The Annual Taste-a-thon and other stories

03 April 2017

BORDEAUX

I have arrived in Bordeaux for a week of tasting the new vintage: 2016, a harvest that - by all reports - combines fabulous quality with a return to the sort of quantities that make Bordelais vignerons do little handstands of joy.

One cannot mention Bordeaux these days without the word "pricing" rearing its head. Dipping sterling and the Bordeaux facility for charging like an enraged leopard that some poor dolt has shot the whiskers off will no doubt combine to produce tickets of juicy dimension.

With so much fabulous wine in the world I become increasingly flabbergasted that there is still so much demand for the wines of Bordeaux. Whilst our recent offering of Brunello di Montalcino was taken up in reasonably rewarding fashion, Italian wine commands the sort of interest that represents a drop in the ocean compared to that which one sees at primeurs time. I will continue to endeavour to change this phenomenon.

VIDEO TASTING NOTES

And I continue to record video tasting notes of Bowes Wine offer wines past. The latest relates to the 2001 Descendant from Torbreck in the Barossa Valley, a winery that was owned by the supremely talented Dave Powell. It's about as good as mature Barossa wine gets, I'd warrant. You can watch the video here. And view the Bowes Wine YouTube channel (to peruse all videos to date) here. There are currently 86 videos available. (N.B. We would be grateful if you would subscribe to either the Daily Drinkeror Bowes WineYouTube channel (or both). YouTube offers rather better services to those with more subscribers.)

THE DILY DRINKER

Each month we taste a great many wines in order to select a pair - one red and one white - for Daily Drinker members. Whilst members of The DailyDrinker receive a 10% discount on all purchases, the wines are available to whomsoever wants to buy them.

And we continue to receive high praise for the quality of these wines. (You can view respected wine writer Tom Cannavan tasting our February white for his Wine of the Week feature here.)

We are quite happy to arrange delivery of Daily Drinker wines to anywhere in mainland UK...and, of course, they can be added to Hong Kong shipments. Do get in touch if you would like to discuss.

AND FINALLY...

I am happy to report that a tribe of ape-like creatures in the Amazon Basin have discovered GrapePip and are finding it fun and easy to use. Indeed, they are, at this very moment, enjoying a glass of delicious, perfectly-stored Meursault with their habitual diet of ants and slightly under-ripe fruit...