But, our own estate wines; Château La Clarière, Château le Bourg and Le Presbytère in 2004 have, without any need of encouragement from me, turned out very fine. Not a powerful as the '03s. But rather more attractive.The 'fruit' element rings clear as a bell in the '04s. In '03 there was this jam-like taste. Not surprising when maybe a third of all the grapes were dried raisins when harvested.Mind you, those '03s are notching up the medals and a rate not often seen. Gold medals at competitions in Paris, Macon and Bordeaux in the last weeks. 
For the first time too, I got to taste the claret made by my son Henry. He has been very secretive. He went off on his own and bought grapes in '03 and '04. Made wine in large plastic buckets, in a shed. Unusual in Bordeaux. Henry has always wanted to make wine. Something to do with being dragged round vineyards since birth? His first attempt, age 10, was with a couple of overripe pineapples. There are still traces of it on the cellar ceiling.But his technique has got much better. His Bordeaux wines really impressed me. OK I am a fond Dad. But other wine companies are showing interest and he's sold some in the USA which can't be bad start for a youngster. Working with some of the best people in both France and Australia, he's learnt well and for three years now has made his own wines. He did not want to join the family firm, and I have no problem understanding that. He is doing his own thing. However, now, for this coming vintage we have made the momentous decision that he will be making 'Le Presbytere' for me. This is the Cotes de Castillon we make in the ancient wine cellar of our house in Bordeaux. I will still be doing the manual work, (as I always do) but the science and skill of real top notch winemaking has been beyond me for some years now. I always hire a winemaker. Well, next vintage it will be my son. Hope to get him cheap! Have a look at Henry's website. You could even buy some wine off him though as yet he has hardly any to sell.This is the week in the year when Bordeaux 'receives' the world's wine buyers (''strictement professionnels!''). How it's done fairly well sums up the old Bordeaux way. No so much wine producers selling their wares. More an 'At Home' with Madame La Comtesse. There's a dress code and poker faces all round. The buyers cannot afford to be seen to be enjoying anything in case the prices get whanged right up and the Grands Bordelais for the most part always look like that. They will not, at this stage tell you the prices. That's why this is called 'Primeur' . Its got nothing to do with your fruity baby Beaujolais. This is the first look at the vintage with immediately afterwards, a chance to buy ... and pay ... before the wine has got anywhere near the bottle. It'll spend another year in cask, yet. The Bordelais try and guess the general enthusiasm then pitch the price where they think the market is. Then they add a bit. Then they add some more so as they are sure they won't lose face by selling for less than their neighbours. Mind you it's changing. Everyone is trying to get in on the success of the Greats. Saint Emilion seemed to have a 'Primeurs' tasting going on in every hall, cave and restaurant. I got dragged into a Pizzeria at one point and made to taste! (The proprietor used to work for us and she is a forceful girl.)I was distracted on this trip. Not just by Emmanuelle. But because I was with two school friends (a retired architect and a retired accountant pretending hard to be strictement wine professionnels). We all came here together last in 1965. We spent the week wondering where 40 years had gone. 'Last of the Summer Grand Cru?' Me, as Compo.Anyway we kept meeting up with our lot ... Jon and Mark; the 'Fine Wine Service' boys, Aaron, and of course Clare. As she has, for some years now bought all our fine claret and has a palate at the peak of its powers, it is her you should listen to, not me. I'm just a typical po-faced Bordeaux wine producer. But 2004 as I've said, is an excellent vintage! Clare writes...."I think it is true to say that before our extensive tastings last week, we didn't know what to expect from the 2004 vintage from Bordeaux's stellar properties. Uncharacteristically cautious, the Bordelais have been keeping a lid on this vintage, perhaps aware that any superlatives may ring untrue after the exceptional nature and response to last year's atypical 2003 vintage release.To our delight, what we found during the course of a week's exhaustive tasting and touring of some of the world's greatest winemaking properties, were a certain number of wines that epitomise all that Bordeaux