2009 Toro and some smart Rioja

Nothing like a nice Rioja to revive the senses after a 4 hour drive from Priorato. Well, certainly, if its one of Marcos Eguren's. The Egurens are the vinous Kings of Rioja, if not all of Spain. Their wonderful San Vicente was one of the original modern Riojas, hand made from a low yielding single vineyard La Canoca in the Rioja Alta zone, which produces the region's most subtle, elegant wines that combine fresh acidity with fine fruit and tannic backbone. It is regularly voted best red wine in Spain, by the Spanish great and good, and you can see why.

2007 was a small, cool and late harvest, picking did not finish until the beginning of November in some vineyards. An absolutely wonderful vintage not a rich blockbuster, far from it, but intense, fine and fresh. I always have a soft spot for San Vicente Rioja, i don't think there is better value wine in Spain, the 07 exemplifies its typically sophisticated, nuanced style. However for sheer quality Amancio was something else. Another single vineyard wine but most of the fruit goes into other cuvees, only 8% of the vineyard's grapes, the creme de la creme, are used for Amancio. All flowers, high notes, minerals and forest fruits, understated yet so powerful. It will be a wine for ageing, if a still far too young but equally impressive 2002 is any indication.

Further south in Toro the Egurens have been busy fine-tuning their Teso La Monja wines. They sold their Numanthia Termes estate in a bid to make something more elegant. Their idea was to buy only high altitude, mainly north facing vineyards ranging from 40 to 100 years old, with a view to prolonging the vegetative cycle and make a more refined style of Toro. 2009 conditions were great and combined with the experience gained from the two vintages already under their belt, has made for staggering results. They are not as massive, thick or extracted as the Numanthia Termes wines were but they are even more intense, more floral finer and longer. In general the best Toros taste like very good wines but without any particular identity that marks them out as specifically being Toro. This is where Teso la Monja excel, they are quite simply sumptuous seductive and unique. Dios mio! their top wine, Alabaster, left me breathless - smooth silky floral but with a marathon finish. As soon as journalists and wine trade professionals have had a chance to taste, it will surely not being long before its consider one of Spain's true greats.

Nou Wave Priorato

So to the land of El Bulli and FC Barcelona, Catalans show as much flair in the kitchen as they do on Nou Camp's glorious turf, the region has become a must visit for the most serious of gastronomes. The wine is catching on, too. Home of Priorat and its rugged, slate-rich hills. A unique land where red grapes are grown on dangerously steep, crumbling hills of slate.

The region is rediscovering its identity after the unwieldy, heavily oaked Cabernet Syrah and Merlot influenced wines of the nineties. Over the last 10 years the region's top producers have concentrated on the land's more traditional grape varieties, in particular the area is awash with seriously old vines Garnacha and Carinena (Grenache and Carignan.) Ok so the wines of Priorat are never going to be shrinking violets, but from today’s top producers they are definitely unique, potently moreish wines with an unmistakebale mineral streak running through them. There are about a dozen top flight producers and I have come to taste three of my favourites: Vall Llach, Mas Martinet and Mas Doix.

I am here to taste 2008s and 2007s. Two very different vintages. 07s remind the contagiously enthusiastic Sara Perez (of Mas Martinet) of the 2004s, full of richness , velvet texture with a nice but very gentle thread of acidity running through it, wines for hedonists. 08s are altogether more ethereal, in one of her more artistic moments Sara describes 2008 as a “clouds” vintage, by that I think she meant a vintage of high tones, as opposed to the more obvious but immediately seductive 07s. I adore the finesse and terroir complexity of Sara’s wines, characteristics that are perhaps more marked in 2008 than 2007, they don’t always wow the journalists because they are not all upfront, but how incredibly fine they are and they age wonderfully. The glorious, wild cherry-infused 2000 Clos Martinet that I tried at the estate will attest to that. The Vall Llach and Mas Doix offerings were exquisite, too, albeit in a slightly different style to Martinet, super sumptuous and silky yet with wonderful bright mineral lift. I believe that a certain someone across the Atlantic concurs, both of their 2007s are in the Wine Advocate’s top 10 of the vintage.

Viva the revival!

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.

Domaine Clos de Tart

How time flies. It is now twenty years since Justerini & Brooks first became involved in supplying and developing the Singaporean fine wine market, and over those years it has become increasingly filled with very serious connoisseurs and some genuinely world-class cellars. Though we meet with our customers in restaurants and private houses all over the city, the private dining room within the Jiang-Nan Chun Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel has been J&B's prime venue of choice for entertaining throughout this whole time. There have been many spectacular dinners held here over the years, and a few days ago we added another. Sylvain Pitiot, from the Burgundy Domaine Clos de Tart, flew out to join us for two dinners focused on the vintages made under his stewardship of this Grand Cru monopole estate. It is no longer a secret that since his debut in 1996 this ancient estate has been producing its finest flight of vintages in decades, and the dinners more than proved that point.

