the new bordeaux

I wrote a piece for Decanter yesterday on the first grapes being brought in at Chateau Carbonnieux in Pessac Leognan (www.decanter.com).

I wanted to add here some more indepth weather statistics that show - at least for the moment, which means for white grapes being brought in now - that 2009 has enjoyed excellent growing conditions.

According to statistics from Meteo France in Merignac, Bordeaux, the 2009 vintage has been above average so far in both sunshine and temperature.

Sunshine
May 253 hours of sunshine, against 30 year average of 220 hours
June 300 hours of sun against 30 year average of 225 hours
July, 263 hours of sunshine against a 30-year average of 243 hours
In August, up to 28th of the month already at 220 hours, with average for whole 31 days usually 240 hours, so at very least will be average, probably slightly above average.

Temperature
May 17.3°C against a 30-year average of 15.4°C
June 20.3°C against a 30-year average of 18.3°C
July 21.5°C against a 30-year average of 20.8°C.
With four days still remaining in August, the average temperature has been 22.6°C, against a 30 year average of 20.9°C.

Rainfall
May 78mm, against 30 year average of 84mm
June 75mm against 30 year average of 64mm (but this fell in storms, so affected isolated areas in short bursts).
July 46mm, against 30 year average of 54mm.
Rainfall in August has so far (up to Aug 28) been just 20mm, against a 30 year average of 60mm.

The local Sud Ouest newspaper (from journalist Cesar Compadre) ran an interesting piece yesterday revealing that of France’s 500 wealthiest citizens, more than 50 own vineyards.

Based on a survey run by Challenge magazine, the owners largely fall into two groups. The first of these made their fortune in wine (such as Pierre Castel with Castel Wines, born in Blaye, Bordeaux, and now owner of Castel Wines, the second biggest French wine group after Les Grands Chais de France), and Bernard Magrez (82nd wealthiest in France, and made his money first with a whisky, but then wine). Others – and this is more typical, known as ‘neo-vignerons’ – made their money elsewhere (in property, finance, other industries) and then bought into wine. Some have made their purchases very public, others remained very discreet.

Among the business men (no women seem to have been mentioned, besides Florence Cathiard and that is with her husband - surely there are some successful women who want to follow suit?) mentioned were:
Bernard Arnaut (2nd wealthiest), owner of LVMH and therefore Krug, Moet & Chandon, Hennessy, Chateau Yquem and Cheval Blanc. According to sources in the newspaper, he is rarely seen in either Champagne or Bordeaux, which suggests wine is an investment, rather than a hands-on passion.

Francois Pinault of course also gets a mention, owner of Chateau Latour – that he bought in 1993 for 600 million francs and is probably now worth closer to 600 million euros, so not the worst investment ever!

Others on the way up in power and prestige in the wine world include Dassault (number 7) owners of Saint Emilion Cru Classe (Dassault), the Wertheimer family of Chanel (10th) owners of Chateau Canon in Saint Emilion and Rauzan Segla in Margaux. And the Bouyges (21), owner of Chateau Montrose in Saint Estephe, then the Ricards (24th) who of course made their fortune with pastis but now also own vineyards in France, Australia and Argentina, as well as Mumm champagne and Martell cognac.

Further down the list, at 26, the Peugeot family part own Guiraud in Sauternes, and at 36 Clement Fayat owner of La Dominique in St Emilion and Clement Pichon in Haut Medoc. Owner of Cos d’Estournel, Michel Raybier, makes an appearance as 75th wealthiest person in France – something that will no doubt have helped him invest a reputed 30 million euros in the new winery.

The Frey family, of Chateau La Lagune in Haut Medoc, made their money in property, and come in at number 90 on the rich list. Other wealthy Bordelais owners include Perrodo, who made money in petrol and now own Labegorce in Margaux, the Picard family (frozen foods) who own Chateau Jean Faure in Saint Emilion, the Cuveliers of Chateau Clos Fourtet in St Emilion and Poujeaux in Moulis and whose money came from the sale of a large stationary company. More recently, Jacky Lorenseti, founder of Foncia, recently bought Lilian Ladouys in St Estephe and Pesesclaux in Pauillac.

Among the most high profile in Bordeaux are Gerard Perse of Chateau Pavie (361st wealthiest) and the Cathiards (336th) of Smith Haut Lafitte.

I am just this week putting the final changes into the Michelin Green Guide to the Wine Regions of France. This has been a huge project, around 480 pages that was last updated in 2007, and covers fourteen wine regions across France, from the big ones like Bordeaux and Burgundy to the lesser known such as Savoie and Bugey, and the vineyards of Corsica.

There are so many wonderful estates in the book, but here are a few that I either added in this time, or discovered through the book, that I find particularly exciting.

