Greetings from a wet and blustery Yorkshire. I thought this might be of interest to you.  We did a wine tasting at New England Stud, Newmarket by kind permission of Frances and Peter Stanley, on Monday night in aid of ‘The National Horseracing Museum’.

The event was well attended and as promised here are the results of our top wines as bought by our customers on the night.  I have included links to our online shop if you would like to find out more about the wine or indeed purchase some wine.   The results are :

White Wines

1st Place   Pinot Grigio Sentito IGT (Stevlins) 2010 at £6.49  – Won by a nose. Very popular with the punters

2nd Place  Basa Rueda Blanco, Telmo Rodriguez 2010 at £7.99      Strong finish from this un-fancied outsider from Spain – huge hit however we had to persuade people to try it. Great wine. Refreshing change from Chard and Sauvignon

3rd Place (Photo Finish)   Both from the same Chardonnay stable

Chardonnay d’Ardeche, Maison Louis Latour 2009 at £7.49  Under rated wine from the un-oaked Chardonnay stable at Maison Latour

Chablis Joseph Drouhin Vaudon 2009 at £12.99   Oozing with quality but should have done better on the night. Brilliant wine and in a different class from 1st and 2nd places

Rosé Wines

1st Place (by several lengths / cases )  Pinot Grigio Sentito IGT Blush (Stevlins) 2010 at £6.49   Easy winner in the end but was put under pressure by Ch de Sours with 1 furlong to go

2nd Place  Chateau de Sours Bordeaux Rosé 2010 (offer price) at £6.99    Heavily backed by the punters, but the lighter (colour) going form the Blush was its undoing !!

Red Wines

1st  Place (Photo Finish) – DRAW

Bourgogne Pinot Noir, Vincent Girardin 2005 at £12.99   Under valued (normally £14.99) and very smooth mid way through. No surprise for us, true to form

Chateau Briand, Cotes de Castillon 2006 at £8.99     Recently hit form and heavily talked about on the night especially about its odds (Value) – beat St Emilion Grand Cru at £16.99

3rd Place (Photo Finish) -3 way tie

Chateau La Roca, Cotes du Roussillon 2009 £6.99   Heavily favoured and very popular with the Punters. Great value

 Escudo Rojo, Baron Philippe de Rothschild,  Chile 2009 at £9.49   From the top quality Mouton Rothschild, Chilean stable.

Gevrey Chambertin VV,  Roche de Bellene 2009 at £24.49   Impressive place considering its handicap and weight (price) penalty. Ridden well by the fancied Nicolas Potel from Burgundy. Watch out for this.   This wine was heavily favoured on the night (first bottle to be finished). Only 6 races (cases) left.

Tasting Bordeaux 2011 En Primeur at Chateau Cos D'Estournal

We have recently released our 2011 Bordeaux En Primeur Review, written by our Managing Director, James Goodhart, we have also produced full PDF reports with tasting notes for each of the wines on our website.

2011 Vintage – En Primeur Bordeaux                                           

The 2011 Bordeaux vintage was a challenging one that started with the driest winter on record, only half the normal level of rain fell between December and April (with the exception of February).

In Bordeaux, they had a very early warm spring, flowering in some places was 3 – 4 weeks earlier than normal followed by a cool, dry summer with a very hot period at the end of June which caused a lot of damage and added to the stress on the vines. Extreme temperatures of over 40C on the 27th / 28th June in some areas caused a loss of up to 25-30% of the yields.

Hail storms also hit Sauternes on 25th April, causing damage in Guiraud and La Tour Blanche. Hail hit parts of Palmer and Margaux and surrounding Chateaux on the 5th June. There was a hail storm that hit the Pauillac North and St Estephe Border on the 1rd Sept. Difficult to know who it hit, some claimed heavier rain, however it wasn’t good.

The wet weather that hit Bordeaux on the 3rd September forced a few properties to pick slightly earlier than they wished, (Probably one week early) which is evident in some slightly green tannins. The grapes were very small due to the dry conditions, too much rain at this stage can swell the grapes causing the skins to spit and starting a natural fermentation on the vines. Fortunately this did not occur.

Terroir has played a big part in the 2011 vintage. The clay soils in Pomerol definitely helped retaining moisture for the vines, resulting in greater consistency in Pomerol compared to St Emilion.  However there are exceptions and this is categorically a vintage to “do your homework and know your winemaker/Chateau” some of them have got it right and others have struggled.

