Pétrus 2010 is 100% Merlot, which makes little difference as it has only ever had a tiny amount of Cabernet Franc in it. Only 50% new oak as Olivier (Berrouet) said it was a vintage in which to be careful not to over-make anything. The wine was stunning with an amazingly complex fruited freshness, a cracking start to the day. You might be interested to know that a new cellar is being built at Pétrus at the moment. From Pétrus, we headed across to Cheval Blanc where, as usual, the 2010 blend was different to most other right bank wines with 56% Cabernet Franc and 44% merlot; it was impressive as ever. The Petit Cheval (75% merlot 25% Cabernet Franc) was a little harder to understand but also good.

We were back across to Pomerol (Pétrus’ neighbour in fact) for an in depth visit to Gazin; a wine we have supported for a long time. We had tasted it on several occasions and it showed well again here along with the Hospitalet de Gazin (the second wine and 1/3 the production of Gazin.) A promising pairing and the wines reflect a massive amount of effort is being made here. Interesting to note that, unusually for the vintage, the 2010 had lower levels of tannin than the 2009.

Our last pre-lunch visit was to Louis Mitjavile (son of François) at Domaine de l’Aurage (this has also been covered as a Domaine by Joe Muller – LINK TO JOES BLOG) so rather than repeat ourselves I will leave it to Louis (picture left). The quality of the wines here is staggering and given that (the currently delicious) 2007 was his first vintage, it is impossible not to see this Domaine gaining a cult following, just as Louis father’s Roc de Cambes has done.

It was then lunchtime and off to Café de L’Espérance which is a meat-lovers paradise that Paul had been raving about all week. Having all ordered our slabs of meat (veal mostly,) we were a little mortified to discover that Helen, our driver who we had asked to join us for lunch, was a vegetarian… ooopps. A great lunch was had by all, accompanied by a good bottle of Pavillon de Poyferré 2006. Percy had been warned that the afternoon’s tasting at one of the top Négociants was a gruelling task so took the precaution of an ‘adequate’ pudding.

Lunch done, we were on to the Négociant tasting. Essentially you get a massive menu of nearly 200 wines to choose from all split down by commune. We used this as a chance to re-taste key wines, wines we had disagreed on, wines we hadn’t managed to taste or to taste wines that we had only tasted once and were likely to offer. Combine this with a chance to taste the ‘sweets’ and you get the idea that this was a big tasting. We totaled just under 80 wines and found the experience invaluable. The set up is spectacularly organised and, given that we arrived at 3pm on the Friday of an amazingly busy week, we were tremendously well looked after, including a bottle of Champagne to cleanse the palate at the end. We didn’t argue over many wines and generally reached a consensus. One new thing I took away was how hard the sweets are to taste at this stage; it is unquestionably a strong vintage for them but some showed elegance without guts, some showed texture without acidity and some were even more confusing. Given these are great wines it goes to show that may be they should be tasted later? Or once bottled?

With only the Moueix visit remaining (the next day) – in many ways the most important and the most exciting – there was a slight ‘end of term’ feel about the dinner we had at the Brasserie l’Europe that night, accompanied by Caillou Blanc de Talbot 2008 and Saint-Pierre 2002. We then strolled back to a glass of Calvados, over which we caught up on a bit of the masters golf. A great day.

Please follow us on Twitter @corneyandbarrow for latest 2010 updates.

Further Options

The C & B pilgrimage from Domaine de l’Aurage to Tertre Roteboeuf, (owned by his father, François Mitjavile) just down the road in Saint-Emilion took no time at all.

We were warmly greeted by François, escorted to the back gardens of the house and perched carefully on a wall with a dangerously long drop into the vineyards below. There we listened respectfully to a very passionate, articulate, theatrical and legendary wine maker that is François Mitjavile.

His winemaking principals are based one very firm ideal – “that we are forbidden to create”. It is paramount that the terroir and the climatic conditions of the vintage do all the talking. In brief, it goes a little like this (and I do apologise if I am ‘teaching grandmothers to suck eggs’.)

