The Dream Trip

When I received the itinerary for my scholarship trip to Bordeaux I nearly passed out. Not only did it cover many different geographical areas, it also covered the spectrum of chateaux, from large and famous to small and not so famous. When Peter Sichel asked what I would like to see I said “a small chateaux or negociant brand that is actually successful right now.” That, and Petrus, Cheval Blanc, Latour, Leoville-Barton, Lafleur, and Figeac. I couldn’t help myself, and really, could you?

What is amazing is that the Conseils de Bordeaux and the Institute of Master of Wine obliged me everything. To give you an idea, this is the schedule my father and I were given:

Day 1

Ch. de Fieuzal (Leognan)

Ch. Malarctic-Lagraviere (Leognan)

Ch. Smith-Haute-Lafitte (Leognan)

Day 2

Ch. Doisy-Daene (Barsac)

Cordier-Mestrazet (Grand Negocient of Bordeaux)

Day 3

Ch. Leoville Barton (St. Julien)

Ch. Lynch-Bages (Pauillac)

Ch. Latour (Pauillac)

Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou (St. Julien)

Day 4

Ch. Lagrange (St. Julien)

The Winery

Ch. Delem (Fronsac)

Day 5

Ch. Gazin (Pomerol)

Ch.

Ch. Lafleur (Pomerol)

Ch. de Sales (Pomerol)

Day 6

Petrus (Pomerol)

Ch. Cheval Blanc (St. Emilion)

Ch. Figeac (St. Emilion)

Ch. Petit Villages (Pomerol)

Day 7

Ch. Fougas (Cotes de Bourg)

Ch. Monconseil Gazin (Blaye)

Umh, Yeah.

This provided a huge amount of material rich in information to process– richer perhaps than the obscene amounts of foie gras I imbibed and from which my gastric system has still not recovered (By the end I as beginning to remind myself of Ignatius O’Reilly from Confederacy of Dunces). Tasting wines from tetra-pak and bag in box quality to wines that are selling at pornographic prices right now (I take the same stand on some of this pricing as the Supreme Court did on pornography, “I cannot define it but I know it when I see it” (Justice Douglas, I think, maybe Black)) further defined how polarized pricing and quality is in Bordeaux right now. Similar to America, the top 5% of the population has 50% of the wealth, if not more. This lack of parity can be traced to a number of things which I will get into in another post.

That said, despite this major disparity in pricing I tasted better wine made in a more quality fashion from more regions that I can ever remember. Though this means little since I am only 26, my father felt the same way and he has been suffering through tough Bordelaise wines from outlying regions since the 60’s. The management of tannin and oak is excellent and their is a burgeoning class of revamped chateaux in fronsac, lalande-de-pomerol, castillon, bourg, and blaye which can be had at bargain prices even with the limp dollar.

That said, I am still amazed at the isolationism of Bordeaux. Only a couple of proprietors and oenologists even knew what Zinfandel was, or that wine exists in California outside of Napa. I am sure that Australia is just a distant land filled with kangaroos and koala bears to them as well. Additionally, for all the money and technology that are poured into some aspects of the winemaking process, some rather basic things are ignored. Bret and Dekkera are still problems (as they will always be wherever wine, wood, and oxygen come together), and a lot is done to try and prevent issues with it. A lot of chateaux have gone back to finishing malolactic in tank as troubles with bret (not to mention monitoring hundreds of separate ml’s) have increased. However, the traditional method of barrel-to-barrel racking, and rolling is still used, as are the linen covered, wooden bungs and tule reed covered plugs for the racking hole. Particularly on the left bank where proprietors are terrified of looking untraditional for fear that their prices might go down (things that can be hidden like concentrators and reverse osmosis machines are alright though), this goes on. For many of these chateaux that have paid tens of thousands of dollars for concentrators, stainless steel tanks, double sorting trays, etc. the notion of using silicone bungs is still troublesome. Additionally, barrels are typically cleaned using cool and warm water and burnt sulfur. Ozone, the use of which is basically standard operating procedure at most new world wineries, has not even made a dent. Though the crafty Bordelaise have long claimed bret as natural “gout de terroir” (the taste of the earth), it does not take a 4-EP test to tell that it exists in a surpising number of wines that people are paying an enormous amount of money for. I even had one winemaker in Pomerol tell me that he is not worried about bret in his wines that are typically around 4 in pH (!) because his particular piece of soil naturally inhibited it (vintages just a few years old WERE showing bret). It was from similar lapses in logic that many a person was burned at the stake.

Bordeaux is a place going through an awkward and economically hurtful period of realizing that a lot of its wines suck. Remember, the classed growths only represent 3% of the total production of Bordeaux and even some of them are not making wonderful wine (had an excellent Croizet-Bages recently?). How this resolves in the next coming years will be interesting.

I will do the day-by-day recap over the next week in between holiday planning!