Bordeaux virtual master class and blind tasting

École du Vin tutors, Mike Turner and Leona de Pasquale took us through an introduction to Bordeaux.

By way of intro, we learned that Bordeaux is now 23% organic and % is growing.

Clairet can be seen as dark as Rose. Key differences between Rosé and Clairet are: Rosé: maceration normally for up to 12 hr or direct pressing Clairet: maceration 24-36 hrs Fermentation 18-20 °C and Clairet tends to go through MLF

They then challenged participants to a blind tasting to match the wines to their appellations before revealing their identities.

Leona de Pasquale was usefully on hand throughout the session to answer your questions in the chat box.

Here is what we tasted blind. I guessed two out of six right...

Wine n.1

Château Gaillard 2016 Saint Émilion Grand Cru
mod complex and long
merlot predominant 70%, 30% cab franc which still makes its presence strongly felt
50yo vines
aged in 225l barrels, one third new
14% abv

RRP £ 20-25
score 89


Wine n.2
Domaine Perganson L'Inattendu 2018, Haut Médoc
22% merlot, 23% cab sauvignon, 30% petit verdot, 18% malbec, 7% cab franc
aged 1 year in 225l barrels
still rough
avb 14.5%
RRP £ 14
score 84


Wine n.3
Clos du Notaire 2019 Cotes de Bourg
(CdBourg oldest vineyards in region, planted by Romans "Vitis Biturica"
merlot 100% organic, no barrel, no aging recommended
complex needs time to round out tannins
no oak and no sulphur
abv 15%
RRP £12-14
score 92


Wine n. 4
Chat La Freynelle 2020 rosé
100% cab sauvignon
20yo vines
direct pressing
Rosé made in whole of Bordeaux region, with many different soils and terroirs
short maceration method used to make rosé, a few hours max
fresh, strawberry
abv 13%
RRP £ 7-8
score 87


Wine n.5
Chat Haut-Rian 2020 Entre deux mères (two tides, comes from marée)
40% sauvignon blanc 60% semillon
35yo vines
4 months on lees
fresh citrusy
abv 12.5%
RRP £ 8-10
score 87


Wine n.6
Chat Faugas 2018 cadillac AOC
Semi sweet
late harvest
100% semillon
epoxy lined concrete
score 86
abv 13.5%
RRP £ 13-16
Score 88


Oenobordeaux App can be download for those who are interested.

Thank you Ecole du vins de Bordeaux

Meet the producer: Vignobles Chatonnet, Bordeaux, France

A new discovery for us this producer from the right bank in Bordeaux. The homeland of merlot, one of my favorite grapes, mellow yet powerful, velvety and structured. A touch of elegance in many Bordeaux wines from either bank, but a protagonist in Lalande de Pomerol, where the vignobles Chatonnet is based. 

Today we met with Andrea Giraud who is in charge of the international market at Paul Chatonnet. We asked about the peculiarities of this vineyard. Let's hear it directly from her.

 

Tasting notes:

Archange 2016, merlot 100%

A typical expression of this noble variety. Opulent, elegant, complex and long. A masterpiece merlot, at the pinnacle of rive droite interpretation of this grape.

Result of "lutte raisonnée", aiming at minimizing human intervention as much as possible but without ideological strictures.

Score 97

La Sergue 2016,  Merlot (85%), Cabernet Franc (12%) and Malbec (3%)

An original composition with the unique addition of malbec instead of the more familiar cab franc which is the normal third party of the Bordeaux trinity. The result is a balanced and moderately complex wine that is ready now but could wait a little longer.

Score 95

Away from the camera we also tasted:

Haut Chaigneau 2016, merlot 90%, cab franc 10%
Dark Ruby red, intense nose of red fruits
Fresh for a 2016, could use a few more years to round its edges but already balanced enough to be highly enjoyable with structured food. I had it with lasagne.

