Bellevue de Tayac

Last Thursday morning at the attorney’s office, I signed the purchase of 4 hectares in Belves de Castillon, next to Saint Etienne de Lisse. Great terroir with good potential.

I am selling my property in Margaux (if I find a client interested in investing in this prestigious appellation) and I buy the same amount of land in Cotes de Castillon, but at a quite different price!

At 11:30 am, I tasted with my partner Jean-Roger Calvet and our enologists Claude Gros and Jean-Michel Fort, Rémi Dalmasso, Christophe Lardière, Murielle and I, a few batches of wine from our 2 regions in order to create 2 new crus in the new Vin de France appellation.
The 2009 vintage in both regions (Bordeaux and Roussillon) is quite successful, but it is certain that our Bordeaux are quite different from the notion of classic Bordeaux: these wines are flamboyant.

Following work, pleasure with a meal prepared by Murielle. Puligny Montrachet 2006 Etienne Sauzet, lemony, hazenuts, length, light, airy, etc… A very good bottle
Pommard 1er cru les Arvelets, Domaine Cyrot Buthiau 2005 with an old taste, too classic, problem with the bottle, true, served with at the same time as a Volnay 1er cru Les Fremiets Joseph Voillot : fruit, net and elegant, even though so classic
Following, Tenuta di Trinoro 1999, good
Sassicaia 1994, unfortunately corked
La Chapelle de Jaboulet 1972 Hermitage which I found very good. Everyone else preferred younger wines. I would love to be able to make a Valandraud able to age for 40 years with this force and such finesse; As we were not able to finish with an old wine, we drank a Plus de la Fleur de Bouard 2000 Lalande de Pomerol which, if located in Margaux, Pomerol or Pauillac, would cost 10 times the price, at the same level of a cult wine.

As soon as we finished the meal, we talked to Frédéric Hernandez and his boss Bertrand Clavières, Managing Director of Gault et Millau who changed investors and seems to have the means to carry-out his ambitions for the group seems quite solid.
We will see which media deserves our money, as we will have to favor those good ones who like our wines. Friends of my friends will be our friends.
As simple as that.

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.