Germany: Day 3

Springtime in the Nahe and it's looking extremely pretty as we snake our way down to Oberhausen to meet Helmut Donnhoff, a man full of the joys...and quite rightly so with a vintage like 2009 in his cellar. We tasted a really exciting trio of Grosses Gewachs (Grand Cru) that we will be offering come the first of September. The more we taste these intense dry wines from the region the more excited we get. The stringent vineyard grape selection and warmer recent vintages are giving really ripe, fruit acidities to balance the steely Riesling focus.

At Emrich-Schonleber we tasted more superb 2009 Grosse Gewachs, followed by examples from 1999 and 2002 (at the time labelled Auslese Trocken). It was very revealing. These are quite evidently serious wines that can age wonderfully, gaining in complexity while losing none of their crisp, Riesling precision. Take note these are wines to watch.


Not to be eclipsed were the sweet wines. At both aforementioned estates we saw collections that resoundingly prove what an impressive a vintage 2009 is across the board. As Frank at Emrich-Schonleber commented, "there is less sharpness of minerality than 2008, they are bigger in body and very well balanced. They are perhaps closer to 2007, but with more finesse".



Our last stop of the day was with Klaus-Peter Keller who put the quality of 2009 down to a very cold second half of October. This "refrigerator temperature". period allowed the grapes to develop in complexity without increasing in must weight or decreasing in acidity. It's a truly great year here at Keller and undoubtedly one of the collections of the vintage.

Bordeaux 2009 settles into the starting blocks.

So everyone has now heard about the Bordeaux 2009 vintage. At Justerini & Brooks we have used our new website to augment our traditional approach to commenting on a new vintage with our blogs and video interviews to try and provide our customers with greater insight, and we will continue to release further interviews over the coming days. All the critics have also now published their views, and this week most collectors will have been studying the just-released musings of the American critic Robert Parker. We view his influence, or more specifically his impact, with mixed feelings. However, there is little doubt that, though not without disappointment, it is a vintage which justifies some exceptional claims. Our tasting notes on each of the wines have been uploaded on to the website, and we expect the campaign of releases to begin imminently. We do not, sadly, expect this to be a quick campaign. In fact with the hiatus scheduled for late May to accommodate a VinExpo in Hong Kong, we are presuming many of the top Chateaux will not be releasing their wines until June.

Justerini & Brooks get large allocations of classed growths, and our full buying team will be active throughout the campaign as usual. However, we are expecting demand to exceed supply with certain estates. In the interest of fairness we will continue to operate our allocation process where this becomes the case, which is based on a customer's three year cumulative spend with us. Our intention as always is to reward customer loyalty and those who collect a broader range of wines. We are not an investment club.

As with every vintage, our team of eight spent a week in Bordeaux tasting every wine we will offer. Please contact your account manager to let them know which wines you are interested in, or alternatively e-mail wishlist@justerinis.com . It is imperative that if you do not currently receive our e-mailed offers you also register your e-mail address into the J&B website to ensure you receive our notifications.

Spring has arrived when one hears the first cuckoo. Or if you are a wine lover, when en primeur begins. We have had a long cold winter, and it seems this year Spring is late.

Chateau Canon dinner and tasting

Our private dining room in St. James’s has been the setting for countless memorable wine dinners over the years and decades. But last night was a very special evening. John Kolasa, who runs Chateau Canon, came over to have dinner with a few selected guests and brought some fabulous wines with him. The evening started with a tasting in our cellars. Firstly with a barrel sample of the 2009 Canon, which was deeply impressive and full of velvety structure and perfume, which seems to be the signature of this vintage. The 2005, 2002 and 2000 were also shown. The 2005 was still a baby, but a genuine delight was the 2002, which had far more richness than was expected and if served blind would, we are quite certain, be placed by all in a grand vintage. The best of the 2002s remain some of the great deals in Bordeaux.