The 1996 was drinking beautifully , with mature wild plum and cherry flavours and silky tannins giving the wine a wonderful complex finish.

The 1999 was still very youthful and firm , but packed with ripe, luxurious and explosive fruits.

The 2001 had a beautiful pinot noir definition; fresh, seductive aromas and a perfect balance of fruit and minerals. A real star.

The 2002 was still a baby. Tight, concentrated, intense and pure. It is waiting to show its real colours.

The 2003 was big textured, rich and sweet, and seduced with damsons and black cherry, yet had that Pinot Noir structure to counter the wonderful bold ripeness.

The 2005 was glorious; that simple. Full of rich, ripe, dark fruits, yet balanced by a powerful minerality. A truly complete and grand Clos de Tart.

2006 is a vintage Sylvain rates particularly highly. Youthful yet harmonious and refined; a terroir-dominated vintage. Subtle , complex berry fruits, fine tannins and a haunting sweet yet mineral finish.

2007 is lovely, seductive, ripe Pinot. Fleshy and sweet black cherry and sloe fruits follow through. A real charmer.

The 2008 was cool, refined and with a purity of fruit that would be hard to match outside the best Grand Crus. Quite simply it is a great wine and even in its youth reflecting the best of a grand terroir.

What was so special about this flight was that without exception each wine was true to the conditions experienced during the growing season and harvest, and to its unique Grand Cru terroir. What is evidently clear to us is the talent of Sylvain Pitiot in both the vineyard and cellar in guiding Domaine Clos de Tart through a new golden age.

Helmut Donnhoff: Dry whites and Soil Diversity

Legendary Nahe winemaker Helmut Donnhoff took a few minutes to discuss with us the impace of the warming weather on acidities in his dry wines, and the relative effects of his slate and volcanic soils.

Loving the Loire!

A trip to the immensely diverse Loire valley provides a welcome respite to the rife speculation surrounding Bordeaux 2009 prices and England's chances in the World Cup. I am here to taste the new red white and rose 2009s and take another look at some of the red 2008s in bottle. My (already very great) admiration for some of the Loire's top growers has just got greater. Not only does their fervent passion see them produce excellent wine in even the most challenging of climactic conditions but they also have a distinct awareness of market realities and the standard of competition that exists in the form of Bordeaux Burgundy and the new world. I can't think of any other region that has so many growers who know so much about the top wines from the Cote d'Or or the Cru Classe of Bordeaux!

Much ground has been covered already: Coteaux de Layon, Saumur Chanmpigny, Bourgueil, Chinon, Montlouis, Vouvray and some Touraine wines in Noyers sur Loire, so it makes picking out highlights difficult. One of them has to be the first day with the large and charismatic Jo Pithon (pictured.) After a rogue bat briefly interrupts our tasting in Jo's cellars I taste one of the Loire's great but unknown whites, 2008 Anjou Coteaux des Treilles, a vineyard with volcanic soils that has a strata of coal several metres below the surface. Seek it out. For me it is one of the Loire's top dry whites along side Taille aux Loups Remus and the Pouilly Fumes from Didier Dagueneau.

Another high point has been the reds, namely the 2009s,(surprise surprise!) but also the 2008s. The 09s are intense ripe and suave, dense but with finesse and what's more there is no talk of raising (already very reasonable) prices by 50 or even 15%! Yannick Amirault, Domaine de la Butte and Joguet have all performed extraordinarily well. Even all of their 2008s were showing quite brilliantly - all ripe fruit and silk - not as massive as the 09s but they are certainly no weaklings and are beautifully refreshing to boot. So 2009 is one of the "greats" for Loire reds like 2005 or 2003. It also looks very promising for the sweeties, too, the best since 1989 according to Huet's Noel Pinguet.

So much pleasure its almost exhausting, and I haven't even got to Vincent Pinard, Lucien Crochet, Francois Cotat and Didier Dagueneau yet, thats for tomorrow.

I'm putting my head on the block here, but what I have seen over the last few days underlines the huge strides the Loire has made in the last 5-10 years. The valley is the source of some of the world's great red and white wines whether from perceived "great" vintages or not, its now becoming foolish to ignore them.

Champagne Pommery: An antidote to football?

‘In victory we deserve it, in defeat we need it’. (Winston Churchill)

For every person wishing the England squad good luck for their coming few weeks, there will doubtless be another for whom the beautiful game holds no allure at all.