can achieve at its very best; supreme elegance, brilliant purity of expression of terroir, wonderful balance and good ageing potential.In complete contrast to the 2003 vintage, Bordeaux enjoyed a much cooler and longer ripening period for the 2004s. A little rain throughout the ripening period as well as at harvest time refreshed the grapes and ensured balanced levels of sugar and acidity. After the drought conditions of the 2003, Nature compensated with abundant yields and the châteaux were able to green harvest and select bunches to ensure only the best fruit remained on the vines and were ultimately harvested. The best wines have exquisite pure-fruited aromas, great concentration of ripe black berry flavours in the mouth, underlying structure provided by silky smooth tannins, and a savoury finish leaving you wanting more; classic Bordeaux in the best possible sense of the word. Paul Pontallier of Château Margaux said that the 2004 reminded him of the purity of the great 1996 vintage with similar density but a slightly softer character. Jean Guillaume Prats of Château Cos d'Estournel compared his fledgling 2004 to 1985, 1986 and 1990 - all historical vintages in their own right.In our opinion, the appellations on the Left Bank that best represent the classic nature of the vintage are Saint Julien and Pauillac, with Ducru Beaucaillou, Léoville Barton, Talbot, Pontet Canet and Grand Puy Lacoste as shining examples. The appellation of Margaux has also produced some truly beautiful wines Durfort Vivens, Kirwan, Rausan Ségla and Prieuré Lichine steal the show. Other highlights on the left bank include Cos d'Estournel, Montrose and Calon Ségur.Great value should also be found in the Médoc with the likes of Poujeaux, Cantemerle and La Tour Carnet.The Right Bank Merlot-dominated wines are led by the wines of Pavie and Ausone, with our top recommendations also including Larcis Ducasse, Pavie Macquin and Clos Fourtet. D'Aiguilhe in Castillon, a firm favourite with us for several vintages, has over-delivered this year. The 2004 vintage Crus Classés are a must for anyone who loves Bordeaux and anyone who has ever considered buying Bordeaux En Primeur. They are true clarets. We are waiting for the release of the prices and are keeping our fingers crossed for reductions. Rest assured that we will provide a full selection of wines that offer both classic quality and good value.
It's mid March and I'm just about to set off to spend a couple of weeks at the RedHeads wine studio in the McLaren Vale ... the start of the 2005 vintage. Whilst there I'll also be able to assist with the bottling of the 2003 Lot 7 Shiraz.
Lot 7 is the winery's most popular wine ... OK that's probably because it is the least expensive, but it is a lot more than just another inexpensive Aussie shiraz. We see that has registered with many, because we are getting lots of calls asking when the new release is coming. 'Next summer' is the answer, but I'll be posting an invitation to Laithwaites customers at the end of March to collect orders prior to shipment.Just a small deposit will secure your cases, and we will ship only what is reserved this way because, as we hoped when we started the cellar in 2001, the wine has also started selling well in Australia and the USA. But, as it's our winery, we get first refusal (and, but keep this quiet, we get a much cheaper price). Keep an eye out for your invitation. You'll probably remember the photos of the winemakers in the studio stirring their tiny fermenters. Many of those wines have hit astonishing quality heights and are all sold out to customers here in Australia, the USA and now even France.Red Heads is a very small winery.... as the many Laithwaites customers who have called in there will testify. In the last 6 months twice as many customers have visited Red Heds x,000 miles away as have visited our La Clariere winery in Bordeaux! There is just the Studio building the size of an average suburban house, and the Shed out back, about the same size but higher.It impresses me. Lot 7 impresses all of us at Laithwaites. Do put your £25 down when your invitation arrives at the end of the month and look forward to the wines in summer. Next message will be from down under ... till then ... bye"
Quiet start to year for me personally, although the office has been humming... our Great Boom of the autumn seems to be continuing (must thank the customers). Have had time to read all the trade papers and magazines that mount up when you are busy. This thing about how the New World is knocking France out of the wine business. Les Vignerons taking to the streets again ... disaster!
