J'ai la forme !

Thursday, November 16, 2006

I hired in my company, not on purpose (promise!) a bunch of « Pieds-Noirs » (like me) and several ex-bankers (like me). Gilles Vivès, one of these ex-bank executives, who wanted to do more than handle cash (or liquid in colloquial French) without tasting it, told me that I spend too much time talking about the Leclerc supermarkets and neglect too much our other French customers including Le Repaire de Bacchus and Chateauonline who buy our Tour de Guiet 2003 from the Côtes de Bourg. A delicious wine with incredible value even noted 88/100 by Robert Parker and from one of our favorite red Bordeaux, the wine from our consultant Paul-Marie Morillon, Lafont-Fourcat 2005. Which stock is, unfortunately, gone half way in the campaign, as it is such an easy wine to sell due to its quality and chic presentation. From the same winemaker, we will soon have his high end white 2005 “A nos amours” (too our love) – What a beautiful name.
I had the pleasure to meet the Repaire de Bacchus-Chateauonline team during a video shoot about the 2005 campaign for their internet site. You can imagine that we have many more clients but I cannot reveal them for my colleagues, competitors who read this blog.
Other than that, since yesterday, the whole team from our Russian partner is tasting with Caroline, talk and visit. The temperature is rising in our office when these 5 beautiful Russian ladies walk around (at least for our bachelors).
As for our Austrian friends, who didn’t want to eat and drink too much, they greatly appreciated our wines and Murielle’s great cooking. This is what they tasted between 11am and 1:30pm:
2001 vintage: Le Gay, Croix de Labrie, Quinault L’Enclos, Clos de Sarpe, Valandraud, Virginie, 3 de Valandraud, Marojallia, Clos Badon Thunevin, and during the meal : Constance 2002 de Calvet Thunevin, Griffe de Cap d’Or 2000, Valandraud 1999, Dentelles 2002 de Calvet Thunevin et les 3 Marie 2004 and giving their “bordelaise” preferences: Le Gay, Quinault L’Enclos, 3 de Valandraud et Valandraud 1999.

After the Austrians, the Russians enjoyed Murielle’s cooking. In any case, I believe that Murielle, who prepares these meals by herself using fresh and quality produce, surprises most of our guest who come for the first time and expect to find (like anywhere else) fancy dishes, heavy where presentation counts more than taste.
Here, as for our wines, we like to keep it simple. However, being simple is not an easy task. So, we tasted 2 fair Beaujolais (perhaps simply nor our taste), then 2 astonishing wines sent by Laurent and Samuelle Dupéré-Barrera, who called me a few years ago (before they moved to Provence to setup their wholesale business) and who wanted (and bought) used barrels, against my advice.
Who would think that someone who is so involved in biodynamic and interested in organic can believe that one can buy used barrels without having any probable impact on the micro flora of his cellar? I am not the only one with contradiction…Help, Doctor!
(unless the names of the châteaux selling their used barrels have PR value…and yeast or other thing to help create wines without any additional yeast?)

Well, with or without neutral barrels, both wines were extremely good, be it the Nowat 2004 “négoce” balanced and tasty or the more ambitious Clos de la Procure 2004 with more noticeable freshness, often a sign of biodynamic wines.
Bravo, I don’t know which words I would use if we didn’t like them… We were 7 at the table, hard to lie.
In conclusion, with a bit of self confidence, and some changes in their brochure eliminating the sales presentation and the name of the supplier for their barrels (very good as he is also my supplier) and the reference to great Bordeaux or Burgundies, as it is useless, when you are located in a beautiful place, to apologies for a region that doesn’t need it “yet”. These little mistakes, which all neophytes do: when I started I didn’t stop talking about Le Pin in Pomerol and Tertre Roteboeuf in Saint Emilion, without forgetting La Fleur de Gay from my friend Alain Reynaud.