I went last week to Mendoza, Argentina, for a conference on wine tourism held by the Great Wine Capitals, a group of eight cities - Bordeaux, Bilbao-Rioja, Napa-San Francisco, Cape Town, Melbourne, Florence, Oporto and Mendoza - that are working together to attract wine lovers to their regions. it's a great idea - neither old nor new world but just 'wine world'

A good summary (with quotes from my speech) can be found at the following link:
http://www.wine.co.za/news/news.aspx?NEWSID=9399

This week I've tasted two wines - one of which has been in my garage for the past two years, the other I was given on a tour of Chateau Clos Dady in Sauternes, that are just amazing, and worth tracking down.

The first is from Chateau Le Luc Regula in La Reole (a very pretty chateau but unfortunately for them stuck right down at the bottom of Entre deux Mers, so not exactly great for passing trade). The wine is called Max (after the owner Max Poussard), and was made in the very hot year of 2003, as it's a 100% petit verdot, which doesn't normally ripen enough round here. It's fairly expensive, selling at around 16 euros in France (and there's very little of it left from what I understand), but it's gorgeous - enormously delicate in the way that merlot and cabernet sauvignon never achieve, and great with the chicken, prawn and avocado salad that I was sampling!
www.chateau-regula.com/

The second wine was more traditional of Bordeaux, but still produced in an entirely modern way. The red Graves wine of Chateau Clos Dady in Sauternes (which in itself is a very modern take on Sauternes, with no cloying heavinness), it's called Clos des Remparts and is made in very limited edition, very boutique winemaking with tiny yields and lots of new oak. It's very very smooth, and probably one of my favourite smaller Bordeaux since I discovered Chateau de Seuil white Graves about a month ago. And the owners are great, the epitome of hip new winemaking (oh, and full marks to Christophe for his excellent hairstyle).
www.clos-dady.com

Chateau de Sours rose has long been considered one of Bordeaux's best rose wines, exporting most of its 20,000 production. Probably no coincidence that it was run first by Esme Johnson of Majestic Wine Warehouses and now by another Brit, Martin Krajewski. They've just something wonderful for Bordeaux - launched a genuinely unexpected product that promises to sell well and create new market demand.

The chateau itself has also just been given a jaw-droppingly expensive makeover - so if you're around St Quentin de Baron, I recommend stopping by. www.chateaudesours.com

I recently visited the chateau for a story on decanter.com (www.decanter.co.uk/news/91567.html), and spoke to Martin and his winemaker, Sebastian Lamothe.

Why don't more Bordeaux winemakers think of playing to the rose market? And particularly with fresh ideas like making a sparkling version? 'There's a tendancy in Bordeaux to dismiss rose, and to make clairet, which is just the run-off, byproduct of red wine. We harvest our grapes earlier if they are to be used for rose, in order to retain freshness.'

Oh, and it tastes pretty good...

Just continuing from the other day. Bordeaux Oxygene is a good idea that can easily stall if they don't find a different way to appoach the problem of consumers being bored and/or confused by bordeaux.
They had a tasting planned in London last month which they cancelled, because they didn't feel they had a solid enough idea to get the right levels of press, and I think they were quite right to do so. But they need to come up with something fast before everyone loses interest.
My suggestion would be to take their idea to an international level - not just to talk about their own passion and fresh ideas, but to link with other young wine producers from their 'competitor' countries, such as California and Australia, and do joint tastings, technical workshops / days on vineyard techniques / blending /food and wine matching / wine and music etc.
Works for both, as Bordeaux needs to be seen as more international, while many new world countries are developing the idea of terroir and regional differentiation - something that bordeaux is more than expert on!
The combination would be far more likely to get press attention, and to tap into the newer younger wine drinking demographic that everyone is talking about (the 'second babyboomers' as they were described in a US poll the other week - biggest boom in young wine drinkers since the 60s).