The grape that seems to have shone the most in 2011 is the Cabernet Franc with higher proportions used in the blends than normal, however it slightly depends on the soils.

In terms of quality it’s a mid-table vintage. If I have to place it over the last decade it’s without doubt behind 2009, 2010, 2005, 2000, 2003 and above 2007, 2002, 2006 and 2004 and on par with the 2001 and 2008 vintage. It will probably turnout to be a modern version of the 1988 vintage.

For the 2011 En Primeur, pricing will be a key ingredient. Most chateaux understand they have to reduce prices,  however it needs to be significant.  Time will tell. Fingers crossed that they will listen to the consumer for a change.

I have separated my Bordeaux 2011 En Primeur Report into Right Bank (Pomerol, St Emilion) Left Bank (Margaux, Pauillac, St Julien, St Estephe, Medoc and Pessac-Leognan) and Sauternes/Barsac.

Nice to have a later start after getting to bed at 1am. For the Commanderie Dinner we had de Fieuzal 2000, Haut Marbuzet 2005, Giscours 2002, Kirwan 2002 and Doisy Vedrines 2003. My favourite of the clarets was the Haut Marbuzet 2005 as it had a bit more structure over the de Fieuzal.

We left at 8.15am, heading for St Julien. The plan was get to the UGC tasting at 9.30 at St Julien as I only got ½ way through yesterday for 20 minutes before heading to Leoville Barton for a 10am meeting but we got held up in traffic and had to go straight to Leoville Barton

We started with the Mauvesin Barton (Leoville Bartons new property) which showed much better than when I tasted it at the Vintex tasting on Sunday, which was charming with attractive cassis flavours before moving onto the Langoa and Leoville both of which were good.

From Leoville Barton we headed for Margaux and with 20 minutes to spare we popped into the Sauternes UGC tasting at Chateau Kirwan before swiftly heading to Chateau Margaux. 2 minutes late, we had to do a Starsky and Hutch arrival technique that took the staff on car parking by surprise. Margaux suffered from the hot weather at the end of June which resulted in the loss of 30-35%. The star of the tasting was the Pavillon Blanc but with only 1000 cases it is likely to be re-assuringly expensive.

From Margaux we popped next door to Palmer to taste the Alter Ego and Palmer which were both very good, however hail in June and high temperatures reduced to crop by almost half to 5000 cases (9000 cases in 2010). From Palmer we headed to the UGC Margaux tasting Marquis de Terme where we tasted 16 Margauxs before lunch. Rauzan Segla, Malescot and Giscours where all good. I was impressed by Kirwan (Big step up in quality) and also du Tertre.

After a 10 minute lunch we headed off to Lagrange to finish the UGC St Julien and St Estephe tasting and with 30 minutes to spare before our re-scheduled  Ducru Beaucaillou tasting we popped up to Chateau de Camensac for the Medoc and Listrac tastings as I need to taste Cantemerle, La Tour Carnet and La Lagune as well as Beaumont, Malescasse and Greysac.

Arriving at Ducru Beaucaillou with 2 minutes to spare we where welcomed by the glamour girls. We started with the Lalande Borie, La Croix de Beaucaillou and the Ducru itself which was impressive.

From Ducru we headed to the Cru Bourgeois tasting at D’Arsac which was hard work. Tasting over 40 wines with a lot of disappointment.   Many of the wines that showed good fruit unfortunately had dry tannins and often a slight burnt fruit character.

With over 400 wines tasted in 5 days I’m looking forward to a pint of cool, sophisticated, creamy Theakston’s tomorrow night. 

I will over the next week gather my thoughts and put my report together.  It is thought that this campaign may kick off quite quickly and there will be many decisions to be made.  In a vintage like this it has been extremely helpful to do the whole week of tastings, there are some good wines our there, some though have disappointed.  Pricing will be key to the success however on the other hand we have some wines that are down on yields some by 20-30%, this will no doubt play some part in the pricing.

Leaving Bordeaux at 7.15 am we arrived at Calon Segur for 8.30. The wines were charming, that will give a lot of pleasure in the mid-term.

Then onto Montrose for a formal tasting and then Cos which was an interesting comparison. Cos was the winner for me.

From Cos we headed to Lafite. Carruades did little for me while the Duhart Milon was at least a couple of tiers above the Carruades and Lafite was impressive with a touch of the 2010 concentration with black fruits, graphite, cassis and a touch of dark chocolate.

