Talk of tariffs, tannins and teeth for sure…
Important not to over-brush teeth during this as it does more harm than good with all the acid. But definitely no smiling for photos after the first half hour…
They all used to go for fish and chips after the Bordeaux MW tastings in London 30 years ago.
Enjoy.
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To make one bottle of wine:
takes four litres of water.
And one litre of beer.
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Beer after a big tasting is always very welcome.
Day 2 might taste a bit light after day 1. Hopefully the Margauxs are quite powerful.
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Well I kept to time (which is amazing!) but I feel completely frazzled (it was an eight hour drive from Nice yesterday) and today added another 300km, and about sixty embryonic wines.
Looking forward to a relatively early finish tomorrow, but tastings both Saturday and Sunday. (And have to sneak in a Record Store Day visit somehow)
It’s a terrible vintage! But as always there is plenty of wheat in the chaff, and I found a lot of it today. I simply don’t know how Vincent at Montrose could have crafted such a perfect silk purse of a Montrose from the pig’s ear of 24, but he did, and he isn’t alone.
Sunday I taste the ‘Grand Cercle’ wines. These are the small family properties where leaving stuff out because of billionaire ownership is simply not an option. Will be an acid text of the vintage, and probably literally.
But it’s genuinely more interesting than tasting a great, uniform, vintage. Glad I came.
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I did a podcast interview ten days ago and they threw the perpetual “what’s the difference between MW and MS question?” at me.
Plenty of room to trip myself up there, but I think I got away with it.
If you have chronic insomnia, or a half-hour you don’t want to get back, it’s here [link]
(My bit is about 15 minutes in)
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A bottle of the 2021 Clos des Cordeliers Saumur Champigny that we had slightly chilled with bbq pork.
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Today heralded the end of the settled warm spell so a change of tack resulted in the pizza oven making its 2025 debut this evening. Our local farm shop grows and sells asparagus and the decent weather brought it on nicely so lunch was some steamed spears with a quick hollandaise. Worked well with a trocken 2016 Markus Molitor - very nice indeed and we continued it while waiting for the pizza oven to warm up. A delicious 2014 Grenache from David and Nadia Sadie was the perfect accompaniment. It is very much in the modern style showing restraint and is all the better for it. With today being day 2 of the Swartland Revolution in South Africa, which we last attended 10 years ago, this seemed very appropriate. In a couple of months we will be down there again so cannot complain too much.
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Am in Bordeaux for the annual tannin-fest.
This was a welcome respite - the current release of Latour being the perfect 2016.
Even better, Helene gave me the rest of the bottle*!! Fantastic!
…which I shared with the people I had lunch with, obviously. Because I am nice like that.
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Some nice whites this evening with family. Roast chicken and mixed salad with a pomegranate dressing.
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Giscours 2016
I’m on holiday in Seoul and we were very pleased to find a wine shop at the bottom of our road as we were having an evening in after a day of museums.
No jug of any form in the apartment so we opened the bottle for a few hours. Lovely Ruby colour in glass, and a gorgeous nose. Bluecurrants, redcurrants, cassis, very sophisticated chocolate tannins. That follows through on the palate, lively fruit, fine acidity and really elegant tannins blend with the bluecurrants, red cherries and blackcurrant. It’s a beautifully balanced wine, lots of body, the fruit and structure works really well together. Maybe another 3-4 years for peak, but it’s really lovely now.
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Hi Eoink hope you’re having a good time, wines generally rather expensive in Asia for some strange reason. Thankfully the beers are usually cheaper.
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Thanks Pete,we’re having a great time, this was about 50% up from a UK price.
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We were in Indonesia a few years ago and shocked by how much an average bottle of wine from Aus cost.
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Did you find non-Aus wine Pete? When we were in Kota Kinabalu in 2009, it seemed to be exclusively the big brand Australian stuff, all over priced.
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Can’t remember, but it was the same in Thailand.
@Rod_Smith Be careful out there 
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MWs are to doctors as MSs are to nurses. Or so it was explained to me.