I'm going to write about this at more length soon, but this group has been getting a lot of press attention since its launch in December - a group of young (that means under 35) winemakers who are all friends, and who want to promote this idea of a 'new bordeaux' without the stuffiness and inaccessibility of their parents.

Bordeaux Oxygène has the following members:

Juliette Bécot, Château Joanin Bécot, Côtes de Castillon
Jean-Jacques Bonnie and Séverine Bonnie, Château Malartic-Lagravière, Pessac-Léognan
Jean-Baptiste Bourotte, Clos du Clocher, Château Bonalgue, Pomerol
Alice Cathiard-Tourbier, Château Smith Haut Lafitte, Pessac-Léognan
Mathieu Chadronnier, Château Marsau, Côtes de Francs
Matthieu Cuvelier, Château Clos Fourtet, Saint Emilion 1er Grand Cru Classé
Marie and Sylvie Courselle, Château Thieuley, Bordeaux Supérieur
Coralie de Boüard, Château Angélus, Saint Emilion 1er Grand Cru Classé
Basaline Despagne – Thibault Despagne, Château Tour de Mirambeau, Bordeaux Supérieur
Erwan Flageul, Château Brillette, Moulis-en-Médoc
Caroline Frey, Château La Lagune, Haut-Médoc Grand Cru Classé
Eloïse Heeter-Tari, Château Nairac, Sauternes Cru Classé
Edouard Labruyère, Château Rouget, Pomerol
Florence Lafragette, Château Loudenne, Médoc
Jean-Christophe Mau, Château Preuillac, Médoc
Jean-Antoine Nony, Château Grand Mayne, Saint Emilion Grand Cru Classé
Stéphanie Rolland-Lesage, Château Le Bon Pasteur, Pomerol
Jérôme Tourbier, Les Sources de Caudalie – Hôtel, Restaurant, SPA
Benoit Trocard, Clos Dubreuil, Saint Emilion Grand Cru, Clos de la Vieille Eglise, Pomerol

Another problem in bordeaux, that i am often asked about by visitors, is where to get hold on non french wine - you can be stuck beyond the usual brands of Concha y Toro or Jacobs Creek. There are some great wine shops, but again you have to know where they are.
Best places for international wines: The Auchan supermarket chain, particuarly at Bordeaux Lac, has a good range.
My favourite smaller shop is Cousin on Place de Parlement (05 56 01 20 23 www.cousin.fr/home.php)
Also a good range at Badie on Allees de Tourny (05 56 52 23 72)

For a wine city, Bordeaux is pretty much barren when it comes to wine bars. They are there, but you need to know where to look.
An addition from last year is L'Essentiel in St Emilion (6, rue Guadet, 05 57 24 39 76) – I think the only place in the area where you can buy so many amazing wines by the glass, including Ausone 97 and Cheval Blanc 99. It's owned by Jean-Luc Thunevin of Chateau Valandraut (www.thunevin.com), so not suprising that it's so innovative, but it's really very much 'new bordeaux'!
other good ones:
One good choice for cocktails is the Dame de Shanghai (Bassin à Flot N° 1, Hangar G2, Bacalan 05 57 10 20 50), an old tanker transformed by Bordeaux interior designer Jean Do into a 1930s Shanghai drinking and dining den. Don’t expect authentic Chinese food, but excellent Asian fusion, and a downstairs bar with djs til 4am, Wednesday to Saturday.
Out of town, St Emilion suffers from the tourist malaise that means many of its restaurants don’t try too hard for repeat business. An excellent exception to this, besides L'Essentiel mentioned above, is L’Envers du Décor (5 rue Clocher, St Emilion 05 57 74 40 61). The bar here is wide, with wooden stools along one side, right in the centre of this bustling restaurant, and has one of the widest selections of wine by the glass you’ll find in the region. Ask for a plate of salami and cheese, and while away a few hours.
Heading to the coast, Le Bistrot du Bassin (5, rue des Pionniers, Cap Ferret 05 56 60 60 63) offers a chic watering hole to the inhabitants of Cap Ferret (or “Ferret” if you want to fit in with the locals). The accompanying hotel, La Maison du Bassin, is usually booked up well in advance, but the bar and restaurant are open to the public, and besides offering the expectedly fresh seafood, the bar (both inside and outside) has an excellent range of cocktails, is open till 2am, and serves Spanish tapas to help you build up a thirst. Not open all year, though, so check first.
Back in Bordeaux, for a more decadent outing, ‘Le Grand 16’ champagne bar is upstairs at the wonderful Jardin d’Ausone (10 rue Ausone, Bordeaux 05 56 79 30 30), again in downtown Bordeaux by Porte Cailhau. Champagne bars are hard to find in this city beholden to red wine, and this one mixes slightly chintzy décor with a bar entirely dedicated to bubbly, above a restaurant with the brilliant idea of serving all their food in either full or half portions. The owner is 29-year old Laurent Vialette, owner of the equally-excellent Rue Ausone wine shop a few steps away.

