Blog: Steven Spurrier

My last communication was on The Importance of Comparative Tastings, telling the story of a tasting I organised in Paris in 1976 that compared (blind, of course) California Chardonnays against top white Burgundies and California Cabernet Sauvignons against the finest chateaux from Bordeaux.  This tasting, where a California wine was judged top in both categories, became known as "The Judgement of Paris".  It was the first comparative tasting of such importance ever held and it gave birth to a series of comparative tastings in which "underdog" wines matched themselves against international benchmarks. 

The high spot for the UK's professional wine writers and wine tasters last month was the presentation by Chile's Eduardo Chadwick of the "Berlin Tasting", an event that he first held in Berlin in January 2004. This began as a Symposium for three dozen of Europe's top tasters and wine buyers on the Errazuriz/Chadwick super-premium wines - Don Maximiniano, Viñedo Chadwick and Seña - followed by a blind tasting the next day where the 2000 and 2001 vintages of the Chadwick wines were shown alongside Chateaux Lafite-Rothschild, Latour and Margaux, and from Tuscany Sassicaia, Solaia, Tignanello and Guado el Tasso.  Viñedo Chadwick 2000 was voted first, second came Seña 2001 (at that time a partnership between Eduardo Chadwick and Robert Mondavi, now in sole Chadwick ownership), followed by Lafite-Rothschild 2000 and Margaux 2001.  I was seated next to Eduardo and there was no doubt that nobody was more surprised than he at the result.  The publicity machine immediately launched into action and the event was named The Berlin Tasting, under which it still goes.

I have been fortunate enough to attend most of the series of subsequent tastings in Brazil, Tokyo , Toronto , Seoul and Beijing, and only in Toronto and Seoul did the Chilean wines not win the day.  Last year in Copenhagen, Lafite 2005 came above Don Maximiniano 2004 with Mouton 2005 in third place and Solaia 2004 fourth, while in Amsterdam the Chadwick stable took the first five places, sixth place going to Margaux 2004.

The Landmark Hotel in London received the largest number of tasters ever, 71 in all, with the Masters of Wine, headed by Jancis Robinson, very much in evidence.  There were 12 wines to be tasted, the tasters knowing that the three Chadwick top brands - Don Maximiniano, Seña and Viñedo Chadwick - would be present in two vintages, 2005 and 2006.  For the Bordeaux wines, Eduardo Chadwick had chosen to present the 2005, probably Bordeaux's best vintage so far this century, the same for the two "Super-Tuscans" and also for Opus One, the joint-venture between Baron Philippe de Rothschild and Robert Mondavi that began (almost certainly as a result of the Judgement of Paris) in 1979. Tasters were asked to rank their top three wines in order of preference, the scorers awarding 3 marks to the first choice, 2 to the second, 1 to the third.  Below is the final tally with my own ranking, not counted, in brackets:

1 (2).  Ch. Margaux 2005.
2 (4=) Ch. Lafite-Rothschild 2005.
3 (1).  Solaia 2005.
4 (6).  Don Maximiniano 2006.
5= (11). Viñedo Chadwick 2006.
5= (9=)  Seña 2005.
7 (4=).  Seña 2006.
8 (9=).  Ch. Latour 2005.
9 (3).  Sassicaia 2005.
10 (8). Don Maximiniano 2005.
11 (12).  Viñedo Chadwick 2005.
12 (7).  Opus One 2005.
 
With the UK tasters certainly more exposed to the Bordeaux wines than any country except France itself, many of my colleagues said that it was easy to identify the First Growth clarets and by eliminative comparison, not hard to identify which wines were from Chile.  It was therefore not surprising that Margaux and Lafite-Rothschild led the pack.  Solaia was, for me, quite exceptionally good and then came four wines from the Chadwick stable.  An honourable result, I thought.

Eduardo himself was slightly disappointed, but since his wines are between one third and one tenth of the price of the top three, I feel he has once again succeeded in showing that he has nothing to fear from the world's famous benchmark classics.  Next year he will plan three such events in the USA , moving the vintage of the European wines to 2006 and his own to 2006 and 2007.  The following year he will take the show to India. I don't think there is any other wine producer in the world with the generosity to give such joint seminars/tastings and Chile recognised this a few months back by naming him "Personality of the Year."

Whatever such comparative blind tastings do for the Chadwick Collection, they most certainly emphasise that Chile is now a world-class wine producer.