With Lafite still lingering in the palate we popped across to neighbouring Mouton Rothschild where we tasted the Petit Mouton, D’Armailhac, Clerc Milon and Mouton Rothschild itself which I struggled with as it was unyielding but this is fairly common and it often shows it true colour after its been bottled.

From Mouton we popped to Grand Puy Lacoste, one of my star buys for 2010. It was good but not as good as the 2010 – I really enjoyed the Haut Batailley as it had finesse with a good balance between Summer fruit, cassis and an uplifting acidity.

From GPL we headed for Pontet Cantet where we had a fantastic lunch and tasted their biodynamic wine which was attractive and a good lesson in some of the techniques they use. It is common to head the vines after flowering which means that the vines stop growing outwards. It increased the grape bunches by 30%. Pontet Canet do head the vines  which means they don’t have to green harvest later to reduce the yields. They don’t have to defoliate as the leaves don’t cover the grape and they have more airflow around the bunches which helps stop quite a lot of rot when the conditions are damp.

From Ponet Canet we went to St Julien’s Leoville Lascases. Here we also tasted Fugue de Nenin, Nenin, Chapelle de Potensac (2nd wine of Potensac), Le Petit Lion (2nd wine of Leovilles Lascases, Clos du Marquis and Leoville Lascases. Clos du Marquis is now a first wine in its own right coming from a plot that is surrounded by Talbot, Leoville Poyferre, Leoville Barton and Pichon Lalande.

From Lascases we went to Ducru Beaucaillou but missed our slot so we have re-arranged for tomorrow and headed to the UGC tasting Chateau Lagrange where I got half way through before heading back to Bordeaux for the D’Yquem launch of the 2011 which we compared to 1997, the latter was like crème brulee in the glass. We then headed to the Commanderie du Bontemps

I was really impressed by Pichon Baron, Pichon Lalande and Lynch Bages and enjoyed Grand Puy Ducasse which was very pleasant.

Busy last day tomorrow with loads to cram in. Plan to finish the UGC tasting at Lagrange, Leoville Barton at 10am, Margaux at 11am, UGC Margaux tasting, UGC Sauternes tasting at Kirwan, UGC Cru Bourgeois and also I need to try the La Lagune.

Thank you for all your comments and interest.

Started at Pavie at 7.30 UK time. Where we tasted 6 wines. My favourite was Monbouquet and Bellevue Mondotte. Thought the Pavie Decasse although good, fell a bit short in the palate while the Pavie was a monster. Forget breakfast it was like breakfast followed by a big lunch.

From Pavie we went to Canon. Liked it but missing the extra dimension and finesse of the 2010 which we also retasted at the same time.

We then had 1/2 an hour to spare so we popped into the UGC St Emilion tasting at Soutard before heading to the very impressive newly built cellars at Cheval Blanc where we also got the chance to taste D’Yquem. So good I forgot to spit!!

From Cheval Blanc we popped around the corner to Evangile and the onto VCC before heading to the UGC Pomerol tastings at Beauregard where we also had lunch….

The weather has been much colder today.  No snow like forcast at home but its certainly got a bite to the air.

After Lunch I had no direct tasting at individual Chateaux so I went back to finish the UGC St Emilion tasting at Soutard where I tasted Troplong Mondot, Soutard itself, La Couspaude as well as re-tasting Pavie Macquin and Larcis Ducasse.

Deciding that I had enough Merlot I headed back to Bordeaux and round the Rocarde to the Pessac Leognan / Graves tasting at Chateau de Fieuzal. I refreshed my palate by doing the whites first which were very good, with my favourites being Smith Haut Lafitte and Domaine de Chevalier.

On the reds by favourites were Haut Bergey, Domaine de Chevalier and Haut Bailly while the Larrivet Haut Brion with its slightly unyielding nose had an interesting chocolate texture that I’m sure will give pleasure to many.

Finished tasting at 4.30pm. Thought about popping up to Margaux to decided my palate needed a rest after 8 hours and an early start as we need to be at Calon Segur for the start of day 4 at 7.30 am UK time……

Started early this morning, our first tasting at 9am in the Syndicat de St Emilion. I decided to start with the satellites – St Georges St Emilion, Lussac, Fronsac, Montagne St Emilion and Puisseguin before starting to wade through the St Emilion and Grand Cru.  Fresher samples certainly made a difference from yesterday which is good, nearly all made up some mileage this morning and have resulted in much better quality.