Vineyard site
The Tertre Roteboeuf vineyard site is the perfect amphitheater, south / east facing and with very steep, sheltered and intermittent terraced slopes. This, in itself, is the perfect sun trap and ‘tool’ to give the grapes every chance to consistently reach optimum ripeness. Another thing was the fact that the vine was trained and trellised so close to the ground – a factor that allows the vine to benefit from the grounds natural warmth.

Terroir 
The site’s soil is also ideal and consists of a semi permeable clay top layer on top of a limestone base. The clay on top allows little water through but most of any rains to run away from the wines. The water that does make it through to the limestone layer is absorbed by the limestone and can then later be released back to the vine when it is desperately needed. All this keeps the vines suitably stressed and again, providing the perfect conditions and platform for the vineyard site and fruit to best express itself.

Winemaker
François now steps in or rather stands off for a little longer and endeavours to give the fruit as much hang time as possible in order to reach optimum ripeness. He states that this permits the wine to develop without “rude or powerful tannins” and reduces any green leaf flavours. This, together with a long maceration or “marinade” period, which degrades the fruit again allows the wine to best express itself. Here starts a beautiful balance between gamey flavours and freshness in the wine.

François’s ideal finished wine is:
• civilised and fresh
• with no powerful of rude tannins
• with a light fruit degradation
• with a magnificent intensity of flavours

The Cellar tasting
Roc de Cambes  2009 (barrel sample):   Due to be bottled in August. This wine is ripe and fresh yet with a fine dusty tannic edge. I thoroughly look forward to seeing the finished product in bottle soon.

Tertre Roteboeuf 2009 (barrel sample): Beautiful sweet berry and intense fruit on the nose. The palate is powerful, tight and fresh with the intensity of ripe fruit flavours continuing with length.

Roc de Cambes 2010 (barrel sample):  Very fresh again with a wonderful sweetness on the palate followed up by fine dusty tannins. 2010 is already looking very good!

Tertre Roteboeuf 2010 (barrel sample): Wow! A restrained yet ripe nose and just an explosion of juicy ripe and intense berry fruit in the mouth, already showing great structure and length on the palate. This will be a classic!

Tertre Roteboeuf 1985: An evolved and developed wine that shows truffles, forest floor and savoury characters yet still remains delicate, fresh and with wonderful length. It is a gentle and civilised wine that the journalists (upon release) said that although it looked good in its youth, would never age well….they were wrong! This was my wine of the two day trip.

In summing up, François Mitjavile is clearly a very passionate talented and artistic winemaker who not only oversees great wines in great years but also the more difficult and demanding ones.

Further Options

From immaculate topiary and raked gravel to a vineyard governed by passion alone. The contrast between the Ch. Hosanna and Domaine de l’Aurage is extreme, yet the journey is only 10 minutes by bus, and the owners are the best of friends. We were here to visit Louis Mitjavile (pictured above), affectionately known as LouLou, who lives in a little patch of heaven on the border of St-Emilion and the Côtes de Castillon. We had a whistle-stop tour of the vineyards and then tasted his delicious wines, standing on the terrace in the early spring sunshine. A real treat: 

Domaine de l’Aurage 2009
The nose boasts ripe black and red fruits with a touch of cherry wood, herbaceous tones, all with a perfumed lift. The palate is delightfully textured with rich, concentrated fruit that carried a freshness balanced to the fine grained supportive tannins. Spice and cedar gently make itself known that leads onto a long and delicious finish.

Domaine de l’Aurage 2010 (Barrel Sample)
Nose offered deep red fruits, kirsch and black currant leaf. The palate was powerful and dense with a muscular fruit structure, high acidity and high soft chalky tannins balanced the intensity. Finish carried a touch of coffee. Once the wine has completed its time in oak, the integration and softened palate will give an enormous mouthful of pleasure.

Further Options

We’ve been dealing with François for over 20 years, and it has taken the last 12 of those to succeed in getting him and his delighful wife Miloute to come to London. The rough plan of attack was a tasting for “Team C&B” then a brief lunch and dinner with friends/customers at Home House….The plan worked a treat…

Team C&B tasting…
François looked genuinely delighted at the sight of the packed C & B dining room. We had gathered to hear him talk us through his and his son Louis’, wines. He started ominously, with the words “To start, I will explain my philosophy on wines…” I will freely admit to this being amongst my least favourite phrases as you normally get a regurgitation of one of a number of different but standard “stances.”