« Fragances, colours and sounds intertwine »
(Baudelaire, from a poem called « Correspondances »)

Yes, I know, it sounds unbearably pretentious and very 'old bordeaux' to sit around trying to work out what nuances certain pieces of music can bring to wine, but Frédéric Muller, an artist and dj who lives in Bordeaux and has put together the soundtrack for various films, has come up with the concept of Wine4Melomanes (I think it sounds better in French...).

In his words (from http://www.zimpala.com/article.php?id_article=191 where you can read the full article): "Wine4Melomanes is a new concept of communication whose target is to associate a very specific piece of music to a specific wine of character.

The idea is to illustrate the personnality of the wine by playing a piece of matching music at the time of the tasting, such as « Mouton Rothschild Pauillac 1961 a prestigious Pauillac wine accompanied by a a Miles Davis music called « Teo »

The first set of tastings took place in December in Bordeaux, set in Frederic's house in a cosily lit downstairs bar, and we got to taste Cheval Blanc, Franc-Mayne, Le Carillon d’Angélus, Vieux Maillet, Bourgneuf-Vayron, La Fleur d’Arthus, Soutard, La Couspaude, Rol Valentin, Bon Pasteur, Virginie de Vallandrau, Chapelle d’Ausone, Prieuré-Lichine, Rollan de By with various pieces of music.

Each set lasted around 45 minutes, with six 'flights' of wine and music mixed by Frederic. I have to say that it was far far better than I'd expected, and the idea of playing music while tasting relaxed everyone, with plenty of people who were genuine wine 'amateurs' finding it easy to talk about their reactions to the wines and whether they fitted the music. It helped of course, that it was an excellent music set, with not a stirring piece of classical music in sight...

The full sets of wine were:
14.00 – 14.30 pm
Bourgneuf-Vayron 2000 Pomerol
Soutard 1999 St Emilion Grand Cru Classé
La Fleur d’Arthus 2003 St Emilion Grand Cru
La Couspaude 2002 St Emilion Grand Cru Classé
Jean de Gué 2001 Lalande-Pomerol
Taillefer 2000 Pomerol
Rol Valentin 2001 St Emilion Grand Cru

16.00 – 16.30 pm
Beau Soleil 2002 Pomerol
Roylland 2002 & 2003 St Emilion Grand Cru
Chauvin 2002 St Emilion Grand Cru Classé
Canon de Brem 2003 Canon-Fronsac

17.30 – 18.00 pm
Franc-Mayne 1998 / 2000 St Emilion Grand Cru Classé
Lussac St Emilion 2000 / 2001 / 2002 & Vieux-Maillet 2003

19.00 – 19.30 pm
Michel Rolland wines :
Le Defi 2001 / Fontenil Fronsac 2002 / Bonne Nouvelle SouthAfrica 2003 / Clos de la Siete Argentina 2003 /
Bon Pasteur Pomerol 2001/2002/2003

