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!!