If you wish to escape the World Cup melée, the Sanderson Hotel’s top chefs and our champagne agency Vranken Pommery have come together to create a champagne and food matching extravaganza to give you an alternative evening to football. The first champagne dinner kicks off on Saturday 12th June at 7pm - probably just around the same time as the referee’s whistle. There will be a second champagne dinner on Friday 18th of June. And should England proceed through the stages, the dinners will continue...

In the UK we have a tendancy to only drink champagne as a celebratory tipple or an aperitif. The French on the other hand have long considered champagne as a perfect partner with food.

The evening starts, on the fabulous al fresco dining Terrace, with a tutored champagne tasting exploring the different combinations of grape varieties and cuvees that make up some of Pommery’s finest champagnes. The tutorial starts with Apanage , created by our Chef de Cave, Thierry Gasco as a champagne specifically for food; then Summertime, a refreshing Blanc de Blancs from our ‘Seasons’ range; a Pommery Grand Cru from 1999, and Apanage Rosé, the newest addition to Pommery’s pink portfolio.

After the tasting we will then combine the champagnes with a gastronomic dinner created by the top chefs at the Sanderson. We will look at why certain champagnes work wonderfully with certain foods, such as the Apanage with an ‘Amuse’ of Seared Scallop and Confit Suckling Pig Belly, or why a Blanc de Blancs has the structure and finesse to compliment a Halbibut Boulangere. If you think champagne and seafood are the only match made in heaven, we will take you through a meat course of roasted Bresse Quail , Mushroom Cannelloni and Albufera sauce matching with Pommery Grand Cru Vintage.

So if an evening of gastronomy and fine champagne is a welcome escape from hours of football call the Sanderson Hotel on 0207 300 1444. Tickets are priced at £90.00 per person, plus Service.

The Courtyard Garden

Sanderson

50 Berners Street

W1T 3NG

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.

"Viticultural Paradise": An interview with Steve James

Having provided us with detailed harvest reports throughout February and March, and with all wines safely in the winery and beginning their elevage, Steve James joined us in London to taste a superb range of Voyager Wines. Hearing him talk about Margaret River it is hard not to be seduced by this remote corner of Australia. 3 hours south of Perth, green forests rolling down to the gravel hills and on to the white beaches, sea on three sides and a cooling breeze, good winter rainfall and a consistent, dry and warm late summer harvest period. It is a "viticultural paradise" with croups of well drained, red and brown gravel where each year the winemaking teams compete in a surf contest. It has a certain pull, does it not.

While here Steve organised a masterclass with some of London's top sommeliers, pitting Voyager's wines against the likes of Cos d'Estournel, Sassicaia, Moss Wood, Bonneau de Martray's Corton Charlemagne and Craggy Range Le Sol. Quite a line up. Quite a brave challenge. The results surprised the sommeliers, though not Steve who proved once again that at a fraction of the price his wines really can and do hold their own in exalted company.

Here we ask him how they do it:

On the Road to Chablis

As I leave the Cote d'Or the clouds part and out comes the sun. Bright blue skies see me all the way up the autoroute de soleil to junction 21, Nitry. I head, with great anticipation, into the rolling hills of Chablis' big country and its long straight roads, a spoiling programme that includes Fevre, Brocard, Moreau Naudet, Vincent Dauvissat and Laurent Tribut lying before me.

I taste the 2008s which are all in bottle, even Dauvissat's Clos at long last! Well, they are as great as they were last November, perhaps even more thrilling. They have an electric acidity, a lush ripeness, great mineral Chablis character and huge power without ever comprising finesse or balance. Any 08 from a reputable grower should be snapped up.

The 2009s will I am sure be more controversial. They are very powerful wines but just about the most easy and enjoyable to taste before bottling than any other recent vintage. No doubt their low acidities will be talked about by some, but they are intense and show very fresh, clear fruit flavours, surely owing to that kimmeridgean clay minerality, and for many the alcohols aren't too high either, between 12-13 degrees natural. They, of course, have very smooth, friendly textures but show some structure, too, it will be interesting to seem them after a summer's elevage but for now they look very seductive.

The grape escape: 2008 Burgundy Revisited and a peek at 2009

Narrowly avoiding the ash clouds that nearly prevented my annual escape from the London Wine Trade fair, I head to Burgundy for a chance to re-taste 2008 and take an early peek at the already well-reputed 2009s.

Most Red 2008s are now ready to be bottled and though, admittedly, its a perfect time to taste, they look fabulous, even lovelier than from barrel in November. It may not be a totally homogenous vintage but there are so many great examples of red 08s from the top producers. Every grower I have spoken to this week considers it a genuinely top vintage for Pinot Noir and I have to admit I am totally seduced, too. Such a balance of Pinot purity, freshness, ripe fruit and roundness, with a nice little tannic kick. Freddy Mugnier himself describes it as "a vintage I adore, like 2001 but better, more refined." Anyone who has been lucky enough to drink any of the quite glorious Cote de Nuits 2001s recently will know this is praise indeed.