Domaine du Tunnel, Saint Joseph
Located in the Rhone Valley, Stephane and Sandrine Robert have 3 hectares of Cornas, 2.5 Saint Jospeh, and 2 of Saint Peray. Young husband and wife team who are increasingly sought after in France and overseas, and their small production sells out very fast - but really worth tracking down.
04 75 80 04 66, 20 rue de la Republique, 07130, St Peray domaine-du-tunnel@wanadoo.fr - and in Bordeaux, they are stocked in CashVin.

Domaine Champalou, Vouvray
Didier and Catherine Champalou in the Loire set up their domaine in Vouvray in 1984, and twenty five years later are well established as producing some of the best wines of the region.
02 47 52 64 49, Le Portail, 37210 Vouvray

Domaine Canet Valette, Saint Chinian
Domaine Canet Valette is run by Marc and Sophie Valette. In 1998 Marc built his own winery and cellar, where winemaking takes place by gravity. The domain now covers 18 hectares just outside the village of Cessenon. Try their traditional blend of five local grapes – the romantically-named Une et Mille Nuits
34370 Cazouls-Les Béziers 04 67 93 60 84 www.canetvalette.com

Domaine du Mas Blanc, Banyuls
One of Banyuls' leading estates, run by Jean-Michel Parcé.
66650 Banyuls-sur-Mer, 04 68 88 32 12, www.domainedumasblanc.com

Chateau Léoube, Cotes de Provence
Romain Ott, formerly of legendary Domaine d'Ott in Provence, has now opened his own chateau, since Roederer bought the family estate. Always interesting to follow excellence of course, and I tried their red Chateau Leoube last night, a blend of the classic varities of the area Syrah, Mouvedre, Grance, Carignan and Cinsualt. They have done the incredible and kept this southern blend at 12.5%ABV, and I absolutely loved it; so full of flavour, punching with fruit, but also truly drinkable because of the fresher alcohol levels. A great bottle, and looking forward to discovering the rest of the range. The location of the chateau is gorgeous also.
2387, route de Léoube - 83230 Bormes-les-Mimosas, 04 94 64 80 03, www.chateauleoube.com

Domaine de l'Hortus, Pic Saint Loup
Recommended to me by the excellent http://rougeblancbulles.blogspot.com/2009/04/le-domaine-de-lhortus.html . The Orliac family are quietly making better and better wine at this estate, set in a really magical location.
34270 Valflaunès, Pic Saint Loup, www.vignobles-orliac.com

I have been following the first growths this year as the 2009 vintage progresses, taking videos for decanter.com, and David Bolomey at Bordoverview has kindly put up info about them on his blog today.

http://bordoverview.blogspot.com/

He did an excellent synthesis of what appears in the Chevallier video, which I hope he doesn't mind my repeating here:
- The start of the growing season in April was in good conditions; there was no frost. To compare: in 2008, there was the Graves region was hit by spring frost, which - more or less - diminished the crop.
- Pauillac was not affected by the hailstorms that hit large parts of Bordeaux in early May. Damage, sometimes severe, was recorded in Saint-Emilion, Pomerol, Entre-Deux-Mers, Graves and the Southern Médoc including Margaux - the affected properties are likely to produce less Bordeaux 2009. Lafite's crop however is of normal size, slightly bigger than last year's crop.
- In May and early June the weather was less ideal: there were substantial fluctuations in temperature between the one week and the other, and at times it was quite wet. As a result it was necessary to spray against diseases.
- From mid-June onwards the weather is good again.

Good link to the video itself also on Lafite.com
http://www.lafite.com/eng/News/Charles-Chevallier-interview-with-decanter.com

And from last Friday, a look at how Latour is doing with their quality-control expert, Penelope Godefroy.
http://www.decanter.com/specials/288024.html

It's that time of year again when the Mascaret wave starts heading down the Garonne and Dordogne rivers, and young and old Bordelaise get their surfboards ready.

Chateau de la Vieille Chapelle has decided to organise a Vin et Vagues (Wine and Waves) event on August 22nd, to celebrate this fact, where you can watch the wave and have something to eat and drink at the same time. Apparantly this is one of the dates when the wave is at its height, and it will attract the highest number of surfers.

This attractive wine estate has a chapel that dates from the 12th century, and is (handily in this case) located on the banks of the Dordogne river.

Programme of the Day:
12-4pm: Exhibition of the Mascaret phenomenon by photographer Frédéric Dupuy, and films by Olivier Desagnat.
Plus visit of Château de la Vieille Chapelle, and light lunch and wine tasting.
4pm - Talk and explanation about the Dordogne and the Mascaret, its history, why it happens etc, from R. Marcel
5.50 : The Wave and its Surfers!
And after the wave, more wine, the sunset, music and roasted chestnuts...