Overall the quality is better than I expected, good fruit, less bitter characters showing through. Many of the wines are showing well, though I feel some are more for the shorter term (they will start drinking earlier).

Just finished the Grand Cru Classe tasting at Villemaurine. A few juicy little numbers.  Larcis Ducasse shone above most even though it was very modern style… it was good.

Now off to Lalande de Pomerol.  An interesting afternoon. Started at the Syndicat de Pomerol (Town Hall) where there was about 60 Pomerols to tasted. I really liked Rouget and La Croix de Gay Tasted about 30 Pomerols before heading off to tasted Angelus at Chateau La Fleur de Bouard in Lalande de Pomerol. It was an interesting tasting as I tasted some  new  wines like Clos de Madeleine that only produces 750 cases per year and Clos Chaumont that we bought back in 2001. 

From the Angelus we headed into Libourne for the Moueix tasting where we tasted Certan de May, Providence, La Fleur Petrus, Hosanna, Trotanoy, La Fleur Gazin and Magdelaine plus a few others. My favourites where Hosanna and Madeglaine and I enjoyed Puy-Blanquet St Emilion at the entry level.

Back to the car we took the Bergerac road to get to the Grappa tasting which was held at La Gaffeliere that was showing all Stephane Derenoncourt wines. Sadly I only got a chance to taste the top wines, Smith Haut Lafitte, Les Carmes Haut Brion, Domaine Chevalier, Poujeaux, Petit Village, Larcis Ducasse, La Gaffeliere, Clos Fourtet, Pavie Macquin and Beausejour Duffau before closing stumps at 6.30 with a craving for a beer to clean the palate !!

Pavie for Breakfast tomorrow at 7.30 am UK time……

Sunday 1st April 2012 – Bordeaux, James Goodhart

Felt a bit like an April fool was being played on me, having left Masham at 1am this morning. Tried to get a couple of hours sleep but as soon as I got into bed the biggest and loudest firework display kicked off but at least the children slept through it.

Numerous people trying to catch taxis in Masham as I drove through and 3 hours and 10 minutes later checked in at Luton Airport.   Even better no queue at check in and only 10 minutes through security. Bad news was I had to wait 15 Minutes for starbucks to open at 5am!

Plane was packed managed to get a little rest before we were landing, picked up the car and onto the first tasting of the week.  I am staying with Bill Blatch in Bordeaux which is just great.  He is little known outside the wine world, however ask anyone involved in buying Bordeaux wine and his name is top of the list. 

I arrived at my first tasting at 11am, feeling pretty good.  Decided to taste the Sauternes first as I needed the sugar for a bit of a lift.  Tasted 36 sauternes.  Plenty of marmalade.  Just the thing for breakfast,  Marmalade on toast without the toast!

The 2011 Bordeaux vintage is not going to be easy, it’s  a difficult vintage. I haven’t tasted any of the serious stuff yet but I have been trying to get my head around what happened. There were two really hot days at the end of June (26th / 27th June) when the temperatures rose to over 100 C. It’s fairly common now for defoliation to take place in the vineyard where they take the leaves off the vines that are covering the bunches of grapes to get optimum ripeness and riper tannins. Many vineyards had just done this just before the hot weather causing the vines a lot a stress / stock. In St Emilion I have been told that this resulted in a loss of 25% of the crop.

I have spent the day with Bill Blatch trying to work out a similar vintage but we cant find one. Closest in terms to similar weather would be 2006 and 1999 but the style of the wines are completely different which the exception of some of the dry tannins present in 2006 are in the 2011s. A lot of wines that I tasted had slightly burnt fruits which often led to a slightly bitter style, liquorice in some cases slightly sandy / dusty tannins

There are some good wines but it’s a roller coaster of a ride. I preferred some of the simple Medoc wines today over their bigger name Haut Medoc. Some of the Margaux’s today were good but the highest level we have tasted was the odd 5th Growth, like Cantemerle, Croizet Bages, Marquis de Terme and Rauzan Gassies. Most of the cask samples were prepared on the 28th / 29th so they weren’t the freshest.  Will try them again throughout the week.

