Category Archives: Ramblings and Rants

The World Cup: Sacre Bleu

June 30 2010

At least England lasted longer than France, finalists four years ago.

p1050321The locals have hardly mentioned Les Bleus, and the headlines across Europe have been ferocious at their teams’ poor showings. Meanwhile, our seasonal workers are happy with their cut-price Rooney shirts: most of them are Morrocan so anything to have a dig at Algeria, France or, to a lesser extent, England.

As well as some of the more hilarious headlines, here are a couple of our favourite views on the French catastrophe that have been doing the rounds. First, a brilliant Bayeux Tapestry-inspired cartoon (click on the image to enlarge) from Dotmund and secondly, this short of video of why Henry wasn’t on top form.

Best Buys from Bordeaux 2009

June 28 2010

All over now bar the shouting.

Here, in my humble opinion, are the Best Buys – at the opening prices – of Bordeaux 2009, broken down as follows:

10 Expensive wines – but sound investments.

£400 to £1000 – 17 Fabulous quality, blue chip names.

£200 – £300 – This is where the values of 2009 lie: 20 cracking wines.

Under £200 – 12 lovely wines from the Left Bank. Keep reading

Bordeaux 2009 v 2008 v 2005: Comparing Points and Prices

For those who like lists: with the massive ‘en primeur’ price increases from 30 of the famous Bordeaux Châteaux last week – 196% up on average on 2008 – I thought it would be useful to compare points and prices of the top 2009s with both the 2008s and the last great vintage, 2005.

The table below shows my scores (GQ) and Robert Parker’s (RP) for the 2009s and 2008s from barrel, and the price in British pounds En Primeur (EP) from UK merchants. On the right hand side, I tasted all the top 2005s in bottle for Wine & Spirit magazine for the Dec 2007 issue, five months before Robert Parker released his final scores. Buyers are dipping back into the market for the 2005s and 2008s against the more expensive 2009s: there’s a lot of sense in that.

dsc_06672008 was a very good vintage, even if, in many people’s view, Robert Parker was a little generous with some of his scores. It makes for some bizarre comparisons: Ducru Beaucaillou 2008 was rated 96-98 and the 2009 96-98+, yet the the latter is three times the price of the ’08. I’ll be re-tasting the 2008s from bottle in the autumn – follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/GavinQuinney for updates.

Meanwhile, the better deals on 2009s were to be found on wines released earlier in the campaign, so it’s worth searching them out as many are still available. See also my separate post to follow for my ‘Best Buys of Bordeaux 2009’ and my summary of tweets throughout the campaign. Keep reading

Bordeaux 2009 En Primeur: UK Merchants Premier League

May 27 2010

Any pro will tell you that buying top wines from Bordeaux En Primeur, or splashing out while the wine is still in barrel and two years before delivery, is a risk. So you should buy from reliable sources.

old_image_croppedThe following 20 UK merchants have a strong track record, and could be considered the Premiership as far as En Primeur is concerned, with other candidates in the frame for promotion – see below and feel free to comment. I’ve listed the 20 in rough order of Bordeaux muscle (think allocations), range, prices, services and website. Prices are always quoted In Bond, which excludes Duty at £20+ and VAT on the lot. Check for extras, such as delivery.

For ‘Deal or No Deal?’ updates on wines as prices are released, follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/GavinQuinney

Keep reading

Bordeaux 2009 En Primeur Buyer’s Guide: 20 Questions & Answers

May 25 2010

Such is the demand for top Bordeaux from great years that the best wines from the two previous outstanding vintages, 2000 and 2005, have gone up substantially in value, despite the economic downturn. Here are my answers to 20 questions about the much-hyped 2009s.

1. Is Bordeaux 2009 ‘the vintage of a lifetime’?

dsc_0153_23I hope so, because we lost 80% of our crop in two hailstorms in May 2009. Apart from this minor detail, the weather was brilliant, all the way through to the end of the harvest in mid-October. I suppose that makes me well qualified to say, after watching the weather and tasting wines ‘En Primeur’ for ten years here, I have never witnessed such superb conditions for the harvest in Bordeaux and sampled so many outstanding young wines the following Spring. Many leading Châteaux have made their greatest ever wines, especially on the Left Bank.

That doesn’t mean to say you should buy the wines, if prices are too high. Fortunately, outside a relatively small circle of estates that could sell their 2009 production several times over regardless of price, there are many outstanding wines that are worth buying in 2009. Keep reading

Bordeaux 2009: 130 wines, top down, compared to RP and Jancis. A Buyer’s Guide

May 24 2010

Updated 8th June. Look away now if you think wine and points don’t go. Here is a top down list of my (GQ) scores alongside those of US guru Robert Parker (RP) – both using the 100 point scale – and Jancis Robinson’s scores out of 20, plus my estimate of anticipated maturity. There are 130 90+ point wines in my book, with 90 meaning outstanding. I tasted all the top wines, except Château Ausone and a few garage/boutique wines from St-Emilion, and Le Gay and Le Bon Pasteur from Pomerol.

dsc_06581It’s fair to say that RP and I agree on many of the top dogs, only he’s given higher points, with a stash of potential 100s (in 2005, he awarded just two wines 100 pts). I think he’s slightly underrated the 2009s from Palmer and Pichon Baron but that’s splitting hairs. Keep reading

Bordeaux 2009 Prices: You ain’t seen nothing yet

May 18 2010

p1040953As expected, the Bordeaux 2009 En Primeur campaign has got off to a sluggish start, with fine wine merchants trying to urge the Bordelais to get off their derrières and release prices. With the exception of last year’s futures campaign for the 2008s, ’twas ever thus over the last decade.

More worrying but, again, not exactly unexpected, is the direction that the prices are taking. Even some of the more modestly-priced wines are substantially more expensive than they were for the last outstanding vintage: 2005. The exchange rate plays a part of course, and buyers with sterling can expect to pay 25% more for the same wine four years on, even assuming no increase in price from the château. Keep reading

Bordeaux 2009: my Top 150

April 24 2010

I tasted all the top 2009 red wines from Bordeaux in late March and earlier this month, with the exception of Château Ausone. I didn’ t taste any of the so-called garage wines from St-Emilion*, so this list represents – in my humble opinion – nearly all that is worth considering as an en primeur investment.

As it happens, the random figure of 150 relates to all those wines which should have an ‘outstanding’ rating of 90 points or more when bottled next year. In separate articles, I’ll list a few potentially ‘good value’ buys, and the best dry and sweet white wines. Keep reading

Rollover Darling

March 26 2010

darling1

Captain Darling slipped another 10p on a bottle of wine in the Budget, taking the duty, and Vat on the duty, to £2. He also extended his ‘duty escalator’ of around 5% extra each year until 2015. On a £4.75 bottle of wine – higher than the average spend – over 50% is trousered by the government even now. By 2015, if Labour are returned to office this summer, duty will be over £2.50 per bottle as the escalator allows for duty rates to increase annually by 2% above inflation.