. Haut-Bailly. Veronique Sanders has managed to create something special again this year, the wines remain true to their hallmark of smooth, silkiness but this example displays a  lovely fragrant nose, generous wealth of fruit, focus, concentration and exceptional tannins too. This 2011 promises to be a wine to rival all the ‘Super Seconds’ and a couple of the First Growths too. La Parde de Haut-Bailly was really singing as well, with an abundance of generous juicy fruit and richness.

A perennial underachiever, Ch. Smith Haut Lafitte has been transformed in recent times with significant investment in the winery and specialist consultants overhauling practices. The results have been very positive and their 2011 rouge is aromatic with soft tannins and ripe fruit. Their production is down this year to at approximately 100,000 bottles compared to 120,000 last year, which as usual with this vintage is a result of a smaller drop and careful selections. The blanc is generously fresh, backed up by a good weight of fruit.

2011 Bordeaux is not necessarily going to be an easy vintage to comprehend. There are many beautiful wines, but clearly there isn’t the overall level of excellence found in the recent 2009s and 2010s. Those who have taken great care in their grape selection and prudently tended their vines have achieved great success and these are the wines that we would most like to recommend to our customers, with the usual caveat – so long as the price is right. Pleasingly, the feedback we have received from the vignerons suggests the campaign will be customer focussed, quick to get started and fairly priced.

We fly back to the UK this afternoon and we will take time to reflect on the wines we have tasted while the teams who look after our private clients from the UK, Hong Kong and Japan also head to the South West over the next couple of weeks. Once all of the opinions are collected, we will release our vintage report, individual tasting notes and details of which wine we intend to recommend as well as  ‘Best Buy’ categories before the first wines are released.

The evening tasting set us up nicely for the tasting of two other First Growths and many Super-Seconds on Thursday Morning and we started at Ch. Lafite Rothschild (which is typically very difficult to taste En Primeur – Mr Chevalier often mentions that he would prefer to show his wines in June when they have begun to flourish and this is perhaps even more relevant this year). Ch. Duhart-Millon shone, with an abundance of juice on offer. Ch. Montrose was next up and we were particularly impressed by the second wine, La Dame which showed lovely fruit (72% Merlot and 50% of the crop this year, usually just 38% – much stricter selections having taken place). The Grand Vin yield is 10 hectare liters per hectare down this year, at 35 hectare litres, and it is very well integrated with oak, fruit, silky tannins and overall elegance. It is perhaps one of the most harmonious wines yet.

The quality of wines on display this morning was further enhanced by those at Cos d’Estournel (attractive berry fruit perfume on the nose of the Les Pagodes, with seemless tannins and good fruit on the finish – pretty serious for a second wine. Only 30% of the crop went into the first wine this year and it is the smallest production in terms of cases since 1991.  It is very serious, fulsome and brooding). Ch. Pontet-Canet have excelled with a crop which is 25% down on last year (a wonderfully perfumed nose, beautiful integrated tannins, nice ripe and pure fruit), whilst Ch. Mouton Rothschild was rich, decadent, sweet and generous with extraordinary length -a very good wine, which achieves a layered complexity that one would expect from a First Growth wine.

A pleasing morning was rounded off in some style by the wines of Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou, where the La Croix was showing nicely, perhaps the best ever according to our Fine Wine Director Simon Staples. Ducru itself was incredibly delicious, aged for 18 months in 100% new oak, it’s wonderfully fresh and beautifully constructed. Simply a joy to taste.

In the afternoon we were treated to superb tastings at Ch. Haut-Bages Libéral (25% reduced yield in 2011, it is full and juicy with substance and body, lots of black fruit – a very tasty wine), Ch. Léoville and Langoa-Barton (both very much on form and likely to be in our buying lists) and Ch. Léoville-Poyferré (generous fruit, extremely fine tannins and a promising weight on the palate). Ch. Pichon-Baron has also created a super wine in 2011 (perfumed nose, lots of fruit on the palate and a good balancing acidity/level of tannin on the finish) and this completed our portfolio of perfect wines, confirming to us that despite the obvious difficulties, and unfair benchmarking against 2009 and 2010, this vintage has produced some really good wines too this year.

Tonight we spend the evening tasting at Ch. Léoville Las Cases, one of the largest and oldest classified Growths in the Médoc and another 2ème Cru Classé in name who regularly produce 1er Cru Classé quality wines. Look out for our comments about the wines and the experience in tomorrow’s blog.

Our last daily blog will be live this afternoon and for up-to-the-minute tasting snippets and thoughts from the team, follow Simon Staples, our Fine Wine Director, on Twitter @BigSiTheWineGuy.

Starting at the most northerly point of the Right Bank, Bourg and Blaye lie up river near to the southern tip of the great estuary itself, while you have to travel much further south to the banks of the River Dordogne before you stumble across Fronsac and Canon Fronsac, then Pomerol and Lalande de Pomerol, and finally St Emilion and its satellites.

It is the fleshy Merlot grape which dominates this side of the river, which is sometimes supported by Cabernet Franc in the blend (although at the famous St Emilion property Château Cheval Blanc, Cabernet Franc predominates). The soils are more mixed than on the Left Bank, with clay on top of limestone underpinning the rich, fruity wines of Pomerol. Styles vary more in St Emilion, depending on the predominance of sand in the lower lying slopes, or limestone on the hillsides and plateau.

Another difference this side of the river is the size of the wine estates. The grand châteaux of the Left Bank are mostly large estates, whereas the Right Bank properties tend to be much smaller. This is demonstrated by their production: typically Château Lafite-Rothschild will produce 45,000 cases per annum, whereas Pomerol’s Château Petrus makes around 2,000-3,500 cases.

The 1855 Médoc Classification did not include any Right Bank properties, which is why you do not find any First Growths here. However, St Emilion has its own classification system and whereas the Médoc Classification was set in stone in 1855, St Emilion revises and updates its classifications every 10 years or so. Rather than being judged on price, as with the 1855 Classification, châteaux have to apply for inclusion and are judged by a tasting of their wines from the previous 10 vintages. The Classification groups the best wines into two categories, Premier Grand Cru Classé (which is sub-divided into the rather unglamorous tiers ‘A’ and ‘B’), and the less illustrious Grand Cru Classé. St Emilion may boast Bordeaux’s most meritocratic and up-to-date classification, but the names for its various tiers leave a great deal to be desired. It also leads to much confusion between the overly grandiose and frankly misleading use of Grand Cru for wines that are often distinctly ordinary and barely better than basic appellation wine, and the normally vastly superior Grand Cru Classé whose name is virtually the same (the ‘A’ and ‘B’ sub-categories of Premier Grand Cru Classé are clumsy and rarely used)

In the 2006 Classification, the following châteaux were recognised as the best:

Premiers Grands Crus Classés (A)
Château Ausone
Château Cheval Blanc

Premiers Grands Crus Classés (B)
Château Canon
Château Belair
Château Clos Fourtet
Château Trotte Vieille
Château Angélus
Château Figeac
Château Beau-Séjour Bécot
Château la Gaffelière
Château Beauséjour
Château Magdelaine
Château Pavie
Château Pavie-Macquin
Château Troplong-Mondot

There has never been a classification of Pomerol wines, although the following châteaux are considered some of the best:

Château Pétrus
Vieux Château Certan
Le Pin
Château l’Eglise-Clinet
Château la Conseillante
Château l’Evangile
Château Lafleur`
Château Trotanoy
Château Nenin
Château Beauregard
Château Feytit-Clinet
Château le Gay