2009 Burgundy

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A photo from Lucien Le Moine published to twitter by James Suckling (Senior Editor at Wine Spectator) of grapes in the grand cru Clos de la Roche. Never one to miss a bit of hype they’re calling it ‘A true vintage of the century in Burgundy’. Never mind that there’s another 90 years to go before we can speculate accurately on that!

Yquem and Latour

As promised photos from Bordeaux as we approach the harvest. First up, rotting grapes at Yquem…

The first signs of botrytis infection on the Sémillon grapes at Chateau d'Yquem. Monday August 31st 2009

“When Botrytis develops as it should, it succeeds in ‘contaminating’ the grapes, turning them brown, invading the pulp, and utterly transforming the flavours. Botrytis also makes the skins porous, enabling water to evaporate from the inside as the juice becomes increasingly concentrated. This juice reaches sugar levels far greater than those found at the end of normal ripening: 18 -30° potential alcohol, ie 300-600 grams of sugar per litre! Only sufficiently concentrated, botrytised grapes are harvested.” (Taken from Yquem’s visitors brochure).

The same brochure postulates that the early morning mists that help bring the onset of botrytis “are due to the humidity of thousands of hectares of pine trees to the south and west, as well as the proximity of the Cerons River”. This may be so but the pine forests are a relatively new feature of the landscape,

“Less than two centuries ago, most of the Landes was a two million hectare heath, five days long and three days wide. Almost nothing grew there but gorse, broom, heather, moor grass, helianthemums and lichens” (The Discovery Of France, Graham Robb p269).

A law of 1857 galvanised the draining of the area and the planting of pines. By 1889 the afforestation was complete. Yet before this mighty forest was grown there were vintages of Yquem where the benefits of botrytis are all too obvious, most notably the 1847 which, in the words of Michael Broadbent, is “unquestionably the greatest-ever Sauternes vintage” and, infamously, the 1784, of which Thomas Jefferson was so keen he wanted 250 bottles for personal use during his residency in France.

A legend!

On display in the cellars at Yquem were bottles of the legendary vintages including this 1893 about which Broadbent writes

“Tasted on three occasions, all memorable. First, in 1995 at Peter Ziegler’s outstanding rare wine tasting at the Schlosshotel Erbach: warm orange-amber; deep, rich, honeyed bouquet reminiscent of ripe apricots, peaches and overripe grapes; very rich, powerful, fairly high volatile acidity, alcoholic, impressive. Nest, in 1996, served with foie gras at a great wine dinner in Oslo hosted by a major collector of wine, Christian Sveaas: a similar description to the bottle tasted in 1995: incredible power, almost pungent, in perfect condition (I gave it 6 stars!) Most recently, on the fourth day of Hardy Rodenstock’s Yquem marathon in Munich, a bottle recorked at the Chateau in 1996 and, frankly, not as good, more mahogany in the colour, whiff of ‘varnish’ on the nose and with bitter caramelised orange in the aftertaste”

Fancy a bottle? Have a look here

Only 11 bottles of the 1865 left!

Some pretty poor wartime vintages of Latour here, though the 1863 and 1865 are apparently rather good. To my shame I’ve only tried Latour once; the 1998 in 2001. It was swingeingly tannic but had a core of jet black fruit underneath. I had the great pleasure of selling a couple of bottles of the 1934 to a rather grumpy Belgravian gentleman. He reported them to be fine but a bit old. Very much like himself.

Apologies for the blurring

Chateau Latour have the smallest production of Grand Vin label wine of any of  the 1855 first growths. Not that they’re exactly Burgundian in their scale of production though.

The weather in Bordeaux has been a bit dodgy the last couple of days but by all accounts some rain is needed and the forecast looks like brightening up towards the end of the week. Still looking very positive! More info here (anybody know how I can permanently embed woozor into the wordpress coding for this blog?)

On an entirely different note the wine I drank last night was the 2008 Assyrtiko from the Hatzidakis Winery in Santorini. Crisp and clean, slightly waxy nose, melon fresh palate, minerally finish. Went nicely with some spicy corn fritters I made from Saturday’s left over barbecued cobs too.

2009. Hype Hype Hurrah

Thanks for stopping by to read my first blog entry. This is a blog about wine; how wine fits into the world and how I fit into the world of wine.

There are a lot of people writing about wine, many of whom I admire greatly and would dearly love to emulate. I hope you will find something of interest along the way.

One of the reasons I wanted to start this was to document what may turn out to be of the great vintages in France, Bordeaux in particular. Not so long ago the speed of information that emanated from the vineyards there was slow at best. Of course the internet has changed that and almost before a grape has been picked this year has being seized upon as something extraordinary by voices that echo across blogs and rss feeds around the world.

I have my own little contribution to the chatter to make tonight. My girlfriend has spent today escorting a group of her work colleagues around Bordeaux during which time she has visited Chateau Latour in Pauillac and Chateau d’Yquem in Sauternes. She reports back that the staff at Yquem are bracing themselves for a superb vintage providing the rain holds off. There is already botrytis setting in on the grapes. Surely this must be some of the earliest botrytis in Yquem’s history?

At Latour the vines are healthy and unaffected by hail that hit other areas around Bordeaux back in May. Picking could begin as early as next week for the Merlot.

For friends who have had babies this year (and there’s a lot of them judging by my facebook news feed) this could be a vintage well worthy of laying down for their nippers 18th and 21st birthdays. I’ll be 57 when those new-borns are turning 21. I can envisage myself as the jolly ‘uncle-who-knows-about-wine’ pontificating at length about the beauty of the 09s. (I’m probably scowling at their lack or restraint in draining their glasses as quickly as possible as well).

My bank account won’t allow for many cases of Latour or Yquem unless something truly amazing happens between now and Spring 2010 when the en primeur sales begin. A case of Chasse Spleen, d’Angludet or Sociando Mallet if I’m lucky will have to do. Fortunately, while Bordeaux was my first point of entry into wine, I am not so smitten with it that I can’t buy elsewhere. This week Jim Budd has placed encouraging reports from the Loire vignoble. I adore the Chenin Blancs and Cabernet Francs from Anjou and Touraine and will certainly look to put some away if the vintage is as good as promised.

In Alsace Domaine Albert Mann have reported via facebook that the vineyards are looking great, wonderful riesling is a hard to resist thing!

Clive Coates reports on his website that everything is pointing towards a great vintage along the Cote d’Or too.  No doubt if all goes well over the next month we’ll hear reports about the re-awakening of the investment wine markets as a sure sign of economic recovery.

My girlfriend is back tomorrow with photos of botrytis at Yquem. I will endeavour to publish as quickly as I can thereafter.