Yet, when François says it you actually let youself in for a masterclass in common sense. Paradox is one of François favorite words, it suits him to think that way, but actually understanding him is exactly that; it is easy to believe he is deliberately contrary but actually exactly the opposite is the case. He is a realist whose is guided by common sense and personal experience. I was won over the first time he used rugby and cigars (amongst many other things) as analogies to describe the character of his two different estates and wines. François is his own man and has his own way of communicating.

So what is his philosophy? Well, he looks to produce wines that are; “a classical understanding of refinement”, “Civilised and authentic” and “natural, pure – no selection, no second wine” and what does he not produce? “a house style where vintage is less relevant”, “powerful, impressive, huge wines” the latter “totally lacks emotion”. We were then on to the paradoxes themselves…Firstly, fruit has to be slightly degraded to allow aromas, picking grapes too early just leads to wines of “stupid strength” that do not have the ability to age gracefully as they will always be harsh and primary. Secondly, “Acidity is a security not a quality” it is a “grip of violence” and is not required for age-worthy wines.

One misconception of François’ wines (quashed by the tasting) is that they do not age because the colours are, from quite early, more mahogany than blue/black. (François says “blue is for Beaujolais”.) I think you can sum this all up by saying François would prefer his bananas on the brown side of yellow and that it is better to risk waiting too long (it is hard to look back through our offers and not find a reference to “brinkmanship”) than to be safe and pick early. So on to the wines…. we tasted as below but blind starting with..

1) Domaine de l’Aurage 2007 (not blind, should I say sighted?) – this is the first vintage from Louis’ (François son) estate in the Côtes de Castillon, some great news from later on over lunch was that Louis will be producing some white too – not much but a little. This wine is an in house favourite and completely trashes any general criticism of 2007, it is rich but drinking well, slightly degraded but not over the top…delicious, 16.5 from me.

2) Tertre Roteboeuf 2007 – now it won’t surprise you to know that François almost prefers the “lesser” vintages as they offer a challenge and as there is nothing that can be done about the weather you can just get on with it. This wine has been seen in its glorious blindness already (link to 2007 BLOG) and it is a great wine without any reference to the vintage but made all the more so on reflection by exactly that. The sort of words François uses and I can’t better them are “Tenderness”, “freshness” and “refined”. There is nothing out of place on this wine it has a toasty but integrated nose with hints of mocha and tobacco but has freshness too, just brilliant. 18 from me.

3) Roc de Cambes 2003 – the year “15,000 old people died in France, so hot that the vines sweated”. This got François on to one of his favourite misconceptions, he said people always “confuse the maturity of the fruit with the maturity of age” François feels this strongly and says that the two should not be confused and are no indication of a lack of ability to age. This wine has tertiary aromas to my mind, tobacco and dried fruits the structure was more apparent and it was the one wine that made me think it needed food, 16 from me.

4) Roc de Cambes 2006 – Until I was told otherwise I was convinced this was the 2005. “Expressive” was the watchword and it is spot on, it will age but it is all jumping out at you now. A staggeringly good drink. 17.5 from me.

5) Tertre Roteboeuf 1997 – “Intensity of tenderness” like the 2007 (why are the “recent” 7′s never textbook vintages?) this was not an easy year but this wine was glorious, balanced with fruits turning tertiary and everything in shape, by no means drink up time. A great wine to show blind at a dinner, I would never have said 1997. 18 from me.

6) Roc de Cambes 2005 – Like 2006 but with more guts on the palate, the one wine I felt “needed” time as it will improve. I remember tasting this at Tertre Roteboeuf with François when out assessing the 2005′s and I bought it then and am very happy now but in no rush. 17-18 from me.