I don't think so.I've been around long enough to see demo's on the streets of France ... Hey, I was there in '68. Spoke no French then so no idea what the 'manifs' were about ... but they were a welcome break from a daily 10 hours on the bottling line. And I was there the next crisis on the night in 1970-something when the winegrowers 'sacked' Narbonne and threw the government men in the canal. It's just the French way. They erupt. Every decade. It works for them. They feel better and government always gives in. 
Now, all the worst wines (wines that dont even come up on our radar) will be distilled to fuel cars. And next year could well be a tiny harvest if nature so decides. And then there'll be shortages again. It's a cycle. But in Australia the wine growers are actually no happier. We will again soon be seeing them wandering hopelessly round the cellar doors of wineries with their shopping bags of ripe fruit (often priceless stuff) trying to get an order. They probably won't burn Adelaide but they may well rip out their vineyards, heartbroken. I read yesterday (in some trade mag or other) that Australia has almost 2,000 wineries, but just 22 of them make 97% of the nation's wine. Those cliched brands lining the shelves of your local supermarket ... and sadly now the High Street retailers too. Don't desert Australia, but find yourself a little guy who's more interested in making wine than accumulating stock options! Real winemaking is not and never has been, all fun.But mostly it is. And of course the customers are having a whoopee time just now ... everything's so cheap. As for the Great British switch in stylistic preference from France to Oz. Again, I'm not so sure. Again because I have been around so long. And those of us 'in the trade' tend to see market trends as just that ... trends. If we were not I guess we wouldn't be any good at our job. And we are not drinking too much new world.Ten or so years ago I was stuffing my own little cellar as full of massive blockbuster Aussie reds as I could lay hands on. Today I am scrabbling around most nights trying to find something that will NOT depth-charge my mouth. "Please", whimpers the wife, "can we just have a nice GENTLE red that loves the roast lamb rather than tries to blow it away". I use up the Black Bombers the nights the boys come round and food is an afterthought. (Not that there are many such nights now we are all knocking 60). Anyway, those avoiders of French wine have picked just the wrong time to go elsewhere because the rest of us have the 2003 vintage to ourselves. Hottest summer in history. Oodles of wines that manage to remain French but have new world sunshine levels that give them an unique juicy roundness. Will we ever see such again? I have a row of sumptuous 2003 Beaujolais Cru wines lined up before me on the table here (which have obviously precipitated this rant). Golly gosh but they are delectable. Wines it is impossible to find anywhere else in the world and so lovely they make New World winemakers cry with frustration. Cos they cant do this. I saw this sight last harvest!The doubters will guffaw, I know. Because Beaujolais is, possibly along with Muscadet now the most naff wine it's possible to order this side of Liebfraumilch.Only the brain dead, or those in a 70's time warp, drink Beaujolais Nouveau. Yes, well who said anything about Beaujolais Nouveau? I'm talking the opposite end of the spectrum; Beaujolais Vieux ... Beaujolais of the type made by old Mademoiselle Chabert, the late Queen of Fleurie, made boss of the village cellar after her father took ill, a position she then held for half a century! She once fetched out for me bottles of Fleurie from the 1920s and 1930s, still drinking beautifully.These are the wines produced in the most favoured vineyards, the 'Cru' (french word we cannot really translate. 'Gold Top' is about as close as we get). Nouveau was something that happened when Beaujolais got too popular, too trendy. When people drank it who didn't know what it was supposed to be. Me, I avoided selling the stuff. It was grown on all the cheap land within the appellation (and, they say, outside of it too). I have walked the Beaujolais hills from end to end and I can tell you it can be freezing on the hilltops where they the make nouveau, and at the same time cozy warm on the steep, sun-facing slopes in Julienas, Morgon, Fleurie and all. Makes a huge difference and the 2003 Cru have a trumpet blast of pure fruit to challenge anything from the southern hemisphere. But held weightless and seductive, siren-like, rather than whacking you over the head with an oak stave. These are the sort of wines I'm drinking now. The New World must be careful, they may risk losing their new reputation if they too push out too much cheapo stuff to satisfy the boom.What the wine trade folk are drinking is French, Italian, Spanish from clever wine producers who are fightiing back in the market place rather than marching to the Prefecture.