Then there is the small matter of 2009. The most flattering vintage I have tasted at this early stage, more so than 1999, even the likes of d'Angerville's Clos des Ducs and Liger-Belair's La Romanee, the most serious of wines, were impressively forthcoming; whilst Cecile Tremblay appears to have made a sensational range from top to bottom. There is still plenty of time and elevage to go for these 2009s, I will see in November how the summer has treated them so lets not be hasty, but it has to be said in their current state they are difficult to resist: Suave, very fruity and with a smooth texture that belies their great power and persistance. Mostly it seems a decent size crop (fingers crossed this is reflected at allocation time !!) Picking date was a fine balance as fruit ripened at a pace, so it is feasible there may be one or two disappointments more than with the extraordinarily reliable 2005s, we shall see, but there will plenty of absolute crackers to feast on I have no doubt.

Liv-ex 100 storms to record high

With all the excitement and hysteria surrounding Bordeaux 2009, we seem to have missed something of a landmark. The Liv-ex 100 has powered its way back to an all time high at the end of March, surpassing the July 2008 figure of 264.14. April’s figures show even more positive growth closing at 281.21, a rise of 6.1% for the month, an 18.6% rise for 2010 and a staggering 31.8% increase for the year.

Although all the talk is of 2009s, there appears to be no let up in demand for older vintages of classified growth claret. And who knows, the current trend for record release prices from the Place could have a further drag effect on landed vintages...

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.....

Sweet success

This short week has been dominated by politics and sweet wines. Most Sauternes and Barsac estates have now released with just a few big names such as Yquem, Climens and de Fargues still to come. This is an exceptional vintage with both quantity and quality. In fact most producers have never witnessed such a straightforward harvest. Rather than the usual headache of multiple trie spaced weeks apart, wine-makers enjoyed a uniform transformation in their vineyards as botrytis spread and concentrated sugars in the grapes. Countless estates told the same story; all grapes harvested in a single week, large yields (comparatively) and exceptional quality. Residual sugar levels are high, but these are balanced, fresh, complex, mineral, really engaging wines that are close in quality to the 2001s.

The star releases include Suduiraut (97-99), Rieussec (95-97) and Coutet (96-98). All scores are taken from The Wine Advocate issue 188. We were also particularly impressed with Doisy Vedrines, which, at £245 per case looks tremendous value.

As with the Left Bank and the Right Bank, we asked our tasting team to list their top five Sauternes/Barsac. Unsurprisingly, Yquem and Climens run out as clear winners, but there were strong showings from Rieussec, Doisy Vedrines, de Fargues and Coutet. Our results can be found below (in order of preference):

Yquem
Climens
Rieussec
Doisy Vedrines
De Fargues
Coutet
Doisy Daene
Suduiraut
Rayne Vigneau

Weekending: Riesling Greats....

Not a piece on tourism, though we are rather taken by the area. Merely a couple of photos of some of Germany's most famous vineyards to demonstrate just how steep, imposing and impressive these steep sites are.

The famous Brauneberger Juffer vineyards comletely dominates the scene in the town of Brauneberg, seen here from Oliver Haag's window.

Looking down the river from the Prum's, with Wehlener Sonnenuhr at left and off in the distance the down of Graach and the Domprobst and Himmelreich vineyards.

Piesporter's Goldtropchen in the distance, a steep, suntrap of a vineyard.

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.)

Germany: Day 4

We wake up in Franken, it's day four and we have appointments at both Horst Sauer and Rudolph Furst. The first is regarded as one of the finest white producers in Germany, while Furst is regarded as one of the finest Red producers. We arrive at Escherndorf's "Lump" vineyard, a majestic horseshoe sweep of vineyard, on time. Sandra and Horst meet us. After a brief tour of their newly modernised winery we are once again shown the depth of quality in 2009; from the driest of Rieslings to a 300g/l Sylvaner Eiswein. Their wines are the purest and most complex expressions of riesling from the limestone soil.

Appointment number two, Furst. The first time we've been to the estate and our focus is on their much lauded Pinot Noirs. The red sandstone slopes of the Main have had Pinot planted here since the 1600s and today the Furst esate comprises 10ha of Pinot Vines in two separate vineyards; Centgrafenburg and Klingenburger. These are very pure wines with high levels of elegance and clarity, with a quiet intensity to the morello cherry fruit and delicate haunting length.