Finally there has been some actual movement on the laws governing wine making in France, after months of talking about it.

A good roundup here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/wine/article4029680.ece

Basically it says that wood chips and other modern techniques will be allowed, and that you can grow popular grapes all over France to go into the new 'vins de pays de France' category. I have heard that chardonnay is already being planted in Bordeaux to go into Vins de Pays d'Atlantique.

Let's see if the news is met with universal acclaim from the winemakers...

Funny piece in the Guardian today (www.guardian.co.uk) about what Bridget Jones did to chardonnay... I'm not sure that the over-oaked Oz versions didn't play their part also...

'As a singleton in her thirties, her romances almost always ended in failure. And as a worldwide publishing phenomenon, Bridget Jones has had a similarly disastrous impact on her favourite drink, chardonnay, according to one of Britain's best-selling wine writers, Oz Clarke.

British drinkers are starting to shun the wine and the blame for its decline, says Clarke, should be firmly placed at the door of the neurotic, weight-conscious fictional publishing assistant created by Helen Fielding.

In Bridget Jones's Diaries, which appeared in The Independent between 1995 and 2005, Jones took refuge in large amounts of wine – often chardonnay – following disappointments in her quest for a husband.

"Chardonnay has made some of the world's greatest wines. Everyone appreciated it – until Bridget Jones," said Clarke.

"Bridget Jones goes out on the pull, fails, goes back to her miserable bedsit, sits down, pours herself an enormous glass of chardonnay, sits there with mascara running down her cheeks saying, 'Dear diary, I've failed again, I've poured an enormous glass of chardonnay and I'm going to put my head in the oven.' Great marketing aid!"

Across Britain fewer people are seeking solace – or enjoyment – in chardonnay. In the past 12 months, 7.5 million fewer shoppers bought it compared to the previous year, according to the retail analysts TNS. Meanwhile, rivals such as sauvignon blanc and pinot grigio are rising in popularity.

Such is the stagnation that the drinks giant Foster's Group has told growers that from next year it will pay a maximum of $300 (£160) a tonne on new contracts for "D-grade" char-donnay grapes, used in most popular table wines.

With rising water, fuel and fertiliser costs, this price would not cover farmers' expenses, Chris Byrne, of the Riverland Wine Grape Growers Association, told The Australian newspaper. "The message we're getting is no one is looking for char-donnay," he complained.

Clarke made his comments at London's first self-storage wine facility, operated by Big Yellow. Pointing the finger at Jones – whose diaries were made into Hollywood films in 2001 and 2004 – he said: "Until Bridget Jones, chardonnay was really sexy. After, people said, 'God, not in my bar'."

"If you're a marketing manager what would you say? 'OK, I'm going to sell something that makes people feel really miserable. Let's call it chardonnay!'

However Clarke, who starred in the TV series Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure with the Top Gear presenter James May, defended chardonnay and called for it to be rehabilitated.

Alan Griffiths, wine director of Berry Brothers, Britain's biggest wine merchants, said: "The appeal of chardonnay is still very strong. It's a safer bet for a party. It's more likely to go down well for a group of 50 than a gewürztraminer or a riesling or a sauvignon blanc, which some people find too grassy or acidic."

Apparently, for pretty much the first year on record, reputable English merchants are telling the Bordeaux negociants what price they will buy en primeurs at this year. What this means is that the normal structure, where a chtx sets its price and its resale price, is so laughably high that the english merchants are saying no, but we will buy at 'x'...

This is against the 'rules' of the Place, so I've only heard rumours that a few bigger negociants are doing it, and agreeing to reduce. Smaller merchants will be nervous of losing their allocations next year I imagine.

And more rumours today that the Swiss, and big French supermarket Carrefour, have stopped buying.

Maybe the second tranches will come out cheaper, which would be another first??

Ah well, never a dull moment. As my friend at Despagne Family Vineyards said yesterday, this is a good year to explore the high quality less prestigious Bordeaux, that offer some excellent drinking wines at what now looks like fantastic value.

It's depressing to write these updates... but great comment from Simon Quinn at BOrdeaux Wine Investments this morning, that the Bordelais as 'sticking two fingers up' at the rest of the world.

