Hew's Views - The Final Roundup

All the 2009s have now been released; so it's verdict time. How has the market reacted to the Bordelaise's new pricing strategy? What should we buy from 2009? Our Chairman, Hew Blair has watched the campaign unfold and now gives his judgement in this, the final instalment for the Bordeaux 2009 campaign of Hew's views.

2009 Update

Apologies for the recent lack of blogs. After weeks of inactivity we have been inundated with releases in the last few days. Prices have resembled the weekly salaries of some of our under-performing football players, but the market has decided that they offer much better value for money. In fact it's now a race to see whether the campaign will finish or the England squad will return home first. My money's still on the England team...

The biggest news is that Lafite, Mouton, Latour and Margaux have released. Due to unprecedented demand the Chateaux have released only a fraction of their production onto the market. We will continue to buy on the secondary market and wait for further traches before we offer at an amalgamated price. There is no real prix de revente for the first growths, but we can tell you that the first tranche has been around 550 Euros per bottle to us. We wait with apprehension for the further releases...

Recent headlines from the campaign include:

- Magnificent La Mission is out at £6200.
- Palmer releases this morning – Second tranche is released after lunch...
- Leoville Barton sells out in one afternoon; we await a second tranche.
- Big hitters, Leoville Poyferre, Montrose, Pichon Baron and Conseillante are out and will be allocated.
- Rauzan Segla and Troplong Mondot are approaching the end of the first tranche.
- Second tranche of Beychevelle now available at £650.
- Bordeaux negociants arrested for working a 35 hour day.
- Hindsight is a beautiful thing - bag a 2008 bargain. `08 Clarence Haut Brion £430/case.

Top tens – Best values

`Best value` is probably the most interesting and most disputed category in our `top tens`. Value after all adds another level of subjectivity. 31 wines appeared in our lists and not one wine made it into all eight tasters’ selections. Haut Batailley and Clos des Quatre Vents both made the cut for 7 tasters, but failed to achieve the elusive full house.

There were strong showings from Langoa Barton, Lafon Rochet, Phelan Segur, Durfort Vivens, Lagrange, Moulin St George and the highly tipped Saint Pierre, but sadly we were not alone. Robert Parker has positively raved about Saint Pierre and our other surprise recommendation, Malartic Lagraviere. Huge scores from these two will probably push release prices to stratospheric levels...

The same rules apply; 10 points for a first place all the way down to 1 point for tenth position.

Haut Batailley - 45
Clos des Quatre Vents - 40
Langoa Barton - 37
Lafon Rochet - 34
Moulin St George - 31
Lagrange - 28
Phelan Segur - 25
Beychevelle - 15
Durfort Vivens - 14
Saint Pierre - 14
Blason de l`Evangile - 14
Petit Bocq - 12
Chasse Spleen - 12
Cantemerle - 12
Chateau Valade - 11
Grand Puy Lacoste - 10
Brane Cantenac - 10
Pagodes de Cos - 10
Calon Segur - 9
Haut Marbuzet - 7
Tour du Pin - 7
Meyney - 7
Ormes de Pez - 6
Gloria - 5
Grande Maye - 5
Malartic Lagraviere - 5
Clerc Milon - 5
Sociando Mallet - 4
Domaine de Chevalier - 3
Beaumont - 2
Les Fiefs de Lagrange - 1

The campaign gathers pace...

After the VINEXPO lull, Chateaux owners have been making up for lost time with a flurry of releases. Despite the British bank holiday, Monday saw the release of a fine quartet: Bernadotte (£140/case), Lacoste Borie (£175/case), Chasse Spleen (£210/case) and Fonbel (£165/case). Bernadotte was delicious and improvements by the Pichon Lalande/Roederer team are clearly paying off; not a green note in sight, this is a really polished, fleshy offering.

Xavier Borie's Grand Puy Lacoste and Haut Batailley regularly feature in our best value selections and for those looking for a bargain Pauillac, Lacoste Borie (the second wine from GPL) is a snip at £175/case.

