Discretion and secrets

Yesterday, I had lunch with the broker from a fine brokerage firms in Bordeaux who is also a client as he placed the 3 de Valandraud 2004 in the wine list of the business class of a major airline.

Also present were Cécile and Gilles, two of my employees, as well as Aymar du Vivier, a character and personality in Bordeaux. His presence made this meal more convivial. Aymar is a sort of free spirit in the world of wine, which explains our friendship.
We had a fun time with plenty of humor and jokes, and witty conversation which made time go by quickly.

Everyone ate and drank well, despite being a bit on “diets”. We tasted:
Blanc de Valandraud N°1 2004
3 de Valandraud 2003-2004-2005
Virginie de Valandraud 2003-2004-2005
Château Valandraud 2003 -2004-2005
And Haut Carles 2005
All the wines were good, enhanced by the nice weather and good company!
Murielle cooked a simple meal: omelet with fresh truffles from Riberac (in the Dordogne region), roast beef and mash potatoes made with the rest of a big truffle, floating island and coffee.
You will think that these meal are only pretexts. Well, you are right, but I must ad that it was also a way to thank our client, who sold 24000 bottles of 3 de Valandraud 2004 and will most likely propose some of our other wines.

As I stated many time, you know that the system in Bordeaux with its myriad of brokers, negociants, colleagues and competitors is a unique system to sell our wines. To prove my point: this afternoon, back at the office, another big brokerage firm confirmed the purchase of 40 000 bottles of Saint Paul de Dominique 2006 from the Vignobles Fayat by a large Bordeaux negociant which had been following this wine. This is the sign of a real “win-win” relationship (as Ségolène Royal would say).

Right after lunch, we tasted 30 samples from batches of our 2007 Saint Emilion: We already have to think about the March tastings as well as preparing the cellar to begin the bottling of the 2006 as well as racking the 2007 which just ended its malolactic (at last!).

For dinner, we finished the bottles opened for lunch. The 2005 were delicious. We drank with Michel and Ghislaine (Château Croix de Labrie), a bottle of Cristal 1995 to celebrate this new year. This made me think that these luxury Champaign are the best rapport in quality-cost-image.