Gold Again in Paris

Early La Clarière harvest scene.
L to R: Monsieur Cassin, me, old Labrut, even older Marthe, young Olivier with his brother

Old Monsieur Cassin who taught me all about wine, eventually asked Barbara and I to take over La Clarière – his Bordeaux vineyard in Castillon – and prove to the world that it was actually a very special place.

That was over 30 years ago and we knew nothing about making wine. But I'd been buying wine for ten years so I knew people who did. With their help we began the long learning curve. 

La Clarière winemaker Henry Laithwaite started young

 

It’s a family thing; our son Henry, born the year – 1980 – we took on the vineyard has been the Château La Clarière Laithwaite winemaker in recent years. Olivier Delage, our farmer, is the son of Guy who tended our vines before him, and Bernadette who has always cooked for the harvest team. Hélène Dupin has always run the place and welcomed visiting customers, especially the many 'Confreres' who like to take their case of La Clarière  every year.

  

Today we heard we'd just won our seventh Gold medal in the great 'Concours de Paris'. One of only two in our district. This takes our total medal tally in all competitions to SEVENTY FIVE! Interestingly, since we began in 1984 we have won at least one medal EVERY VINTAGE … except 1991, when our crop was decimated by both frost and hail.

But the big Paris competition is where we now dominate in a way I don't think any other château has ever come close to emulating: 2006 Silver; 2007 Gold; 2008 Gold; 2009 Silver; 2010 Gold; 2011 Gold.

As a happy Henry says; 'we OWN the Paris'!

I feel sure Monsieur Cassin would be satisfied that we've proved his point; La Clarière truly is a special vineyard.     

The 2011 will not be bottled till next month, but we have the last few bottles of 2010 and 2008 if anyone would like to find out what Gold tastes like.

We will not expand La Clarière, as so many successful Châteaux. It is a small vineyard and will stay small.

However there are new excitements. Henry with his wife Kaye now has a similar-sized vineyard almost next door; Château Verniotte.  He has his own cellars and likes to be a little more daring in his winemaking there. He doesn't enter the Paris competitions, just the London. Doing very well.

Will and the 89-year-old Gunner

My boy, Will the Brewer, made me proud this week. Just wish my Dad, Flight Lieutenant Eric Laithwaite 40 Squadron Bomber Command, could've seen it. Will and his lovely lot at Loose Cannon Brewery, Abingdon, named their latest beer - a real winner - after a very remarkable man. The story made The Oxford Mail.

Hugh Johnson – one man and his bothy

We enjoyed our last weekend at Saling Hall just before Christmas. Hugh and Judy's great Elizabethan house in Great Saling, Essex, was then about to be sold. It is now. No more country-house weekends for us in the most beautiful bit of Essex. 

HJ had taken me down to his rather depleted cellar and Barbara and I had done our bit to reduce the number of bottles that will soon be up for auction. We'd had a last wander around the field that over the years, Hugh had transformed into a great arboretum. Memorable meals in front of the great fireplace. End of an era. 

They bought this house for the price of a London semi back in the Sixties when Hugh's first book became an instant best seller. They raised their family there, but now it’s a bit big for two and remote from the grandchildren.

This past weekend we were reminded of that visit as we ate another memorable fireside meal; soup and sandwiches CAN be memorable. Once again, Hugh's fire was huge. But this time it was in his 'other' dwelling: a two room 'bothy' near Barmouth, North Wales.

No, Hugh is not downsizing quite this much. They are moving back to London. But this ruined bothy came with a small forest which the Johnsons 'adopted' about 30 years ago on the beautiful Barmouth estuary. Several times every year they do the long drive from Essex to tend their trees.  Hugh has three great passions: Wine, Gardening and Trees. Has written sumptuous books on all. He has this incredible energy. Hard to keep up with.

The bothy has no water or electricity and even the fourth wall is quite recent. An old table and camping chairs. But there is that huge fireplace. Logs are of course not a problem. The day was sunny, the fire bright too, and the cauliflower soup and ham sandwiches did in fact make a truly memorable meal. 

But I suppose it was HJ's genius choice of accompanying wine that clinched it: Sercial Madiera! You have to be the world's greatest wine author to feel you can serve a Sercial throughout a meal. Open-air eating in February is too big a challenge for normal table wine. After a morning in the forest something seriously substantial is good. I had thought I was the only person who much prefers the driest of Madieras – Sercial – to the sweetest – Malmsey – which is usually the popular choice.

And I do now understand how come we Brits drank so much more of this type of wine a hundred or so years ago. It is a form of central heating. Strong and sweet but with a stinging bite. Perfect for draughty stone houses after a day in the forest.  Just glad I wasn't driving home.

We had a great weekend in Snowdonia where I hadn't been for 50 years. Back then I climbed all 14 peaks in a day! This time, fat old man, I just looked at them, glass in hand and wondered how on earth...