« 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...