After a quick glass of Pommery Cuvee Louise ’99 to prepare ourselves for dinner, we headed off to the dining room. The first wine of the meal was the 1998 and it showed what Chateau Canon can do with sufficient age. The 1998s have now begun shrugging off their tannic cloaks and this wine was full of seductive vivacity and lift – absolutely beautiful, and a great match with the monkfish wrapped in Parma ham. The remaining three vintages were then all served from magnum. The 1985 had evolved into a mature, seamless and silky wine; very elegant indeed, and flattering to the savoury mille-feuille of porcini mushrooms. Next was a magnum of 1979, not by any means a good vintage in Bordeaux, but brought by John to show what great terroir can do in average years. The wine had restraint and class and, it seems, many years still ahead of it. It certainly stood up to the roasted sirloin rib. But the wine of the night was the 1955 Canon. This was absolutely outstanding. It tasted as if it were 30 years younger than it is, and was so seductive and still full of richness. It was so good in fact we drank two magnums!

With a delightful evening at a close a few of us then went on to Annabel’s. One of those ideas that seemed good at the time...

Germany 2009: Day 2

The day's tasting began at Willi Schaefer where we were met by the charming Christophe Schaefer.

In tasting our way through a beautiful set of wines from the Himmelreich and Domprobst vineyards in the village of Graach we discovered great "ripeness and structure but also fantastic ripe acidity". We came away stuck by their finesse, elegance and purity. An estate doing great things.

On route to Maximin Grunhaus we stopped at Reinhold Haart to taste his wonderful Piesport Goldtropfchens. A vineyard reknowned for producing some of the richest and most opulent wines in the Mosel, the 2009s are exotic but not without refinement, their richness and almost Rheingau-esk power coming from the soft slate soils and sunbaked aspect of the site.

Lunch beckoned but not before we climbed out of the Mosel valley and over to the Ruwer for all 20 wines in Carl von Schubert's stable. Daunted we began, but it wasn't long before we were totally immersed in a thoroughly impressive set of wines. The "dry" Abtsberg Superior (allowed to ferment to its natural conclusion) was powerful, balanced and intense. The top quality sweeter wines that followed were punctuated by the particular highs of the Abtsberg Kabinett, a Herrenerg Auslese of profound minerality and a final pair of incredible, showstopping Eisweins.

The post lunch session was filled by Karthauserhof, a short drive across the village. Christophe Tyrell was on hand, describing the wines as "a little bit of 2007, a little bit of 2005 and a little bit of 2003, maybe 40%, 40% and 20%". We took this to mean as a seriously balanced vintage. Which is exactly what we tasted.

Last but by no means least was our trip to Zilliken, in Saarburg. The great Rausch vineyard showing Wonderful ripeness and good true steely character; a superb trio of Kabinet, Spatlese and Ausleses.

Tomorrow the Nahe...

Germany 2009 - Day 1

Our first appointment of the day was an extended tasting with the gregarious August Kesseler. 2009, at this estate at least, is a vintage defined by his top quality dry wines, white and red. A superb selection followed, each wine showing its terroir but also a certain winery stamp of precision, finesse and detail. During an excellent lunch we tasted some really good Pinot Noir from 2007 and 2008; taut, linear yet ripe and built on minerals, fine tannins and spice. They showed just why Kesseler, the village of Assmanshauser, and in particular the slate soils of the Hollenberg are held in such high regard for Pinot Noir. They are not Burgundy, nor are they meant to be. They are something quite different, and all the better for it.

The afternoon saw visits to both brothers Haag. Thomas at Schloss Lieser and Oliver at Fritz Haag. Thomas would not pick out any particular highlights; he believes this is an outstanding vintage across the entire range. And tasting his wines from the basic QBA right the way up to an utterly scintillating Liser Niederberg Auslese Langhe Goldkap, we were loathed to disagree. The last wine promised great things, alas the TBA was still undergoing fermentation in the cellars, so was not tasted.

Oliver's vines in the monumental Brauneberger Juffer vineyard, in whose steepest heart lies the great Sonnenuhr, have done it again. Oliver describes 2009 as "a vintage that has more power than 2008, and perhaps more acidity than 2007". Here we did get to taste both BA and TBA, and we were not disappointed. Intense, brilliant with pitch perfect balance and huge levels of extract and acidity. They are quite simply sublime.

Our last appointment and it was along the Mosel and across the bridge to Wehlener to visit Manfred Prum. He has produced an outstanding set of 2009s, which even at the end of a long day’s tasting impressed us enormously. They are fascinating wines of great purity, backwardness, latent power and focus. They will require patience, but will undoubtedly reward those able to wait.

Tomorrow Schaeffer, Von Schubert and more......

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.