Entry is free - and it definitely sounds like an event worth going to.

More info:
Château de la Vieille Chapelle. Lugon & L’Ile du Carney (33240).
Fabienne or Sandrine : 05 57 84 48 65, www.chateau-de-la-vieille-chapelle.com

A good article in the Telegraph newspaper today...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/6040419/Best-wines-will-come-from-Scotland-if-climate-change-is-not-stopped-French-chefs-say.html

A group of chefs, sommeliers and chateaux has issued a call to action, urging the country to secure ambitious targets in the months ahead to limit global warming.
President Nicolas Sarkozy was posed a stark choice: save French wine by clinching a deal at the international climate conference in Copenhagen in December, or see generations of viticulture slowly die out as vineyards cross the Channel and head north.

"As flagships of our common cultural heritage, elegant and refined, French wines are today in danger," 50 leading names from the world of French wine and food wrote in an open letter. "Marked by higher alcohol levels, over-sunned aromatic ranges and denser textures, our wines could lose their unique soul."

Among the signatories were Marc Veyrat, a chef with three Michelin stars, Mauro Colagreco, the award-winning chef, and Franck Thomas, who was voted the best sommelier in the world. The message was also supported by a host of domains from Champagne to Languedoc-Roussillon.
Climate change has been blamed for degrading French vineyards, with heatwaves, giant summer hailstorms in Bordeaux and new plant diseases.

The signatories said that if global temperatures rose by more than two per cent before the end of the century, "our soil will not survive" and "wine will travel 1,000 kilometres beyond its traditional limits".

"We will have new wine-producing regions in zones where one doesn't normally cultivate vineyards like in Brittany and Normandy," said Jean-Pierre Chaban, a climatologist at France's National Institute for Scientific Research, in an accompanying online film. "It will spread to Great Britain. One can imagine vineyards in southern Sweden and Scotland."

The signatories want the government to push for a global deal to cut industrialised countries' greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2020 and set up "solid aid mechanisms" for developing countries.

According to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, there are now 416 vineyards in England and there are 2,732 acres of vines under cultivation – an increase of 45 per cent in the past four years.

Julie Trustram Eve, from English Wine Producers, said: "There are as far as we know no vines yet in Scotland, although there have been rumours. It's gradually creeping up. It depends how accurate the predictions are for the long term, but some say by 2080 it will be too hot to grow grapes in southern England."

However, Roxanne Canvan Schayk, who runs a traditional fruit and flower wine shop at Lambholm in the Orkney islands, said the French had nothing to fear from where she was standing. "It's far too windy for a start," she said.

Back in Bordeaux after almost three weeks in England, and greeted by sunshine and heat that apparently has been around since we left.

I read this morning a very interesting report from Liv-ex ( www.liv-ex.com ) on Lafite Rothschild, which confirms a trend that I have increasingly noticed over the past few years. If you would like to follow this year's harvest at Lafite, have a look at the video I took for Decanter.com http://www.decanter.com/specials/286633.html

I am doing the same tomorrow morning for Latour...

Anyway, here is Liv-ex on the Fate of Lafite:

The strong demand from Asia for all things Lafite (which includes the second wine, Carruades de Lafite and the Lafite-owned Fourth Growth Duhart Milon) has been a much-discussed trend for a
number of years now. In previous years, however, Lafite has simply been the most visible of a whole host of wines that saw large price gains. In 2009 this trend has been different: Lafite and its stable mates are arguably the only wines to have shown consistent and significant price growth.
The demand for Lafite is ably demonstrated by a quick look at the trades going through on the Liv-ex trading platform. In the year to date Lafite has accounted for 22% of all transactions by value – if you include Carruades that rises to 26%. Furthermore, demand is yet to shows signs of
flagging. Indeed, July saw the 1982, 1999, 2000 and 2001 vintages trade at all time highs. And although some vintages, such as 1995, 2003 and 2005 are still some way of their peak values, they are all showing signs of life.

To quantify this price growth we created a Liv-ex Lafite Index of recent vintages (2000 to 2006) of both Lafite Rothschild and Carruades de Lafite. The index components are priced using the Liv-ex Mid Price, with each new vintage added to the index in June of the year it became physical.
The index is price weighted and was based at 100 in January 2004. The index has performed significantly better than any of the main Liv-ex indices, finishing July almost 140 points (or
60%) higher than the Liv-ex 100 Fine Wine Index. What is arguably most impressive, however, is the extent of the brand’s recovery from last autumn’s price slump. Indeed, the Liv-ex Lafite Index is now just 4.4% off its all time high. No other wine has recovered from the price slump of last
autumn so quickly and completely. Taking Carruades alone, the story is even more extraordinary: on average, recent vintages of Carruades are now 22% more expensive than they were at the peak of the market in June last year.