We finished the tasting with some questions and a quick summary of the differences between Roc de Cambes and Tertre Roteboeuf, the expense and detail at both is the same and they are “brothers of the same family”, Roc de Cambes is near to the widest estuary in Europe so has a regulation about it that does lead to consistency where Tertre Roteboeuf has southern slopes that can lend a tropical edge and mean the vineyard can have “hot shocks”.

A quite brilliant tasting ended…

Lunch – Alison, Adam and myself then took François and Miloute to the C&B Bar at Paternoster Square for a quick lunch…what on earth do you serve someone as inquisitive as François? Well Adam decided nothing from Bordeaux for starters!! Miloute loves white wine so Le Montrachet 2005 from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti was a good choice to celebrate with such important and long standing friends. The wine sung brilliantly and shows well despite clearly having the ingredients of greatness over the longterm, ideal given François views on just that ability in a wine. Following on we had a very different proposition – Tenuta di Biserno 2007 from Lodovico Antinori – about which you will hear lots very soon. The conversation flowed on a plethora of subjects – Politics, art and then full circle back to wine.

Dinner at Home House – A blind tasting of the same wines from the morning but for the customers, after François had introduced the estates and his philosophy. Everyone tasted and made their observations before François revealed each wine in turn. There was genuine shock at which was which and the fact that they were drinking and showing so well in relative youth. We then had a brief break and a glass, or two, of Delamotte NV, once back at the tables the dinner commenced:

Roc de Cambes 2003 and Tertre Roteboeuf 2007 with the first course of Serrano Ham with Fresh Figs Rocket Balsamic Dressing – François wanted to show the youngest Tertre with the oldest Roc and it worked.
Roc de Cambes 2005 and Tertre Roteboeuf 1997 with main course of Rack of Lamb, Gratin Dauphinois Potatoes and Green Beans – the opposite now, a Roc for the longer haul with a balanced and almost too drinkable Tertre.

Roc de Cambes 2006 and (Le) Tertre Roteboeuf 1982 (En magnum) – youthful exuberance and perfect maturity. The 1982 was gorgeous….when was the “Le” (if you’ll pardon the ridiculousness of that comment) dropped? I am not sure. This was on the plateau but in no way needed drinking up, balanced and expressive a real real treat. 18.5.

And so…any conclusions? These are great wines…the real winner from the customers I was lucky to speak with was Roc de Cambes, a few of them had always bought ‘Roc” with the Tertre Roteboeuf but almost wondered why…they now knew. I think it is fair to say there are all too few François Mitjaviles in the world let alone wine world but as I can’t change that I will just accept that last thursday was a delight and long may the wonderful wines flow from these two (three) great estates…..François we won’t let you stay away 12 years this time!!

Further Options

Pretty dull and overcast but sun fighting to force through…A trip to a more general négociant tasting was first up this morning. An interesting opportunity to get a feel for the overall quality of the vintage from all the key appellations, including dry whites and stickies. We had an hour and a quarter before we had to hot foot it across the river to meet up with François Mitjavile (on the right below) at Tertre Rôteboeuf, of which more later.

With such a small amount of time the pressure was on. It quickly became apparent that St-Julien was one of the more successful communes. Elsewhere though, there was definitely not the homogeneous success we might have anticipated. Yes there were some undoubted triumphs, including, in no particular order Pichon-Lalande, Beauséjour-Bécot, Cantemerle, Léoville-Barton and Rauzan’s Gassies and Ségla. Margaux too seems to have produced some good wines with the Cantenac’s – Brane and Brown both turning in strong efforts.

However, our comments turned towards the wines that were less than successful, naming no names, but they had a distinct forced, extracted nature to them. Too many tasting notes ended with comments like, “drying tannins” or “searing tannins”. Despite there being some sensational wines there was a bit of a deflated feel that this was perhaps not the vintage to beat them all.

Tertre Rôteboeuf on the other hand was a different case altogether. What a spectacular range of wines, produced by one of the most dynamic and maverick producers I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Francois Mitjavile produces two wines on the Right Bank, Roc de Cambes in the Côtes de Bourg and Tertre Rôteboeuf in St-Emilion. Both sit on amazing terroir of deep clay and limestone. After a guided tour of Tertre Rôteboeuf we went down to taste the wines in the cellar. Sadly Bryce is still not talking to Simon and I after we explained that the first wine offered, 2006 Tertre Rôteboeuf, we had tasted just last week! Sorry Bryce.

