Grand Jury Européen and Bordeaux 2006 : the results are out.

15th HAUT CARLES (5 stars, 3rd Right Bank)
28th VALANDRAUD (5 stars, 7 th Right Bank)
58th LA DOMINIQUE (4 ½ stars, 19 th Right Bank)
63 th CLEMENT PICHON (4 stars, 43 th rive Gauche)
66 th COMMANDERIE DE MAZEYRES (4 stars, 21 th Right Bank)
90 th CLOS BADON (4 stars, 32 th Right Bank)
105 th VIRGINIE DE VALANDRAUD (4 stars, 38 th Right Bank)
107 th BAD BOY (4 stars, 39 th Right Bank)
145 th FLEUR CARDINALE (3 ½ stars, 61st Right Bank)
174 th CLOS DU BEAU PERE (3 stars, 77 th Right Bank)


In short, I read the tasting notes made by the Grand Jury and for me the cru who have been the most effort in Bordeaux have been consistent and rewarded. How not recognized such properties as Pape Clément, Angélus, Pavie just to name a few?!
Then, this is as much useful for the consumer (the incredible quality price ratio of Haut Carles 2006, etc…) as for the producer who, if he is regularly receiving bad notes will still need to check with his friends, contacts, clients, the reasons for is repetitive bad notes.
Otherwise, it is clear that Jean Marc Quarin has a good palate, he, who has placed at a high position Nairac in Sauternes, and who, in this vintage, ends up 1st and Arche 2006, in 7th place.

Here are David Schildknecht’s comments for Thunevin-Calvet Constance 2007, noted 90-91 :

Tasted from tank shortly before its intended bottling, the 2007 Constance – as usual, Grenache-based, aged part in cement and part in barrel – is vividly redolent of fresh black raspberry and blueberry. With its infectiously juicy, “cool” fruit character yet at the same time a striking sense of crushed stone and graphite, this long-finishing cuvee represents an outstanding introduction to its region as well as outstanding value.

For six years, Roussillon native Jean-Roger Calvet and notorious Right Bank garagiste Jean-Luc Thunevin vinified the fruits of their vines around Maury (now being supplemented by high altitude acreage on granite in Lesquerde) in something genuinely resembling a garage. Now, they are ensconced in a spacious, architecturally-dramatic, Napa-like facility at the entrance to the town. Viticultural practice is evolving in a biodynamic direction, they report; primary vinification takes place in cement (stainless steel being used only for storage); and malo-lactic transformation and maturation in barriques and demi-muids, with the tendency now being to use an ever-higher percentage of the latter. The first Maury under this label (three barriques’ worth) appeared from vintage 2004, but Thunevin neglected to offer me a taste of it, and I was unable to subsequently catch up with a bottle. Two important points to note about future releases: due to trademark issues, the new domaine name “Thunevin-Calvet,” will begin appearing on bottles in 2009; and it is entirely possible that some of the younger wines identified here as “Cotes du Roussillon Villages” might instead be labeled as Vin de Pays des Cotes Catalanes.