Phelan Segur and Pontet Canet among the big names released this week, again at reductions of under 5% if they're generous, or exactly the same price as last year (although to be fair to Pontet Canet, which kept its price the same, it was at least seen as one of the wines of the vintage).

But the rest of them... you just have to despair. They have proved once and for all that their customers are the negociants in Bordeaux, and who cares where the wines go after that.

Apparently even the French supermarkets have stopped buying in the last few days, after looking around and realising that they are the only ones to be taking everything on offer.

On the bright side, consumers can buy good, easy to drink wines in a few years when they are already in bottle, I guess, rather than tying up their money en primeur.

I wrote this for Decanter, it went up yesterday (and in an interesting back story, I was asked by the property to hold off on the story for a few weeks because of the primeur campaign. I can totally understand their concern - but I didn't decide the court date and my duty is to report what is going on in bordeaux. It did make me think though, about the drawbacks of living in the region that you write about. Of course I get to hear about more things, and have a greater understanding, but at the same time you become close to the people that you write about...)

/ http:www.decanter.com/news/256199.html

A court case that has been outstanding against Chateau Giscours since 1998 is finally due to reach the Bordeaux courts.

The case relates to the 1995 vintage. Dutch owner Eric Albada-Jelgersma, along with two others, was accused of mixing together of AOC Margaux and AOC Haut Medoc in the chateau's second wine, La Sirene de Giscours, which should be made only with grapes from the Margaux appellation.

Albada - who had bought Giscours in 1995 - was indicted along with then director of the Margaux cru classe estate, Jean Michel Ferrandez, and Pascal Froidefond.

The 150-acre property contains vines of both appellations: the AOC Medoc vines should go into a third wine, never under the name Giscours or Sirene de Giscours.

The original accusation was brought by an ex-employee, who had lost his job when Albada took over the property.

Alexander Van Beek, the current director of Giscours, told decanter.com, 'We are very happy that this has finally reached court after the numerous delays, and hope we can draw a line under the affair. Nothing has ever been proved, and we welcome the opportunity to show the allegations to be false.

'Mr Albada has always wanted to make the best wine possible, and the idea that he would invest millions in buying and improving Chateau Giscours, then the following year attempt to defraud the public in order to make a few more bottles of his second wine, is clearly ridiculous.'

The case comes to court on 2 June.

Excellent comment on the 2007 vintage from this blog by Nick Stephens:
http://bordeaux-undiscovered.blogspot.com/

He says, among other things, 'After all that has been written in recent weeks it seems to me that the châteaux owners have ignored or dismissed what they may see as potentially adverse comments by ploughing their own furrow and releasing prices based on greed rather than common sense or commercial prowess. I wrote in April that we would see whether the châteaux were product orientated or market orientated – the prices released so far prove that they are product orientated. What business doesn't listen to their customers these days? People who treat their customers like idiots are fools themselves!'

The chateaux here can blame the press for lack of interest in the vintage through bad scores etc all they want, but it does seem increadibly short-sighted and obtuse that prices are coming out so high (public holiday yesterday and Monday, so expect them to start again next tuesday).

Plenty of UK merchants have told me that they were ready for a drinking vintage, that at the right price (even 50% over 2004) the wines would have plenty of buyers and Bordeaux could benefit from a bit of positive PR for once, but the chateaux owners seem literally incapable of listening to anyone but their own neighbours.

Maybe next week there will be some surprises...

Had great wine club evening the other night (numbers vary between six and ten, we had six the other night at my apartment, all women working in wine in Bordeaux).

The theme was Spanish wines, so I made/bought various tapas (best were Mondovino black olive crackers, from an English company but went amazingly with Brebis cheese!)

I brought a Baigorri Reserva 2002 from Rioja, my last bottle of a wine that I totally love! It was tasting fantastic, totally velvety and rich, and developed between dark plum and chocolate in the glass. The same bodega does a very good Crianza also, and has got to be one of the most beautiful spots in Rioja, with nothing but a plate glass building visible above ground, and everything else all gravity-led over four or five floors underground. However, I did hear that the wonderful Jesus Lopez is no longer owner...

The highlight of the evening though was brought by Sophie Kevany, being far too nice as she knows this is one of my desert island wines (at least its big brother). Flor de Pingus 1996, from Ribero del Duero. Just an unbelievable wine.