Total of 72 red wines tasted this afternoon. Sauternes are my star buy to date,  impressed with Rabaud – Promis, de Malle, Nairac, du Veyras, Suduiraut and one of my old favourites Raymond Lafon.

Early to bed as up with the sparrows tomorrow for tomorrow tastings in Pomerol and St Emilion, mainly tasting the wines of the Petit Chateaux  and Petrus in the afternoon

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For more information on En Primeur wine please go to our website www.bcfw.co.uk/wineadvisor

Wine critic Robert Parker released his report on the Bordeaux 2009 vintage earlier this month.  Since then it has been reported that the market responded to the increase in value of US$100 million.  He called the 2009 Bordeaux Vintage “ The Greatest Vintage that I have ever tasted”.

Nineteen wines were awarded 100 points.  If you bought the following En Primeur they have all got 100 points from Parker, well done. The price in brackets is the En Primeur release price.

Chateau Clinet, Pomerol 2009 at £2200 (£1100), Chateau Leoville Poyferre 2009 at £1800 (£1000), Chateau Pontet Canet, Pauillac 2009 at £1800 (£990), Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte, Pessac 2009 at £750 (£1600), Chateau Montrose, St Estephe 2009 at £1350 (£2550).

Unfortunately we don’t have any of the 100 point wines left.  However in 2009 where the quality was fantatic from the Crus Bourgeois all the way up to the top!  We still have some 2009s which are worth buying see our list on our website.

We will be in Bordeaux next month for the 2011 En Primeur tastings – if you would like to follow us please contact the office for a copy of our vintage report and follow us on twitter @boncoeurwine and we will also do a daily blog from the tastings.

Despite the cold winter days we have been tasting some fabulous roses including the new 2011 vintage from Chateau de Sours.  We are delighted to have been re-selected to do our annual ex cellars offer.   Martin Krajewski has maintained a great budget beating deal, and we are able to offer it at £8.49 (inc VAT) per bottle.   This is only on offer until Friday 9th March 2012.

2011 proved to be a vintage with challenging growing conditions which started with a Spring  heat wave and temperatures sawed to over 30 degrees.  In fact we were out in Bordeaux last April doing the Bordeaux En Primeur tastings and it was so hot you really needed sun screen, not that I had any!  This heat wave shocked the vines out of their dormant state and pushed them much further on than usual.  Flowering was therefore early though the flowering was even, which was good.  Through June and July to August the weather proved inconsistent with great fluctuations in heat, rain, drought and humidity.   However despite these challenging conditions the team has produced a great vintage.

Chateau de Sours broke all records of early picking and started harvesting on 17^th August for the sparkling wines and 25^th for the still wines.

Recently described by Matthew Jukes, wine writer for Money Week as “The most thrilling rose of the year” the team at Chateau de Sours have surpassed themselves for this fabulous 2011 vintage.

“Chateau de Sours Rose 2011 is a vibrant, light and strawberry pink in colour.  Summer fruits are in abundance on the nose, enhanced with strawberries and a bunch of red currants.  Pear drops on the front of the palate, strawberry and bubblegum with a well balanced citrus and grapefruit uplifting acidity that flows through into a refreshing smooth finish.  There’s a fantastic underlying steely minerality that adds extra depth and complexity.  A real must for the summer.”   Tasted January 2011 James Goodhart

The blend is predominantly Merlot with Cabernet Franc, 12.5% alcohol. 

If you would like to buy online go to our website Chateau de Sours Bordeaux Rose 2011 .

Our wine of the week is  a new feature to help us let you know what we think is drinking well, a best buy, on special offer or simply cannot be missed!!

All our staff in the office have tasted this wine so if you have any questions please call us we will be happy to give you some advice.

We found this wine whilst tasting in Bordeaux with Bill Blatch.  Bill is one of the wine worlds secret agents.  He is a leading authority on Bordeaux wine and has the ear of many a wine critic wanting to know what going on in Bordeaux.

Chateau Baby 2009

This wine is produced by Chateau Brisson in Cotes de Castillon.  Made from 100% Merlot grapes.  On the nose attractive aromas of ripe plums with a hint of violets.   Very pure, soft easy drinking Merlot (no oak at all).  Generous, warm dark cherry fruit and a hint of liquorice. Drink now until 2016.   ( SG Wine Tasting Note Jan 2012).

This wine is currently reduced in our wine sale from £7.99 to £6.99 a bottle, whilst stocks last.

Buy Chateau Baby on our website