It seems Lafite is increasingly leaving behind its First Growth peers, whose prices it has closely tracked historically. This is most clearly demonstrated by the 1982 vintage, where Lafite, recently downgraded to 97 points by Parker, is almost three times the price of the 100-point Mouton Rothschild.

Questions remain over the sustainability of price differentials such as this. Will the market support Lafite being so clearly priced as ‘first’ among supposed equals?
The key to this question depends on whether the Asian markets, and Hong Kong and China in particular, keep on buying. What we do know is that the Lafite price bounce has coincided with an upturn in financial market conditions in Asia. Below is the Liv-ex Lafite index plotted against
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, with both indices based at 100 in June 2008, the high point of the wine market.

Perhaps those with large positions should keep as close an eye on Asian financial indicators as they do on the scores of Robert Parker.

This story comes care of Rebecca Gibb, writing on decanter.com, but is definitely worth reproducing here (thankyou Rebecca!)

http://www.decanter.com/news/news.php?id=287347

The European Union's new wine regulations have come into force, ushering in a new era for the European wine industry.

The hotly-debated plans - agreed by agriculture ministers in December 2007 - aim to modernise the European wine trade and improve its competitiveness in the face of a growing challenge from the New World.

The reform will also bring in new simpler labelling laws. From August 1, all wine labels are now allowed to mention grape variety and vintage on the label. The French AOC becomes AOP (Appellation d'Origin Protegée) and the equivalent of vin de pays wines will now be known as IGPs (Indication Geographique Protegée).

A voluntary, three-year grubbing-up scheme to encourage uncompetitive producers to leave the industry will be put in place. Subsidies for crisis distillation will also be phased out as an added measure to reduce overproduction.

Mariann Fischer Boel, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, said: 'Member States and producers have a great opportunity to make the best use of the new wine regime to build on Europe's international reputation for excellence. I truly believe this marks a turning point in our wine sector's history.'

The money used to fund distillation subsidies will be redirected to wine promotion and the modernisation of vineyards and cellars.

The New World has seen its share of global wine sales rise from 3% in 1990 to 30% in 2008, according to the OIV.

I had an excellent visit to Octavian Vaults in Wiltshire this week (www.octavianvaults.co.uk), the largest fine wine storage warehouse in England.

I have wanted to visit this place, housed 100 feet underground in 30 acres of disused limestone mines, for a few years, but was prompted into finally making an appointment because of writing about the Bordeaux City Bond ( www.decanter.com/news/news.php?id=284790 ), and wanting to understand better just what they are up against.

The first sign that you get of the scale of the operation at Octavian is when you arrive at the heavily-guarded entrance. A security guard issued reflective waistcoats for the trip down to the cellar, and checked off our names (if I had been a customer, or moving any wine, I would also have had photos taken, not just of me but also the number plate of the car). We were met by Laurie Greer, operations director, who gave an excellent presentation of what they do, and for who, and were then given torch, oxygen masks (in case of fire or mine collapse), and then sent down the 157 steps down to the cellars (access in only by foot, which makes going back up a pretty good workout).

In the cellars, there are over 750,000 cases of wine, and from the section I saw, it seems at least 80% French (the official figures are 70%). The vast majority, unsurprisingly, are from Bordeaux and Burgundy, with row upon row of Lafite, Latour, Haut Brion, Petrus... this must be the biggest stock of classified Bordeaux in one room anywhere in the world. Among the most exciting bottles I saw were a 1983 magnum of La Tache, and several cases of Romanee Conti 1982. Some lucky private client had palates of all the first growths from 2005 - all five, plus Cheval Blanc, Ausone, and Pavie (interesting that Pavie made it in there). Apparently Octavian received 135,000 cases of Bordeaux 2005 last year, compared to a normal en primeur campaign when around 30,000 cases would come in once the stock has landed.

The oldest bottle of wine in Octavian is a 1775 bottle of sherry, the oldest dated bottle from the Massandra collection that fetched a record £37,000 at Sotheby's auction in 2002, and there has previously been a 1791 Lafite.

The majority of clients are trade such as Farrs (who have their own entire vault), or private cellars of trade clients (so Farrs would have wines of their own, and wines that they are storing for their clients), or private customers who go direct to Octavian. It is a seriously large and impressive business, and also a rather nice way to spend a few hours, calculating the value of that pallet of Petrus, and hoping that whoever is lucky enough to own it is going to actually open and enjoy a few bottles...