Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Grand Jury European

François Mauss organizes 2 tasting events on December 1st and 2nd in Restaurant Laurent in Paris.
The first will be a vertical blind tasting of only one cru; the other is the 1998 vintage: you can already see many pictures of the bottles on his site.
The latter tasting already took place at least twice: In April 2001 in Singapore and November 2003 in Villa D’Este in Italie.
Valandraud 98 was 13th in Singapore and 4th in Italy. Will it reach 1st place this time?

In any case, it was a great vintage in the Right Bank and one of the great successes for Valandraud which was produced with 50% Cabernet Franc and 50% Merlot from terroir from Fongaban and the Saint Emilion valley.
When you think that at that time I had negative, even insulting, comments about the quality of these terroir… It would actually be a euphemism to say that many wouldn’t have put their thune (money in slang) on my wine!
I must confess (pun due to my Christian upbringing, and probably also inspired by the Jesuits) that, for fun, I often do tastings with Valandraud 1998 against a Medoc 1998, and even though I win with little damage, there is no glory to be gained. Still, I enjoy seeing my guests so surprised by such difference. I am certain than in 50 years, the results will be different…

In London, Jancis Robinson, in semi-blind tastings organized by English wholesalers, also placed Valandraud in a top position ( 3rd best note). Considering that in the UK you don’t mix dishtowels with napkins, and that 1st growths are only tasted together, etc… This result is quite an accomplishment.
I can’t wait to see the results of this 3rd tasting.

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