From my friend Sophie writing for Wine Business International. I wanted to go to this book reading but was having dinner that night at Chateau d'Angludet in the Medoc with Ben Sichel and the Morrisons wine team - not such a bad alternative!
http://wine-business-international.com/News_Clarke_says_Bordeaux_should_be_replanted_to_white.html
Eminent British wine critic Oz Clarke has said 50% of Bordeaux should be replanted with white and rosé varieties. “In Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur at least 50% ought to be concentrating on white and rosé,” Clarke said last night, at the launch of the French edition of his book, Guide du Bordeaux (Bordeaux Guide).
Clarke said too many people were trying too hard with red wines, and there was a tendency toward too much alcohol and oak in many mid to low range wines. “They are trying to do something they can’t do,” he said. “If the terroir is not terribly good then they should be making whites and rosés, which is possible all over Bordeaux.” The advantages, he said, particularly with rosé wines, were that they cost less to make and growers could get their money back in three months.
He added there was a popular move against high alcohol wines, but both global warming and the power of the critics were pushing their production.
“Fifty years ago Bordeaux was mainly white,” he said, with reds becoming dominant in the late 1980s and 1990s when, during a series of warmer vintages, it became possible to make a ripe crop.
Clarke said however Bordeaux whites and roses were not in demand as they should be. Speaking lovingly of the first bottles of Bordeaux he tasted including, Leoville Barton 1962 and Montrose 1961, he said Bordeaux had always been his gold standard.