Chasse Spleen won the battle of Moulis for the J&B team. Yes Poujeaux (£210/case) is exceptional, massive and long-term, but Chasse Spleen charmed the socks off us. Alain Vauthier’s Fonbel was the cherry on the cake. At 40% above the 2008 release price, it made us gulp, however, this comes from good terroir (just below Ausone) and is made by the Ausone team, so £165/case looks far from excessive...

Typically, today has been somewhat quieter... but to bring you right up to speed, we have Cantemerle (£240/case) and l’Arrosee (£330/case). Both receive 92-94 points from Mr Parker and both are up there with the best vintages ever made from these properties. We particularly recommend Cantemerle, which really shone at the Moulis, Listrac and Haut Medoc UGC.

Bordeaux 2009 - Hew's Views

As the campaign gently unfolds we take a moment's pause to discuss pricing of those wines that have released, and consider what we can expect in the coming weeks.

Bordeaux 2009 – Ascension Day

It’s a public holiday in France, so no releases today, but the campaign must go on. This morning we offered Chateau Providence (£700), one of the most recent acquisitions in the JP Moueix portfolio. This is a spell-binding wine, which possesses enormous power and extraordinary complexity. Positioned right at the heart of the plateau in Pomerol, Providence has an exceptional terroir and is rapidly asserting its place amongst the top table of right bank Chateaux.

There were also two other exciting Pomerols released this week; Gazin (£545) and Certan de May (£700). Both are well reviewed by Robert Parker and are selling fast... Other notable releases so far have been Haut Marbuzet (£325), Clos des Quatre Vents (£285) and La Fleur de Gay (£720).

We don’t expect any releases tomorrow as the Bordelaise enjoy an extended weekend; however, next week could be busy. With just one full week before VINEXPO, surely some of the top Cru Bourgeois and lesser classified growths must make their move... we hope.

Bordeaux 2009 - Mouton Rothschild

An interview with Herve Beland at Mouton Rothschild in which he discusses their 2009, the quality, the price and the comparisons with other vintages.....

Bordeaux 2009 En Primeur: Chateau Tertre-Roteboeuf

Anybody who has tasted Francois Mitjavile's sumptuously individual and esoteric wines might well be forgiven for wondering just how he achieves the sublime balance between ripeness, precision and aromatic complexity that so sets his wines apart from others in Bordeaux. He is a man with a visionary quality, based on firm philosophical beliefs about the nature of true ripeness.

In our interview the question is put to him as to how he achieves this balance and such ripeness without losing any of his purity. The answer is enlightening.
(Added to this, off camera, he rather modestly remarked that the praise or criticism he receives for his wines were really neither here nor there, his being a mere conduit through which vineyard might express itself most naturally.)

Bordeaux 2009 - Parker is out!

This is often the biggest day in the year for many Chateaux, negociants, merchants and collectors; the day Robert Parker releases his scores for the current Bordeaux vintage. We have been waiting with bated breath for Big Bob’s reaction to this already massively hyped vintage. And he hasn’t disappointed, `for some Médocs and Graves, 2009 may turn out to be the finest vintage I have tasted in 32 years of covering Bordeaux. From top to bottom, 2009 is not as consistent as 2005, but the peaks of quality in 2009 may turn out to be historic`.

The headlines are impressive; more potentially perfect scores than ever before, 21 in all and a host of wines flirting with perfection in the 96-99 point category. There is also a new asterisk system that denotes the greatest potential seen at the estate in Robert’s 32 years of tasting; we lost count of the number of asterisked wines, but it is worth pointing out two outstanding successes that we got very excited about and it would seem that Mr Parker shares our enthusiasm: the sublime Saint Pierre from St Julien, which receives 94-98* and Malartic-Lagraviere Rouge, which receives 93-95*. He also continues with a message to consumers about the wines from the less celebrated appellations.

`I hope readers will take a serious look at many of the less prestigious appellations and wines from those areas as they will no doubt represent fabulous bargains in 2009. Given the overall style of the 2009s, which combine creamy, voluptuous textures and sensational fruit-driven opulence with remarkable finesse, precision, purity, and vibrancy, the best of the “little” wines will be delicious young, as will many of the classified-growths. This is a magical vintage!`

Bordeaux 2009: Alfred Tesseron, Ch. Pontet Canet

Pontet Canet from Justerini & Brooks on Vimeo.

