Confessions of a Wino

Is 2004 Bordeaux ready to drink yet? In 2010, Max Wine Gallery right in the centre of the home of wine, was serving 2004 first growths to those (including me) prepared to pay €15 for a tiny 25ml taster sample. Even back then it tasted just great.

2004 was not the most notable of years, hijacked as it was after the millennial 2000 and just before the vintage of a lifetime, 2005. At least that kept the critics quiet until the vintage of an aeon, 2009, ripped up the price books and had mouths foaming like Englishmen (and possibly Chinamen) out in the midday sun.

(more…)

On a frenzied wine tour through Bordeaux it’s nice to take a relaxing break for a long lunch, and you could do much worse than stop in Pauillac during your Medoc leg.

La Salamandre, looking out directly over the river is charming, top quality, well presented, and has a great wine list.

(more…)

In what turned out to be the fortunate circumstance of a cancelled flight, I found myself in Bordeaux for an unexpected extra night.  This gave me the opportunity to fulfil a bit of a dream.

Entering through the unassuming entrance of Max Wine Gallery you could be forgiven for thinking that you are entering a posh handbag or clothes boutique.  But, inspect further and inside you will find not Chloe or Hermès, but brands a bit closer to my heart, and liver.

Bottles of various top growths from Médoc, St Emilion and Sauternes are imprisoned within glass cases but with tempting little spouts indicating a tad of promiscuity to willing punters.  A wino heaven, although at a price.

(more…)

Silence please.  There is a time and a place for a little reverence.  I have just opened my first bottle of a very important wine.  Château Lynch-Bages 2005.  A wine that even en-primeur, cost me over £50 per bottle.

The Sunday Times Wine Club advised me to wait until 2010, but I could be dead by then and I am an impatient man….oh and I have 12 bottles so I can afford to experiment early.  So Fred had a placed a fillet steak on the skillet and I released the special one from its enclosure.

(more…)

At £17.50, this must one of the bargains of the whole wine world.  The catch is that you have to be a member of the Wine Society.  But don’t worry, they let anyone in these days.  You don’t need to roll up one trouser leg and hop through the door like when I joined.  No entrance exam, you don’t need to know anything about wine.  You can even have an empty bank account, as it is one of the best value (only budgies go cheap) wine retailers in the UK.

With its rich history and extensive storage, frequent offers of interesting, old, and remarkably priced wines regularly appear in my email inbox.  I have neither the storage space, nor stomach capacity, or indeed material wealth to buy them all so I am extremely selective.

(more…)

When I say revisited, I am lying.  I never actually visited Ch. Batailley in the first place and nor did I this time.  I’ve drunk the wine a number of times though, and in my last tasting of 2004, I decided it was too early to drink.  Venerable US critic, Robert Parker, agrees labelling 2004 Pauillac as “still tannic”.  So why open another bottle now then?  Good question.  Erm, I panicked…

(more…)

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the latest season of CSI Miami is getting totally preposterous?  David Caruso as Lieutenant Horatio Caine was, after all, one of the coolest police officers on TV.  But the other night, with less than four minutes until a bomb destroyed a car in his compound, he calmly sat in it, then drove it down a 40 mile freeway, across two bridges, through a set of traffic lights, past numerous residences and deposited it on a beach (thankfully free of sunbathers) and coolly walked away from the car as it exploded in the background.  Puh-lease!  I’m going to stick to the vintage episodes when, for me, Caine was the perfect successor to the dysfunctional Las Vegas based Grissom, who himself was getting a bit preposterous.

Whilst on the topic of vintages, I found occasion to open a bottle I’ve been keeping for a few years.

(more…)

I’ve just received my first case of 2004 en primeur and although arguably a bit early to drink, I always like to have a taste of any wine I receive.

I’m not sure how much this wine cost me in the end, since I lost my records.  The only offering I could find online was in magnums from Berry Bros and Rudd at an equivalent to £20.75 per bottle.

I got strawberries dipped in dark chocolate and champagne sauce. It opened up after while to reveal notes of blackcurrant and grapefruit. At 13%, a powerful wine but not over-alcoholic.

Verdict – very nice wine but needs longer in the bottle.  The Winediva also seems to like 2004 Batailley although warns of patchy quality around Bordeaux from that vintage.

The first Batailley I tried was from the 1996 vintage and I remember thinking what good value it was for the quality of the wine.  This one again is good value.  2004 may not be the best year ever in Bordeaux especially when compared to the remarkable, 2000, 2003 and 2005 vintages that ambushed it.  But I like it and very much look forward to trying my next bottle…in a year or so.

Take a red bell pepper, half it then add a dash of fresh lime juice and cook over an oak smoked barbecue.  Then serve it with some fresh berry fruits.  This rather specific and hyper-pretentious description of Grand-Puy-Lacoste came to me as I finished off the bottle with my brain somewhat the worse for wear.

I bought two Bordeaux wines en primeur from the 2003 vintage.  I have already posted about Château du Tetre from Margaux.  The other was Grand-Puy-Lacoste from Pauillac.

The wines are said to be more robust in Pauillac.  Personally I love the subtlety of Margaux.  However, Pauillac is one of the (if not THE) most respected wine regions in the world so I must take it seriously.

A very promising wine.  Maybe just needs some more time in the bottle.  I think 2003 was a good year so I may seek out some cheaper wines from this vintage.  Especially now that everyone is falling over themselves to spend every penny they possess on 2005…