Newsletter No. 30: 9^th November 2007

Palladian Bridge at Prior Park, Bath;

one of only 4 examples in the world

A great deal has happened at Bowes Wine since we last published a newsletter. As just a small example of what we've been up to, I was in London recently for the annual tasting of the newly-bottled Bordeaux vintage, this year the much lauded '05s. This event (about more of which later) occurs every year at more-or-less the same time and it's a fascinating chance to have another look at the vintage one was selling 18 months or so previously; to check up on the wines that appeared in one's offering and to get a further insight into the overall quality of the harvest.

In any event, this tasting inevitably becomes something of a social gathering, as one gets to see wine trade friends and ex-colleagues that one hasn't seen for some time, some of them since the same tasting 12 months previously. One such colleague pointed out that our website didn't appear to have undergone any serious updating for some time. "Rubbish", says I. "We've been posting regular offers on www.boweswine.co.uk as per." To which said ex-colleague replied, "But there hasn't been a newsletter since April," at which the penny dropped. (Dismay was mixed with wonderment and gratification at the thought that other wine merchants are regular visitors to our website.)

I find  that writing newsletters taxes the little grey cells and takes up a great deal of time; time that has, of late, been spent in travel, attending tastings, running Bowes Wine and trying to keep an energetic 18 month old at bay.

We have now come to a decision. Realising that the regularity of newsletter publication has been far from ideal for some time, it is now our plan to substitute newsletter production for a wine blog which will follow us through our vin-centric existence. The experience of buying trips to France and elsewhere, UK wine tastings etc. can be shared, if not in real time then with nightly postings of text and photographs; who knows, we may even be able to share snippets of film showing us going about our daily grind. Perhaps only then will Bowes Wine clients realise what a seriously taxing metier it is in which we find ourselves (!).

We are hoping to have the blog up-and-running in the next couple of weeks, and certainly before I head off to Burgundy on 25^th November. Fear not. The launch will be impossible to miss as we will be trumpeting it loud from whichever high, rocky outcrops/tall buildings on which we find ourselves.

A claret jug with a dragon handle would make someone a very happy bunny at Christmas…perhaps oneself!

For more details and other decanters, look at our selection of antique glassware.

Union des Grands Crus Tasting – The Royal Opera House Covent Garden

I’m very glad that I was not involved with the organisation of this event. How to cope with 700+ baying wine merchants would be beyond me. The 2005 Bordeaux vintage is rightly celebrated and numbers for the London UGC tasting this year were greatly inflated, so much so that tasters were split into morning and afternoon sessions and advised that one shouldn’t arrive too early if tasting in the pm, or hang about for too long if an early bird.

The draw was understandable. “It is an extraordinary vintage and one that is different from anything I have tasted in the last twenty-eight years,” stated Robert Parker. Jancis Robinson added that “…there are more very good to great wines than I can remember in any other vintage.” The buzz is not waning. The world and his dog was intent on tasting these wines on Monday of this week.

In truth, no one thought for a moment that any of us had got it badly wrong; we weren’t expecting to be dismayed by a procession of wines the wheels of which had come off during elévage in barrel. What we found ourselves sniffing and swirling across our tongues was a vintage that, if anything, managed to dazzle more than ever. How can we tolerate such a rarity of perfection; that vintages of the like of 2005 are once-in-a-lifetime occurrences and only then if we are lucky? The answer is, of course, that perfection quickly loses its lustre when found in excess. What amazed me on Monday was that, after tasting 60 wines, the brilliance was undimmed, my taste buds unjaded. Make no mistake, this is a truly great harvest for Bordeaux. If my command of the English language were less developed, I might be tempted to refer to it as “very unique”.

So where are the high-points? As a question, this is akin to standing amidst the Himalayas and asking where the really tall bits are. I honestly didn’t taste a bad wine, but twisting my arm (and perhaps giving that sensitive (and, in my case, lonely) tuft of hair behind my ear a sharp tug, as was the wont of classics teachers to old) I would mention the following: Domaine de Chevalier; Haut-Bailly; Pape-Clément; Smith-Haut-Lafitte; Beau-Séjour-Bécot; Canon; Canon-La-Gaffelière; Figeac; Clos Fourtet; Gazin; La Conseillante; Clinet; Poujeaux; Beaumont; Belgrave; La Lagune; Lascombes; Malescot-St-Exupéry; Rauzan-Ségla; Branaire-Ducru; Lagrange; Langoa- and Léoville-Barton; Clerc-Milon; Pichon-Lalande; Lafon-Rochet. N.B. The firsts and a number of other “seniors” are not shown at this tasting, plus I did miss out on a few; sadly nobbled before I could get to them. Do let me know if you would like to see tasting notes for specific wines.

Leaving St Julien heading north. In the distance, three chateaux: Pichon-Baron far left, Pichon-Lalande to its right and Latour downslope at far right

I tasted a few of the dry whites towards the end of the day and found exceptional stuff, the plum of which was the Domaine de Chevalier.

Alas, I came too late to the Sauternes table: only two tasted, but the Doisy-Daëne was quite extraordinary.

What makes these wines great is there for all to see. There is a purity of fruit of the freshest sort. There is great crispness to the acidity of the wines. There are vast swirling tannins, differing in character from wine to wine, but all ripe, all noble. And there is the profound sense of terroir; a deep-seated minerality that makes these puppies stand out like a sore thumbs at an Antarctic explorers’ convention.

