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In early October I turned 70, and this milestone birthday was the subject of three celebrations, one in Singapore, and two at our home in Dorset. They could not have been better and provided great compensation for being born in such a rotten year.

The first celebration was organised prebirthday by Australian Michael Hill-Smith, MW in late September in Singapore at the time of our and Hong ..Read More >>

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Having had the quote “the best vintage of my lifetime” splashed across the cover of last June’s Decanter Magazine,  I agree with this title from Bill Blatch’s highly regarded Vintage Report and I am happy that most of the chateaux owners are of the same opinion.  While none of them committed themselves in the weeks preceding the early April tastings to saying which they preferred, during the week

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This October, I headed up a wine tour under the title Master Class in Southern Burgundy.

First stop was L’Hameau du Vin in Villefranche-sur-Saone, Georges Duboeuf’s magnificent creation that can rival any wine museum in the world, with its stunning collection of artifacts and the dedication to explaining this historic and under-valued region.




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I was in Argentina in early October, along with the Decanter team to wave the flag for the Decanter World Wine Awards that I wrote about last month and to congratulate the wine producers for getting 4 International Trophies – the same as the whole of France!

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On September 1st at London’s Royal Opera House, Decanter held the Presentation Dinner for the Decanter World Wine Awards.  From 4,500 entries in the 2004, exactly 10,983 wines were judged this year, making the DWWA the largest wine competition on the planet.  66% received a Commended, Bronze or Silver Medal  and 208 (2%) a  Gold, 99 Regional Trophies selected only from wines that have already won a Gold, and 28 International Trophies selected from these, with 14 from the Old World and 14 from the New.

 

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When choosing the wines for the WSI offer, it was natural to choose those that I had particularly liked during the “en primeur” tastings, wines that had not only impressed me for their intrinsic quality, but what had also stood out amongst their peers.  In making the selection there were, of course, some choices and I tended to choose the wines that represented for me the best value for money as well as the best value for pleasure, which is what I do for my own cellar.   Here is what I selected.

 

Chateau Rollan de By, Medoc

This is a superb estate right in the north of the Medoc, where the gravelly soils match those of the more famous appellations in Pauillac and Margaux.  The wines are classy and polished and very modern in style.

 

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Buying “en primeur” is buying forward, buying wines when they are first on the market, but before they are bottled and will be sold for general commercialisation.

This is a practice that dates back to the 1960s, when the estates who produced Bordeaux wines, known as “chateaux”, began to offer their wines to the powerful wine merchants in the City of Bordeaux in the spring following the vintage, for they needed the money to pay the back bills and to finance the year up to and after the vintage to come. 

 

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“The best in my lifetime” were the words used by France’s foremost wine critic Michel Bettane to describe the 2009 vintage for Bordeaux red wines.  Jacques Thienpont, owner of Pomerol’s Chateau Le Pin said that it was quite rare to be able to say that weather conditions were perfect throughout the growing season, but that it was true of 2009.

 

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July, August and December are the only quiet months for UK wine writers.  For the rest of the time, there may well be a wine tasting or wine event every day of the week, sometimes more than one, to the extent that Harpers Wine and Spirit, the trade magazine - contrasted to Decanter, the consumer magazine - along with the Circle of Wine Writers (of which I have the honour to be the current President) manages what is called The Wine Trade Diary.  Countries or companies intending to hold a wine tasting for the on-trade (hotels and restauraunts) and off-trade (wholesalers and retailers) contact the Diary to find out what would be a good day where there is little else of importance going on.

 

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