A bit of background on Pingus - it's owned by Danish Peter Sisseck (who, as he apparently told a journalist at a recent wine conference, is not immune to the joys of lapdancing along with Chelsea football team, I assume not at the same time), and the first vintage was 1995. Dominio de Pingus was trading at over $200 before the first bottle was ever released. Made from some of the oldest vines in the region (even Flore de Pingus is minimum 45 years old) and truly a legend. The 1996 Pingus today is selling (in Bordeaux) at EUR1200, the Flor de Pingus at around EUR130, and is worth every penny (let's hope Sophie agrees!!).

It has intense fruit, with real purity and finesse, but this amazingly fresh, almost minty (Barbara Engerer called it bay leaf) finish that sets it apart and makes it instantly recognisable.

Following my explanation that the bordeaux prices I am giving are on the Place, not ex-chateau, I got a lesson this morning in how you really can't please everyone, no matter if you try to do the 'right thing'.

Until this year, I have published ex-chateau prices, because they are at least utterly consistent - the rules of the Place say that the chateau must sell at the same price to all negociants, whether they buy 10 or 10,000 cases. But merchants complained that was not a useful price, as their margins would be added and noone could buy those wines from bordeaux for the ex-chateau price.

So, this year, I listened and have been giving the merchant price. The 'official' price of the wines. And the complaints have just moved up a stage... overseas merchants complaining that those prices aren't useful to publish, as they are not final consumer prices.

However, this is where I find it hard to agree, as a journalist, with their requests. The chateaux can recommend onward selling prices, which I have given, but can't control the final price in UK, India, Hong Kong etc, as the tax, commissions, transport, storage etc etc prices differ so widely.

Should I give a recommended retail price in France, and stick with that? Very difficult!

I am having a bit of an obsession with oak barrels recently. Went to a wonderful tasting at Brane-Cantenac last week where I tasted different coopers and different toasts of barrels on the same wine samples (I have been meaning to write it up ever since).

In our local paper today (Sud Ouest), the barrel makers Sylvain have bought in auction two 370 year old oak trees to make into high quality (and no doubt high price) barrels for 'prestige chateaux'.

The aveage French oak for barrels is around 150 years old, so these are really pretty rare. The oaks were planted under Colbert in a forest in Normandy.

The trees were felled in January, and transported last week to the barrel makers in Libourne (town near St Emilion) where they will now dry out for the next few years before being turned into barrels.

Sylvain bought some similarly-aged trees in 2004 which they turned into around sixty barrels and sold for double the usual price (EUR1200 instead of EUR600) to 'crus d'elite'. The resulting barrels are also works of art, which means that after they have contained their wine, they are likely to be turned into some very expensive flower pots...

Apparently due to their age, the trees needed to be cut down, as they losing their leaves and beginning to dry out.

Just sent this over to decanter.com:

(by the way, all the prices I give are not ex-chateau, but the prices on the Place de Bordeaux, so the price that the negociants are selling on to UK merchants. They are around 18% higher than the price from the chateau, although this varies. Chateaux give a suggested re-sale price, but they can't dictate exactly what price a negociant sells the wine on for. If people sell it too low, however, they may withdraw allocations the following year.)

Following swiftly on from the Parker scores last week, the first prominent red wine properties have begun to release their prices for Bordeaux 2007s.

Among the first was Chateau Quinault L'Enclos, Saint Emilion grand cru, owned by Alain Reynaud (who got one of the best Parker scores of 91-93, bettering Lafite and Latour at 90-93). Despite the high score, he has come down around 15% from last year, selling on the Place at EUR20.

‘I felt that even though the quality was better than last year,’ Reynaud told decanter.com, ‘I wanted to set a price that would sell, taking into account the global economy, and allow others along the chain to make money. If we don’t do that, the basic mechanism of the en primeur system has failed.’

Twenty-four hours after release, Reynaud has sold 50% of his total 2007 stock.

Other properties to date have not followed this logic. Chateau Beycheville came out at a 5% drop of EUR25.50, while Sociando Mallet (unscored by Paker) remained almost the same as last year, just 50 centimes down on his release price of 2006, at EUR23.00. Sauternes properties have so far released at an average of 5% above 2005, with Rieussec leading the pack at an eye-watering rise of 30% on last year.
Most observers feel that prices will now come out fairly quickly, ready for VinExpo Hong Kong at the end of the month.

