Clos Badon and Japan

Wednesday evening, we hosted a group of journalists for dinner a our house. We served a beef stew after a soup and a custard made with Tahitian vanilla for desert (where Bad Boy sells well, thanks to our distributors) and macaroons from Nadia Fermigier: we cannot change such a good ambassador of this Saint Emilion delicacy – including wine. Also present was Jean-Roger Calvet, our partner in the Roussillon, Claude Gros, our consultant enologist in that region who is also working on a couple of projects here.
There was also a pretty journalist from Ontario, a couple of Dutch journalists and a Japanese group with an interpreter, cameraman and a journalist and the host of this TV show. Barbara, Murielle and I talked about our jobs of consultant, winemaker and garage wine, etc…
We started with Blanc n°1 de Valandraud 2006 which, drank not too cold, was simply delicious, followed by a series of Clos Badon Thunevin to show that I don’t transform one of my fine wine in a product with a standard taste and that each vintage is different, which is understandable when one knows the successful and less successful vintages in Bordeaux, where the climate is one of the crucial element in Bordeaux taste, unique and hard to copy!
We tasted flights of 2 glasses:
Clos Badon 2007 and 2006 / 2005 and 2004/ 2003 and 2000

You can taste the technical progress made in 2006 and 2007 when Murielle took over the reins. 2005 is good, a fine wine with an unbeatable quality/price ratio, 2003, which doesn’t have the defects of this vintage: thanks to 50% Cabernet Francs from this property (and 50% Merlot). And 2000 which is still too young.
As we were still thirsty, we served a 1999 Valandraud, and in honor of our Japanese friends, Bad Boy 2005 which is sold out and should get a nice spot-light (?) and famous manga.
At the end, with desert, we served a Thunevin-Calvet Maury 2007 which had a rare freshness and purity and was drunk with no problems.
Clos Badon-Thunevin was not chosen out of the blue. This wine which includes my name since 1998 with 15000 bottles produced is sold for a retail price of 30 to 50 Euros depending on the country and where 5000 bottles are imported each year by our Japanese importer.