Benchmarking in Bordeaux

Bordeaux is flooded like England. Today though, the sun shone as we left Castillon and went north a few miles to see Brigitte at Vieux Château Guibeau in Puisseguin; our oldest supplier. I took a whole mob with me as I often do. Several decades’ worth of my lot have been taken to Guibeau. No better place to experience just what turned me on to wine 50 years ago. Nothing has changed at Guibeau (that's pronounced with a hard 'G' ee - bo). The house is the same, the cellar tidier but the same, the terrace looking east over the dark forests of the Perigord Noir still impressive.

Just the generations change here. The memory of old Henri 'Pappy' Bourlon is still strong. Brigitte reveres him. Papa and Maman still live in the Château. He, about to retire after 40+ years as Puisseguin's Maire. But when his father died suddenly and left no will, 'Young' Henri nearly lost the Château. I remember their tears. Today he reminds me how we helped him out of it by doing a quick deal on his entire crop. I'd forgotten. How on earth did we sell an entire vintage? Guibeau is a very large estate. Customers must've seriously rallied round. And the wine has always been good every year. 

Today, Brigitte has a very lovely 2012 on offer and good wines are getting scarce in Bordeaux so Jean-Marc does a quick deal. Just not the whole crop!   

Then we go back to La Clarière to work on our own blends for 2012 and 2013. The former is about to come out of the barrels, the 2013 about to go in. We keep the wines from different parcelles and varietals separate as much as possible. Complicates life but leaves us able to put together the best blend for the Grand Vin and remove anything we don't think up to standard. With a difficult vintage like '13 this is essential. Sadly we only seem to have a very small amount of top stuff left this year.

Ah well, 'c'est la vie'.

These days we have Henry's Château Verniotte to look at too, also Le Presbytère and the new Châteaux du Bois and Colombe. Long tasting. Luckily we have Jean-Marc who is a master at this work, and Justin Howard-Sneyd; our official Master… of Wine. It’s still a very long session. You will laugh maybe, but I know nothing more draining than this work.

Then … some bright spark has set up a big 'Benchmark' tasting. No backing out. Benchmarking pits our various wines from 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 against each other and a selection of good Castillons and Saint-Emilions. All done 'blind'. Masked bottles.

Henry is very nervous. I know the feeling. Look at this photo from a tasting twenty years ago in this very hall. That's Jean-Claude Berrouet the Pétrus winemaker on my right and Professor Ribereau-Gayon from Bordeaux University on my left. See how scared I look? Henry our winemaker looks the same today.

But he scores better than I ever did. His very own precious Verniotte is No.1 in each vintage except 2011 where La Clarière just shaves it.    

We tell everyone our wines are the equal of anything around here. But we have to keep checking!

2008	Château Verniotte	15.8
2008	Château La Clarière	15.7
2008	Virginie de Valandraud	15.7
2009	Château Verniotte	17.3
2009	Le Presbytere	16.3
2009	Le Chai Montagne St Em	16.2
2010	Verniotte	17.4
2010	Le Presbytere	17.0
2010	Château Joanin Becot	16.9
2011	La Clarière	16.9
2011	Verniotte	16.7
2011	Château d'Aiguilhe	16.5