2009 Roc and Tertre were quite exceptional and without a shadow of a doubt amongst the very best wines we have tasted thus far. Tertre was unbelievable, having only stopped fermenting 10 days ago. Yes, that really says just ten days ago.

These wines have such amazing purity, texture and opulence of fruit, one almost feels that you could drink them now. Given that 09 was the year my daughter was born, these two will definitely be on the shopping list.

We enjoyed a superb lunch with Francois and his wife accompanied by 1992 and 1989 Tertre Rôteboeuf. The 1992 was lovely; light and soft but given the amazing rains during harvest and vintage it was an incredible success. 1989 was what François described as a “difficult vintage” as was his 2008. Here the fermentation finally stopped in June, yes June, all full 8 months after harvesting. An amazing wine with wonderful, sweet, decadent fruit and amazing intensity – stunning.

Although we had another tasting to head to, there was a distinct theme to the afternoon. We departed Tertre heading for the beautiful rolling hills of the Côtes de Castillon, and François’ son’s property, Domaine de l’Aurage. Work has been going on a pace since Louis took over and the differences are evidet in both vineyard, cellar and most importantly the wines themselves. As with Roc de Cambes, l’Aurage punches seriously above its weight.

After a sleepy trip back to Bordeaux, we gathered for dinner in the Bordeaux institute that is Les Noailles. Good food including yet more beef (I am sure we have eaten a full cow already), was washed down with a bottle of 2007 Carbonnieux Blanc (good but a little too young still) and 2006 Malartic La Gravière. The more I taste 2006 the more I am enjoying them. Wonderful supple fruit and a lovely rich core all wrapped around juicy tannins.

Off to bed, big day tasting the majority of the first growths tomorrow.

Further Options

All they were told was that the wines were from the same vintage and were both from Bordeaux in the £200-£400/cs price bracket…….

Wine 1 – La Grave a Pomerol 2006 (sells at £235ib/cs). Overall score 17 and the view on drinking was now onwards but with no great rush so let’s say 2010-2016. Now what is strange about this score given that we can be quite a critical lot, and yet gave an unknown wine 17 (the scores ranged from 16-17.5+), is that it gets a shocker of a write up from Mr Parker and a poultry 80 points. We’ll have to let him off as it only has one note and that was a year ago. I will see if it get re-tasted now it is bottled.

The contrast in the wines was marked and great to see. The La Grave a more classically inspired wine with such good fruit and decent grip but the sort of claret you can get stuck into. The Roc was more dense (but not heavy) had a richer texture and a little more “lip-gloss”. As we have found over the years this is a great wine to serve blind to someone as it punches well above it’s weight! If you see it available the 2002 and 2004 are really worth buying too and there is a common thread with them and this 2006.

Further Options

I’ve just (I can still taste it) tasted the 2008′s and I have to say the wines are staggeringly good

RdC – Rich , full and delicious on the nose, the fruit is almost fruitcake like (5% Malbec in the blend). There is beautiful definition on the palate and the complexity is ever evolving. The fruit character on the palate is neither really red or black as it is both and more, great length…..Francois may well struggle to make a better Roc. Top tip….tasted blind against other wines well out side it’s price range it does brilliantly.

TRB – Spicily delicious and magestically savoury but still with great fruit..not sure how he does it and have an elegant concentration as well. The oak (100% new but weathered three years and with fine grain) does show on the mid palate, the amoutn of fruit will eat this up in no time. Personally I would buy in magnum and keep aslong as I can….highlight of the week!!

At the end of the tasting we also looked at Le Carmes Haut Brion 2006, Les Carmes is a real favourite and the vineyard is in an amazing spot (see link
http://www.les-carmes-haut-brion.com/gb/vue-ciel-les-carmes-haut-brion.asp) and I love the wine. The 2006 was a little constrained by bottling and not at a glamourous stage but has such potential

Further Options