NB. At the time of going to press, we had a mere 8 cases remaining of this stellar vintage, all of them currently in our Bin End Sale… Grab one whilst you can but remember, sale ends on 14^th November and to qualify for the 15% discount, you must purchase any three dozen bottles from the sale,

A Couple of Retastes - recent notes from wines offered in the past

Putting our money where our mouths are, we ourselves buy a great many of the wines we offer. Of those we don't buy we often keep 2 or 3 bottles by way of samples in order to watch their development over time; to ensure that they don't go off and do anything silly.

The following pair fit into the former camp of wines we have in our own cellar. The first was something of a maverick. Lauded to the skies by Parker, I thought it superb on tasting, albeit with hairy palms and a bolt through the neck. Appending drinking dates was a tricky business. High alcohol Aussie wines - albeit with a great deal of fruit and tannin extraction - can make for wayward cellaring. I had been sure that this one had a good few years in it, but working out exactly how many had been an inexact science, a fact stated on the original offer. Here's what we found on tasting it this week:

2001 Eclipse, Noon Winery

N.B. This is a blend of 65% McLaren Vale Grenache and 35% Langhorne Creek Shiraz, the former planted between 1934 and 1943, the latter in 1962.

The colour here is still impenetrable. The nose is rich and complex and loaded with dry spice aromas. Fruit-wise, there are big, cake-y Grenache notes, along with meat and dried fruits. Some dense bramble aromas.

The palate is still crunchy with intensity; really fresh and rich. There are some firm, very ripe tannins throughout the great length. Could happily wait another year for this and then no hurry to drink up.

2000 Girolamo, Castello Bossi

N.B. This is 100% Merlot from Tuscany

The colour here is a deep ruby. This has quite a savoury nose. There's spice and a claret-like hint of the cigar box. Fresh, black plum fruit and smoky nuts and there are medicinal notes. Reminds one of a Right Bank claret with other things going on.

I found this still a touch backward, but it has a fabulous profile in the mouth and it is bristling with intent. There's a dusting of very fine, integrated tannins and good, proper grip at the end. Just medium acidity here, but it's quite fresh enough. There's a hint of liquorice among the plums. Another year or two to peak, perhaps.

A Note About Deliveries

Who can guess to what species delivery drivers belong. Externally humanoid in appearance, but with instinct and motivation so alien to our own that one suspects that they have blown in from the outer reaches of our galaxy, perhaps riding in on the solar winds. It is entirely possible that they are only quartering the countries of the world in delivery vans so as to work out the most efficient invasion routes. In any event, delivering stuff in timely fashion is clearly not priority one.

Octavian has now rid itself of all delivery lorries and vans (is it just me or is the word "lorry" becoming somewhat archaic, having been largely replaced by the US term "truck"?), now outsourcing its delivery service. The outcome is good, but not brilliant and as a result of this we would offer the following advice to clients requiring wine deliveries:

1          Do not bank on a delivery arriving on the requested day

2          If wine is required for a specific date, request delivery at least 24 hours before; ask that it be
            left with neighbours if no one will be there

3          Avoid Friday deliveries if needing wine for the weekend. Asking for a Thursday drop gives
            infinitely more likelihood that Saturday lunchtime will see you glass in hand enjoying the
            fruits of your collecting

The above advice is especially pertinent to those living outside the M25. Those living in the Isle of Man/Outer Hebrides add at least one week to normal lead times.

It's a sad state of affairs that we live in an age in which we have the technology to crash a probe into the surface of the planet Mars (it would have been rather more impressive if it had survived the impact and gone on to send back useful information on the red planet, I grant you), but we struggle to deliver a simple box of wine on time. I offer no satisfactory explanation for this anomaly.

New Drinking Wines

We have plans for our drinking wine list which we will communicate sometime in near future. Suffice it to say that we are attempting to get around the difficulty of enabling Bowes Wine clients to try before they buy from this list.

We have recently added a couple of wines. Firstly, we are very pleased to have found an utterly delicious Prosecco; not only extremely toothsome, but also great value. We love a good Prosecco. It's a wine that doesn't pretend to anything that it's not; isn't a wannabe champagne, in other words. Dry, but not too dry, and loaded with flavours of nuts and fresh tangerine, this stuff really is the fizz one can drink "anytime, anywhere" (robbing the slogan of another kind of alcoholic drink altogether). Ideal for when friends appear en masse, all set to “hoover”.

Then there's the extraordinary 2006 Fiano MandraRossa. This is a high-quality grape more usually found in the hills above Naples, here transplanted to Sicily. This baby won the Italian White Wine Trophy at the International Wine Challenge this year. To cap it off, it also took an award un-enigmatically called Great Value White Wine of the Year and a gold medal was hung on it, too. We cannot find fault with this wine (save, perhaps, for the fact that it has a yellow plastic cork, but don't let that put you off!). It is 75cl of Mediterranean sunshine, all peach, pineapple and dried fruit. Rich-but-dry, with food or without, rain or shine, this will improve one's outlook no end.

Eucomis bicolor – the pineapple flower – adding a touch of the exotic to our garden…and a slight smell of cheesy feet