Winemakers Series: Voyager Estate, the final installment

Saturday 10th April 2010

As usually seems to happen we have had a slower couple of weeks waiting for all of the Cabernet blocks to fully ripen and we are now down to our final couple of days harvesting tomorrow and Monday. The Cabernet Sauvignon has followed a similar pattern to the Shiraz with lovely ripe flavours and perfect tannin ripeness at lower than normal sugar levels. The fruit is showing wonderful freshness and vibrancy with classic southern Margaret River flavours of cassis, mulberries and ripe red berries. The tannins are fine and ripe and, an indicator of the overall fruit ripeness, has been the woody development of the grape stalks and seeds. I do not recall a vintage where we have had such dry, crunchy seeds and, beautiful ripeness of the grape stalks with dry brown wood extending all the way to the bottom of the bunch. The overall fruit quality looks outstanding with all blocks performing to a very high level giving us a lot of exceptional batches to select from when we assemble the top wine.

The whites have all completed fermentation with the Chardonnay now in barrel for the next 12 months, and the Sauvignon Blanc Semillon components slowly being blended together.
The vintage has been our fourth very high quality season in a row which underlines the consistency of the Margaret River region and reinforces my initial perception of the region as a viticulturists paradise!

Steve James, Voyager Estate

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 – More scores

Our second category is `Best of the Left`. Our intrepid tasters were asked to compile a list of their top ten wines from the Medoc and the Grave (excluding the First Growths and La Mission Haut Brion). Competition was fierce; no fewer than 18 wines were utilized, including one or two surprises. The same rules applied, 10 points for first place all the way down to 1 point for tenth position.

Starting at the top, the runaway victor was predictably Leoville Las Cases with a remarkable 79/80. It’s just idle speculation, but I’d wager that if Las Cases had been included within our First Growth category, it would have finished in a Champion’s League spot. Next, and almost as emphatically comes Pontet Canet with 72/80; the wine that prevented Las Cases from recording a perfect 80! Bronze goes to the magnificent Cos and then it all becomes quite congested mid table; just 11 points separate Calon Ségur, Leoville Barton, Palmer, Pichon Lalande, Grand Puy Lacoste and Montrose. It’s also worth noting a particularly strong showing from Haut Marbuzet; a Cru Bourgeois is a sea of Cru Classé.

Leoville Las Cases - 79
Pontet Canet - 72
Cos d'Estournel - 47
Calon Segur - 35
Leoville Barton - 33
Palmer - 28
Pichon Lalande - 27
Grand Puy Lacoste - 25
Montrose - 24
Ducru Beaucaillou - 15
Forts de Latour - 12
Pavillon Rouge - 9
Haut Marbuzet - 7
Malescot St Exupery - 7
Rauzan Segla - 6
Lynch Bages - 6
Pichon Baron - 5
Haut Bailly - 3

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.

Bordeaux 2009 - Scores on the doors...

We understand that the Wine Spectator are first to publish their scores for 2009 Bordeaux. We haven’t had a chance to look for ourselves, but James Suckling is apparently in typically buoyant mood, rating many wines near to perfection. We too have succumbed to the allure of numbers. In a highly scientific approach all eight members of the team have been asked to rank their favourite wines from the vintage. There are six categories: `First Growths`, including La Mission Haut Brion, Le Pin, Lafleur, Cheval Blanc and Ausone; `Left Bank and Graves` (excluding 1sts); `Right Bank` (excluding 1sts); best value buys (from either bank); top five Sauternes/Barsac and top five dry whites. The top ranked wine from each taster is awarded a maximum `dix points`, all the way down to the tenth placed wine, which receives just one point, a bit like Eurovision... then we tot up the scores and voila, we have a comprehensive list of the best wines.

The results are in and we start with the First Growths. 75 out of a potential 80 is quite an endorsement for Latour, a staggering wine and quite deserving of first place. It is also interesting to note that the list alternates between left/right bank until no. 8, making it difficult to call as a left/right bank vintage at the very top end.


Latour - 75
Le Pin - 67
Margaux - 59
Ausone - 57
Lafleur - 46
Lafite Rothschild - 40
Cheval Blanc - 38
Haut Brion - 25
La Mission Haut Brion - 17
Mouton Rothschild - 16

Results for the other categories will follow in the coming days.