Samedi 12 Novembre 2005 :
13.00 – 13.30 pm
Prieuré-Lichine 2001/2002/2003 Margaux Grand Cru Classé
Branas Grand Poujeaux 2002/2003 Moulis
Les Eclats de Branas Grand Poujeaux 2003

15.30 – 16.00 pm
Cheval Blanc 1999 Premier Grand Cru Classé
Petit Cheval St Emilion Grand Cru 1998/2000/2001
Cheval des Andes 2001/2002

17.00 – 17.30 pm & 19.00 – 19.30 (vernissage)
L’Essentiel wine bar St Emilion sessions :
Thunevin / Virginie de Valandrau 1999 – Clos Badon 2001
Vauthier / Chapelle d’Ausone 2002 & Moulin St Georges St Emilion Grand Cru 2002
De Bouard / Le Carillon 2001 & La Fleur de Bouard Lalande de Pomerol 2001
Clos Fourtet Grand Cru Classé 2002

20.00 – 20.45 pm
Le Faiseur de Vin & O.Dauga session :
Le Petit Lousteau 2003 / Lousteauneuf Medoc 2002 / Moutinot St Estèphe 2004 / Serilhan St Estèphe 2003 /
Grangerou Ht Medoc 2003 / Eyrins Margaux 2003 / La Clare Medoc 2003 / Rollan de By 2003 / Haut Condissas 2003

From a few years ago, when all bordeaux labels looked exactly the same, the main comments at 2005's VinExpo wine fair was that you suddenly couldn't tell a 'bordeaux' label from a 'new world' label.

Not sure if that is really true, as there are still plenty of labels that are either enormously complicated or painfully modern on the front while the contents of the bottle remain resolutely 'old' bordeaux (a charge, incidentally, that has been leveled at e-motif, a wine developed for the young drinkers which has a very modern image but a fairly tannic, traditional wine). Anyway, this one I think works well - fun, very much aimed at the export market (the idea of 'cabs' means nothing in france), but backed up with a similarly approachable wine. it's made, incidentally, by a young winemaker from the Bordeaux Superieur region, called Gilles Laurencin, who does a lot to make bordeaux seem good value and worth another look.

I was speaking to a group of winemakers in Bordeaux this week about the wonders of blogging (Lynch Bages, Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse were there, among other smaller chateaux). I thought it would be worth quoting Thomas Duroux, manager of Chateau Palmer, who has of course created the first blog from a Bordeaux cru classé chateau (http://blog.chateau-palmer.com/) He has a great view on the benefits to the image of the area as a whole. Over to Thomas...

“When we were redoing our website last summer, I spoke to a friend of mine who launched the Wine & Co website, and he suggested that we added a blog to the Chateau Palmer site. I knew nothing about the technical side of this, and he explained to me how simple it is. Basically, you need no technical skills to create a blog; you just need the patience to update it regularly. It’s so easy to do – I can write it from my hotel room in Tokyo, or my office in Bordeaux.

We are the first cru classé chateau in Bordeaux to produce a blog.

The aim of our blog is to demystify what goes on in a grand cru classé chateau, to take the mask off the great wines of Bordeaux.

I write about what we do on a daily basis. The important thing to remember is that it needs to be a diary of what is going on, and nothing more. It is not a marketing exercise; it is not a sales technique. It’s got to be simple and focused.

People worry that they will ‘dymystify’ great wines if they give too much away. Our opinion is that there is no mystery. There are only two ‘secrets’ to making a great wine – the first is our terroir, which no one can steal, and the second is our passion, which again no one can steal. There is no magical powder that we sprinkle on the ground…

We have around 200 daily visitors to our blog. Not many discussions and feedback so far, people tend to read it, but not to comment on what they have read.”

Because it's easy to get information on what is wrong with bordeaux, but it's harder to find one place to gather information on the wine makers, negotiants and importers who are trying to change things...