Day 1 (Saturday 21st April)
Waking up on Saturday morning, if it wasn’t for the crooking bull frogs I could have been back in Yorkshire as the rain was pouring down over Bordeaux Lac. The first appointment was on the Right Bank with my old friend, Martin Krajewski, at Château Séraphine in Pomerol, where we also tasted his St. Émilion estate: Clos Cantenac. Martin described 2022 as “an astonishing year” and quite possibly the best vintage that they’ve made at Clos Cantenac in 16 years. The wines have impressive concentration with a savoury, seductive nature complimented by their velvety texture and notable balance, vibrancy, and freshness. Château Séraphine was a touch more perfumed and elegant on the nose with further tension and sophistication on the palate. What a great start to our En Primeur campaign; well done Martin, or should I say his daughter, Lolly, who is the winemaker.
A quick drive down the road to the St Émilion-Pomerol border for our next tasting at Château Corbin. The wonderful Annabelle Cruse-Bardinet (owner and winemaker), described it as a “vintage with incredible potential” that went from surprise to surprise, further commenting that the quality is so good. Annabelle hasn’t made a second wine for the 2022 vintage.
We then headed to the other side of Castillon to Château Jean Faux (a 30-minute drive from St. Émilion), an excellent property that we have been selling for over ten years. We have met the owner, Pascal, on numerous occasions throughout the UGC week, yet our schedule never allowed us to visit the Château. We were met by Victor, Pascal’s son, who is now the winemaker, and we sampled their 2022 red and white “Sainte Radegonde”, which were both very good
It was time to race back across to St. Émilion and Château Église-Clinet for a tasting with the late, great Denis Durantou’s daughter: Noémie, who talked us through the properties within the family stable (Eglise-Clinet, La Chenade, Les Cruzelles, and Chateau Montlandrie), and what makes them so special. I could have talked to Noémie all day, and it’s fair to say she has inherited her father’s magical touch.
The final tasting of the day was back at base camp with the legendary Bill Blatch, fondly known as ‘Bordeaux Bill’ and the ‘Guru of Sauternes’. Accompanied by his usual ‘treasure chest’ of liquid gold, we set our sights on a total of 37 Sauternes and Barsac wines, there is no doubt some excellent Sauternes; concentrated and rich with a wonderful mélange of orange marmalade and ripe stone fruits in style due to the long, warm growing season.
Day 2 (Sunday 23rd April)
There’s no rest for the wicked even at this early stage of the UGC week. After a quick coffee and croissant, we rolled up our sleeves and began to get to grips with the vintage tasting around 200 wines at a Négociant event, with an emphasis on Cru Bourgeois estates that with so little spare time we often struggle to taste during the week. There were also some top Chateaux’s wines on offer; it’s always important to taste these at multiple opportunities to gauge a balanced and comprehensive opinion of the wines, and the vintage.
Our initial impressions are that the good wines have surprising freshness and balance with ripe, sometimes savoury fruit. There is plenty of depth, tension and focus throughout… I wouldn’t say we have the total picture yet, but let’s say there are plenty of smiles around Bordeaux. In short, we’ve so far tasted over 120 wines tasted in 8 hours and have 80 notes written up. Tomorrow starts with the big UGC tasting at Hangar 14 in the centre of Bordeaux and then we move across to the right bank… allez!
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