First big name 2007 red wine is out... Quinault L'Enclos, Saint Emilion grand cru (owned by Alain Reynaud, who unsuprisingly got a good Parker score - 91-93).

He has come down by 17%, selling at 20 euros on the Place.

Could be a more generous drop, but given that he got a good rating, this is encouraging for red wine prices...

At the same time as the 2007 scores, Parker released his 'final' 2005 scores, after retasting.

There are some suprising comparisons with other years, if you can excuse me getting technical for a minute - particularly when you think about the prices 2005 are going for.

For example:
Lafite in 2005 scored 96 (re-tasted score)
The 1996, 2000 and 2003 all have 100 points.

Latour in 2005 also got 96 points.
The 2003 got 100 points.

Mouton got 96 in 03 and 05.

Margaux got 98 points for 05, but got 100 points in 2000 and 1990.

Haut Brion got 98 points in 05, and the same in 2000.

Ausone got 100 points in 2000, 2003 and 2005, so seems fairly safe investment!

Petrus got 100 points in 2000 and 96 points in 05.

Le Pin got 98 points in 2000 and 93 points in 05.

Cheval Blanc got 100 points in 2000 and 96 in 2005

Mission Haut Brion got 100 points in 2000 and 97 points in 2005.

My point is just that these wines in 2005 are being called the best vintage for the past 30 years (in Parker's own words, best in his career), and are being traded at enormous sums (check out any of these on www.wine-searcher.com - Lafite for example about £10,000 a case), but haven't made it to 100 points. The 2000 vintage is being traded for around the same price, but got a better score.

Is Parker scoring more harshly than he used to? Or should traders be worried that their investments are not as safe as they assumed??

Parker scores are up on his website today. He has given a fairly wide mix of high to low, with a few 98-100s for whites and sauternes(neither Suduiraut or Rieussac got 100s, but both early 90s).

A few particularly interesting scores:
Sauternes: Climens 98-100 (neal martin score)
Yquem 96-98

Pauillac
Carraudes de Lafite - 83-85
Les Forts de Latour - 90-92
Lafite - 90-93
Latour - 90-93
Lynch Bages - 87-89
Mouton - 90-94
Petit Mouton - 84-87
Pontet Canet - 90-94
Leoville Les Cases - 93-95

Saint Julien - not many above 90
Branaire Ducru - 90-92
Talbot- 84-86

Saint Estephe
Cos d'Estournel 90-93 (only one above 90)

Margaux - probably the widest variations
Chateau Margaux - 91-94
Rauzan Gassies (which he says has improved dramatically over past few years) 81-84
Rauzan Segla - 89-91
Siran - 79-82
Giscours - 85-87
Pavillon Rouge - 89-91
Lascombes - 90-93
Marquis de Terme - 72-75

Pessac Leognan
Carbonnieux white - 90-92
Domaine de Chevalier - 90-92
De Fieuzal Blanc - 92-94
Haut Bailly 90-92
Haut Brion white 96-100
Haut Brion - 91-94
Chateau Olivier 70-73 (ouch)
Latour Martillac - 76-80
Malartic Lagraviere - 84-86
Pape Clement white 96-100

Pomerol (lots of good 80s, not many in the 90s, which personally i found surprising)
Clinet - 88-90
Le Gay - 90-93
Petrus - 90-93
Petit Village - 78-82
Le Pin - 91-93
Veiux Chateau Certan - 89-91

St Emilion
Angelus - 90-93
Cheval Blanc - 89-91
Ausone - 91-94
Clos Fourtet - 90-93
Pavie - 93-95
Quinault L'Enclos - 91-93
Petit Cheval - 85-87
Valandraud - 90-93

Next up, Chateau Suduiraut, owned by AXA Millesimes. Don't have their exact price to hand, but up around 20% from last year. (update 42 euros).

Are they trying to completely kill off the 2007 campaign before it has even begun? It's one thing saying that Sauternes are in a different market from the red wines, and that they have a niche audience and have had great reviews etc, but talk about letting a few good points go to your head.

Parker points now circling... hopefully he can throw a bucket of cold water over them!