Felt a bit like an April fool was being played on me, having left Masham at 1am this morning. Tried to get a couple of hours sleep but as soon as I got into bed the biggest and loudest firework display kicked off but at least the children slept through it.
Numerous people trying to catch taxis in Masham as I drove through and 3 hours and 10 minutes later checked in at Luton Airport. Even better no queue at check in and only 10 minutes through security. Bad news was I had to wait 15 Minutes for starbucks to open at 5am!
Plane was packed managed to get a little rest before we were landing, picked up the car and onto the first tasting of the week. I am staying with Bill Blatch in Bordeaux which is just great. He is little known outside the wine world, however ask anyone involved in buying Bordeaux wine and his name is top of the list.
I arrived at my first tasting at 11am, feeling pretty good. Decided to taste the Sauternes first as I needed the sugar for a bit of a lift. Tasted 36 sauternes. Plenty of marmalade. Just the thing for breakfast, Marmalade on toast without the toast!
The 2011 Bordeaux vintage is not going to be easy, it's a difficult vintage. I haven't tasted any of the serious stuff yet but I have been trying to get my head around what happened. There were two really hot days at the end of June (26th / 27th June) when the temperatures rose to over 100 C. It's fairly common now for defoliation to take place in the vineyard where they take the leaves off the vines that are covering the bunches of grapes to get optimum ripeness and riper tannins. Many vineyards had just done this just before the hot weather causing the vines a lot a stress / stock. In St Emilion I have been told that this resulted in a loss of 25% of the crop.
I have spent the day with Bill Blatch trying to work out a similar vintage but we cant find one. Closest in terms to similar weather would be 2006 and 1999 but the style of the wines are completely different which the exception of some of the dry tannins present in 2006 are in the 2011s. A lot of wines that I tasted had slightly burnt fruits which often led to a slightly bitter style, liquorice in some cases slightly sandy / dusty tannins
There are some good wines but it's a roller coaster of a ride. I preferred some of the simple Medoc wines today over their bigger name Haut Medoc. Some of the Margaux's today were good but the highest level we have tasted was the odd 5th Growth, like Cantemerle, Croizet Bages, Marquis de Terme and Rauzan Gassies. Most of the cask samples were prepared on the 28th / 29th so they weren't the freshest. Will try them again throughout the week.
Total of 72 red wines tasted this afternoon. Sauternes are my star buy to date, impressed with Rabaud - Promis, de Malle, Nairac, du Veyras, Suduiraut and one of my old favourites Raymond Lafon.
Early to bed as up with the sparrows tomorrow for tomorrow tastings in Pomerol and St Emilion, mainly tasting the wines of the Petit Chateaux and Petrus in the afternoon.
James
