A room full of primo uomos and divas (the wines, not the merchants...)

Yes, it is that time of year again when the Bordeaux UGC company rolls into London for a short residency at the Royal Opera House. This year was the turn of the magnificent 2009 vintage, now in bottle*. From barrel the now fabled 2009s seduced us with unerring, sumptuous textures, precision, decadence and dare we say it, sex appeal. Simply, they were like nothing else we had tasted from Bordeaux – so could they live up to our expectations?

As one would expect, with another year or more in barrel, there is more oak and more tannin in evidence. In fact, when tasted from barrel, these `09s were so svelte one almost couldn’t detect any tannins; this is not the case now. The tannins are beautifully ripe, but provide much needed backbone to help cellaring. Generally, the wines are slightly more subdued than they were from barrel, but this is obviously a very special, very opulent vintage.

It was fitting that in the setting of the ROH, there should be so many prima donnas. Nearly every wine was fighting for centre stage. La Conseillante, Pichon Lalande, Leoville Barton, Leoville Poyferre, Rauzan Segla, Brane Cantenac, Saint Pierre, Larcis Ducasse, Smith Haut Lafitte, Domaine de Chevalier, Haut Bailly, Malartic Lagraviere, Grand Puy Lacoste and Lynch Bages put in show stopping performances. But this is a vintage of such quality that many of the lesser names have also excelled. There are fantastic values from the likes of Chasse Spleen, Poujeaux, Picque Caillou, Beaumont, Greysac, Durfort Vivens and Gloria.

Although, the plaudits quite rightly go to the reds, 2009 has produced some exceptional Sauternes. Standouts included Climens, Doisy Vedrines and Doisy Daëne.

*One sample to my knowledge was from barrel.