Bordeaux 2009 – More scores (the right bank)

Time for more of our results. We asked our eight strong team to list their top ten wines from the right bank, excluding Lafleur, Le Pin, Ausone and Cheval Blanc. This proved even more chaotic than the left bank with 21 properties receiving votes. The results are in and after a little number crunching and it would seem that the J&B team have a taste for Pomerol... Gold, silver and bronze were taken by Evangile, Vieux Chateau Certan and Conseillante. Evangile edged out VCC by a nose, but interestingly only received three maximums to VCC’s four. The only other wine to take the coveted `ten points` was Denis Duarantou’s Eglise Clinet. The remaining seven spots in the top ten were contested between Tertre Roteboeuf, Angelus, Eglise Clinet and four wines from the Moueix stable: Providence, Certan de May, Hosanna and Belair-Monange.

It is also worth mentioning a few wild cards that emerged from our lists. Montlandrie, a new Castillon estate made by Denis Durantou,Tour de Pin, a St Emilion produced by the Cheval Blanc team and the exceptional Roc de Cambes made by Francois Mitjaville from the humble appellation of Côtes de Bourg.

Evangile - 71
Vieux Chateau Certan - 67
Conseillante - 59
Tertre Roteboeuf - 33
Angelus - 32
Eglise Clinet - 31
Providence - 28
Certan de May - 25
Hosanna - 23
Belair Monange - 19
Larcis Ducasse - 13
Figeac - 8
Chapelle d'Ausone - 7
Pensees de Lafleur - 7
Roc de Cambes - 6
Petit Cheval - 3
Lafleur Petrus - 2
Montlandrie - 2
Clos Fourtet - 2
Tour du Pin - 1
Canon - 1

Bruno Borie, Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou

Visiting Ducru is always good fun. This year we were greeted with walls adorned with calligraphic tasting notes and vintage musings, the electric neon rabbit now living (and flashing) back behind a row of barrels. He gave us these words in their tubular tasting rooms, stood in front of one of his Keith Harings, on typically charming form and more than happy to talk about the pricing of these 2009s.

Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou from Justerini & Brooks on Vimeo.

Hew's Views: The Full Roundup

Hew's Views: The Full Roundup from Justerini & Brooks on Vimeo.

Bordeaux 2009: A truly great vintage but for great winemakers.

2009 is an unparalleled vintage for Bordeaux. Whilst certainly not a year without blemish, the many successes in 2009 have made for some of the best young claret we have ever experienced. The seductive textures and harmony of these wines is what is so arresting. The finest examples of the vintage display an ethereal balance between highly polished tannins, multi-layered complex expressions of fruit, and yet, critically, a freshness and clarity to them which gives the wines a beguiling impression of power with grace. This is, in our view, a benchmark vintage for the region, and stylistically quite different to the recent vintages before it. But that does not mean all the estates succeeded. There are various reasons behind that but picking dates, as always, proved to be pivotally important. There are examples of over-ripeness, particularly in some of the merlot. This has meant that some wines in 2009 feel clumsy. There are also signs of over-extraction in certain estates, predominantly, though not exclusively, in the areas of St. Emilion and Margaux. Though with St. Emilion, it seems to be less prevalent than in previous years. Nor is success confined to the great Chateaux; we were delighted with many of the lower growths of the Medoc particularly, and there should be a treasure trove of these estates around Pauillac, St. Julien and St. Estephe which should prove to be the best value buys in 2009.

