Had lunch with three negociants yesterday (okay, so one was my husband) from Villa des Crus and Mahler Besse and a drink tonight with Ben Kennedy, who has just moved out here from Justerinis in London to work for Luc Thienpont.
Interesting views on the 2008 vintage, as you would expect from the guys who are going to have to sell the stuff. The weather has been hot and sunny today, but for every good day, there have been two or three days of rain, and if I had a euro for every winemaker who has told me, 'it's not a problem yet, if we just have a few weeks of uninterrupted sunshine until the harvest...'
For the merchants, a bad 2008 really will be disastrous, because there is no goodwill in the pot for Bordeaux, after the stubborn high pricing of 2007.
Got the official CIVB press release today, comparing 2008 to 1988, as (so far) temperatures and rainfall are very similar. That may be wishful thinking. Looking at the meteorological data, there have been eight storms over August, and 17 days of rain, which is way more than average. The lowest nighttime temperature in august was under 11 degrees, and it never once reached 20 degrees at night - very low for what should be the warmest month of the year.