Score 89

   

Film review: Bottle Shock (2008) by Randal Miller, ****

Synopsis

The build-up to the famous 1976 Judgement of Paris competition between French and Californian wines. Napa Valley's Jim Barrett (Lost Highway's Bill Pullman) has been plugging away for years with minimal success. A former attorney, Barrett runs Chateau Montelena with his wayward son, Bo (Chris Pine, the Star Trek prequel's Captain Kirk), who would rather do anything than assist his stern father. Bo's co-workers include Gustavo (Six Feet Under's Freddy Rodríguez) and Sam (Transformers' Rachael Taylor), who long to produce the perfect chardonnay. 

Naturally, the young men compete for the favors of the beautiful blonde (the movie's least interesting angle). Across the Atlantic, Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) struggles to keep his Parisian wine shop going (cheapskate American Dennis Farina is his only regular customer). Then Spurrier conceives a contest to attract customers.


Review

While based on a true story, the film takes some liberty at embellishing the facts with romance and family feuds, but this does not detract from it being highly instructive for wine lovers.

The title is a pun: the "bottle shock" is what may ruin a wine because of vibrations and temperature variations during protracted and unprotected transportation. It is also the result of the tasting, which shocked the wine world for what a bottle of California wine was able to produce.

The competition itself should have been given more time in the movie in my view, as it was the event that justified making the movie in the first place and changed the world of wine ever since.

Also, the movie does not make it clear that the competition was only for a few varieties, ie Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blends, and as such can in no way be interpreted to be an overall match between Californian and French wines.

Finally, one can not help but notice somewhat of a pro-Californian bias in the movie, but this is perhaps inevitable given the nature of the real historical events. I would like to see a film of the 2006 rematch, which California, again, won hands down, in fact by an even greater margin.

See the book "The Judgement of Paris" which I reviewed in my personal blog.

Chateau d'Yquem

My first Yquem, for a special occasion. 1984, a young one as Yquems go. 

Dark amber, dramatic consistency, infinite complexity. Caramel, prunes, quince, apricot jam. Still powerful minerality and perfect balance. Very long, ça va sans dire over 10 seconds. 

Paired with magret de canard and foie gras and then with pan fried lobster and again foie gras, Auvergne blue cheese to finish the bottle. A harmonious wine.

Possibly my best wine ever, could be on par with a Puligny Montrachet 1989 I shared with a friend during a humble dinner in my kitchen a few years ago. score 100. eur 300.

Film review: Mondovino (2004) by Jonathan Nossiter, **

Synopsis

Filmmaker Jonathan Nossiter, who loves wine, looks at the international wine business. He offers his personal view of how business concerns and the homogenisation of tastes around the world are changing the way wine is being made. 

Review

The movie is good in that it points the finger to a phenomenon that is pervasive in the world of wine, as it is in every aspect of our life: globalization. The director's thesis, which he does not spell out but appears clearly, is that this is a bad thing. I, on the contrary, think it is a good development for wine, mainly because it allows for greater choice.

Far from homogenizing the taste of the world's wines, globalization is making any wine, in any style, available everywhere in the world, and this gives each of us a chance to choose what we like, how much we want to spend.

He implicitly accuses Robert Parker (whom he interviews) to be in cahoot with American business, while in fact parker has been very beneficial to French wines and Bordeaux in particular. He received countless awards from France, including from the president of the Republic.

Nossiter is tricky as he often hides his camera and films without the subject being aware. That is not correct in my view, even for a documentarist.

He is also political, but out of context. He underlines how a mayor of a French town who rejected American money to invest in the local vineyards was a communist (good) while Italian nobles who accept to work with the same Americans has grandparents who supported fascism (bad). I find some of these people who live in their past rather disagreeable, but that says nothing about their wines. How totally irrelevant.

Finally, he never misses a chance to film any dog that happens to be in front of his camera. For example when he interviews Parker he goes at great length to emphasize how his dogs fart a log, and that is really too much. 

Today, no matter what Nossiter says, we have more diversified and better quality wines around the world than ever before.

Here is another good review of this film I agree with by Decanter.