After an early and uniform flowering and bud burst, Bordeaux experienced some localised hail storms in May. This devastated estates in appellations as diverse as the Entre deux Mere, Lalande de Pomerol, Margaux and St. Emilion. Although the storms were violent, most properties escaped, albeit with lower yields, though some were severely affected. Early hail is preferable to autumn hail as it reduces crop size but thankfully has no real impact on quality. Summer arrived soon after the storms and stayed and stayed and stayed. 2009 was in fact one of the driest summers on record, but critically without the extreme heats witnessed in 2003. These conditions persisted into September and many vignerons became concerned about hydric stress rather than the more normal concern just before harvest time, rain. Thankfully there were a few refreshing showers at just the right moments to cool and invigorate the vines, and again this forms part of the style to the wines of 2009. An Indian summer without parallel saw daytime temperatures regularly exceed 25 degrees. However, night-time temperatures plummeted, which enabled grapes to maintain their acidity and consequently the wines their freshness.

So, blessed with near perfect raw materials 2009 should be brilliant from top to bottom. Well, sadly that is not the case. 2009 is a vintage with potentially record alcohol levels and ripeness, and these needed to be managed. The top terroirs and winemakers have excelled and produced concentrated wines with extraordinary aromatic complexity, while also maintaining an important freshness, texture and balance. Winemakers who forced this, or picked too late, have produced over-extracted, clumsy wines that lack excitement and class.

So this is a challenging vintage to summarise. The highs are stratospheric, though it is not as homogenous as 2005, particularly at the lower end. There are exceptional wines from all communes including an incredible showing in Sauternes and Barsac. In general, it is a vintage that most suits Cabernet, and yet the best of Pomerol is among the best of 2009. Although the wines are massively endowed, they possess a refinement and balance which is quintessential Bordeaux. We have spent hours discussing the velvety, silky textures and exquisitely crafted tannins which we tasted during our week. But I personally liked Frederic Engerer’s analysis on the style of 2009: the elegance of 2000, the power of 2005, but with a unique aromatic twist. It is that combination which makes these wines both original and compelling.

Bordeaux 2009: Hew's Views ,The Right Bank

Further thoughts on the vintage, this time the wines of Pomerol & St Emilion, from our Chairman Hew Blair...

Hew's Views: The Right Bank from Justerini & Brooks on Vimeo.

Bordeaux 2009: Chateau Pichon Lalande

The incredibly affable Gildas d'Ollone, happy to chat about the ease of the vintage and what it can be compared to, on a sunny afternoon, overlooking the vineyards.

Chateau Pichon-Lalande from Justerini & Brooks on Vimeo.

Bordeaux 2009: Frederic Engerer, Chateau Latour

Chateau Latour from Justerini & Brooks on Vimeo.

Chateau Latour's Technical Director, Frederic Engerer, on the merits of a vintage that has produced not just powerful wines but also wines with a certain "aromatic twist"...

Bordeaux 2009 – James Suckling’s verdict...

Earlier we alluded to The Wine Spectator being first out of the blocks with some hefty scores. Well, now we’ve had time to log on and digest their findings. No surprises that Mr Suckling loves the vintage and doles out some impressive numbers. On the 100 point scale, the Firsts all fare pretty well:

Margaux 96-99
Lafite Rothschild 96-99
Latour 97-100
Mouton Rothschild 97-100
Haut Brion 97-100

And there are many other successes. Eglise Clinet, Lafleur, Petrus, Trotanoy, VCC, Ausone, Figeac, Cos, Montrose, Las Cases and Malescot St Exupery all flirt with perfection, whilst there are literally dozens of estates in the 94-99 point category. Pomerol is possibly the highest scoring commune with big scores for Evangile, Conseillante, Le Pin, La Fleur Petrus and the `blockbuster` Providence (95-98).

All in all the scores seem extravagant, but this is an extreme vintage that merits praise. All eyes will now be on Maryland for Mr Parker’s scores. Will he exceed 100?

Bordeaux 2009: Edouard Moueix

Pomerol from Justerini & Brooks on Vimeo.

Edouard, ever the gentleman, gives us his thoughts on the exceptional 2009 vintage at both Providence and Belair-Monange...

Hew's Views: The Medoc

Hew's Views: The Medoc from Justerini & Brooks on Vimeo.

Our very own Hew Blair, Buying Director and Chairman gives us his thoughts after a long day tasting the wines of the Medoc. Watch the blog for upcoming videos detailing Hew's picks from the right bank, his value selections and the inside track from a man who has been doing the Bordeaux thing since 1969.