Domaine Fayat-Thunevin : Yesterday we had a serious tasting of the 2006 vintage in our new property in Pomerol and Lalande de Pomerol, with the participation of the previous owner. The malolactic fermentations were finished and the sulphite added 15 days ago, which allowed us to have a more accurate opinion.
Regarding this Pomerol, I think we have a bomb: full wine, rich, very ripe, concentrated, long, complex. Some violet like in certain Syrah, hopefully it will hold its promises!
The Lalande is more “normal”, smooth.
I can’t wait to see how these wines will compare to their peers, and in which categories we will be placed. In Lalande, we will certainly be in the 15 best, and I hope the same in Pomerol. This shows how high I set my mark.
Valandraud 2004 is finally pumped back in the vat to end the aging (2 wooden vats and 1 concrete), as suggested by Patrick (technique used in Burgundy to refine wines which are “too hard”). Aging should go on for a few more months and we will finally be able to bottle this wine, which, like 1994 and 2001, gave me a hard time, me who likes silky wines… These 3 vintages were tiring.
On the website of Château Loisel (site in French and link available on our French blog), there is a great comment on the Calvet-Thunevin Constance 2004 with a simple rating system easy to understand. This site contains plenty of information. The Constance 2005 is still aging and looks promising! For the ones who are interested, we still have a few bottles of 2002 which are certainly the best deal available in our stock, all wines included.
Again today and to finish the year brilliantly, in the February issue of Decanter, an article by Andrew Jefford listed Haut Carles and Haut Mazeris (I appeal to all responsible journalists to help the Fronsac appellation still greatly ignored by consumers looking for good values), in this same issue, there is also an article by James Lawther on the Roussillon and specifically on Fenouillèdes. And in In Vino Veritas, 2 pages on Chateau Fleur Cardinale, sorry for so little!
In the meantime while preparing for this New Years Eve celebration, which will take place in my home with a group of fine gourmets, I wish you the best for the rest of 2006 and a Happy New Year 2007.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Thursday, December 28, 2006
"A great year"
This morning in the Télé matin show on France 2, a piece was aired promoting a new film “A good year” which is being released in France on January 3. In this piece, a great promotion on the story of garage wines, which partly inspired Ridley Scott:
«The story of this feature: a great year started when Ridley Scott and the writer Peter Mayle, friends since the 70s, met and drank a great bottle of wine at the end of the 20th Century. Peter recalls: “Ridley arrived with an newspaper article about new Bordeaux wines, “garage wines”, which fetched astronomical prices without any château, or pedigree. Still people were paying fortunes to acquire them.” Ridley Scott added: “I saw this article in the business section of the Times. It was about a French winery selling its garage wines for more than 45,000 euros per case. It was an article published in 1996, that I kept. At that time, I was looking for an opportunity to go back to France to shoot a new film, and this story seems perfect.»…
One can also mention Patrick Bernard’s interview in the French publication “Les Echos”:
«S.L. : For the past few years, we’ve been experiencing a series of good, if not excellent vintages. What is the level of contribution from global warming versus technical improvement?
P.B.: Bordeaux would not have reached this level of quality today without the contribution from garage wines. Although, themselves being a aberration, they contributed to extraordinary progress. Garage wines are produced on very small plots, considered at first average, by winemakers taking care of there patch of vines with as much attention as a vegetable garden. At the beginning, these pioneers started with little money, they installed their fermentation vats in their garage, hence the name of these wines. Their contribution has been to better take in account the essential part the vineyard has to play... »
When you think that in the past few years some announced the end of garage wines… As if one can ignore today the revolution which changed Bordeaux and the wine world barely 15 years ago!
In other words, as a French saying goes: “to throw the baby with the water from the bath”, which should be interpreted in this case as to get rid of an import fact in order to eliminate the problems and obligations which it creates.
«The story of this feature: a great year started when Ridley Scott and the writer Peter Mayle, friends since the 70s, met and drank a great bottle of wine at the end of the 20th Century. Peter recalls: “Ridley arrived with an newspaper article about new Bordeaux wines, “garage wines”, which fetched astronomical prices without any château, or pedigree. Still people were paying fortunes to acquire them.” Ridley Scott added: “I saw this article in the business section of the Times. It was about a French winery selling its garage wines for more than 45,000 euros per case. It was an article published in 1996, that I kept. At that time, I was looking for an opportunity to go back to France to shoot a new film, and this story seems perfect.»…
One can also mention Patrick Bernard’s interview in the French publication “Les Echos”:
«S.L. : For the past few years, we’ve been experiencing a series of good, if not excellent vintages. What is the level of contribution from global warming versus technical improvement?
P.B.: Bordeaux would not have reached this level of quality today without the contribution from garage wines. Although, themselves being a aberration, they contributed to extraordinary progress. Garage wines are produced on very small plots, considered at first average, by winemakers taking care of there patch of vines with as much attention as a vegetable garden. At the beginning, these pioneers started with little money, they installed their fermentation vats in their garage, hence the name of these wines. Their contribution has been to better take in account the essential part the vineyard has to play... »
When you think that in the past few years some announced the end of garage wines… As if one can ignore today the revolution which changed Bordeaux and the wine world barely 15 years ago!
In other words, as a French saying goes: “to throw the baby with the water from the bath”, which should be interpreted in this case as to get rid of an import fact in order to eliminate the problems and obligations which it creates.
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