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Free
Run
- The not so secret
diary of a master of wine |
| People
often ask what's it like tasting wine for living. The short answer is that
often it's fun. There are plenty of fascinating places and people to visit
and of course fabulous and dreadful wines to try. This is an attempt to
bring some of it to life given the enormous amount of positive feedback
that I got from my diary of an Australian trip with a group of MWs that
was published in Food & Wine magazine. - a copy of which is in the
articles section of this web site. |
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| June 2003
- Dublin Dinners and Vinexpo Parties |
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Tuesday
June 3rd, Dublin
12.00pm
Searson’s
tasting at Merrion hotel. Charles Searson has had the clever idea of
asking everybody that he has invited to nominate any bottle that they list
for opening. Attendance up hugely, as of course everyone asked for
Crystal, or grand cru Burgundy and bless them, they opened the lot! Tasted
a range of Madeiras for the first time since I can recall, from Henriques
and Henriques and they were amazing, particularly the Bual 15 y-o.
Plenty of other stars too, a couple of which feature as wines
of week.
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Thursday
June 5th, Dublin
8.00pm. Dinner at Dublin’s
Chapter One restaurant hosted by Nicholson’s with Adam Wynn of Mountadam,
whose family made Coonawarra what it is today, although these days he is
producing wine in the Eden Valley. First question; Which came first, the
man or the mountain. To my surprise it was the man! Sit opposite Stephen
Caviston of the eponymous Fish Restaurant in Glasthule, Co. Dublin and say
he looks like his dad Peter. He laughs and I go red as he says Peter is
his brother!
 Winemaker
Adam Wynn is a talented man who lets his wines speak for themselves rather
than giving a speech to the assembled group. Style is generally very
elegant, particularly chardonnay and European. Not surprising given he
topped his class when studying at Bordeaux. He has that rare thing in
Australia, a good merlot. Again perhaps Bordeaux experience is the reason.
Wife Cathy with
Stephen Caviston and Chris Hill
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Thursday
June 12th, Dublin
7.30pm. Wine tasting and dinner at Dublin’s L’Ecrivan with Noel
Pinguet of Domaine Huet in Vouvray, Hosted by importer Wine Knows. Start
with sparkling Vouvray as aperitif, which I mange to tip over myself and
Dermot Nolan MW whilst larking about. Noel has kindly brought a range of
sweet, dry and medium of assorted vintages back to 1959! A rare
opportunity indeed. I not as enthralled by the older wines as some,
finding them a little over the hill – caramelised or gently oxidising
with age. Somehow the discussion gets onto how well New World wines age or
rather don’t according to two other MWs present, Dermot Nolan and
Richard Kelley. I don’t agree and Dermot protests that he attended a
vertical tasting of Grange and that it wasn’t much more than
concentrated Jacob’s Creek! Australian immigration will surely never
allow him to visit again.
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Friday
June 20th,
Northern France
6.30am.
Drive off ferry in Cherbourg in stunning clear light as sun comes up –
really beautiful. Stopping in Channel ports on the way to vinexpo. Driving
down with family in a 4 x 4 Forrester that Subaru have loaned me and bless
them, Irish Ferries and Brittany ferries have let me onto their boats
(Dublin – Holyhead and Poole - Cherbourg) for free too, as I’ll be
writing about it . The kids are thrilled at getting on boats (Me too
secretly) and the car is simply amazing. Fully loaded we’ve bombed along
in comfort at 70-80mph.
8.30am.
Spend morning visiting assorted supermarkets and wine warehouses.
Thoroughly depressing experience when you can see how little it all costs
in France compared to Ireland.
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Sunday
June 22th, Bordeaux
11.00am Weather sweltering so decide to swim with kids in campsite pool
(we’re staying in a chalet at Gujan Mestra, near Arcachon).
4.30pm. Finally get to Vinexpo. Car thermometer says the outside
temperature is 40C! Head for the d’Arenberg stand to leave a book for
someone to collect. Aussies, Kiwis and angry Afrikaners are in a hall off
the main event and the air conditioning has broken. Sweaty winemakers
allege it was working until just after the French Prime minister had
concluded his visit. Australians think it too likely a coincidence that it
happened to break down and mutter darkly about the ‘coalition of the
unwilling’ and the Iraq war’. New Zealanders threaten to sue and the
Africans have worked out! To be fair temperatures in the hall must be
approaching 50C and the wines taste like soup.
6.30pm.
Been invited to a black tie international press dinner at Chateau Margaux,
so stop car in side road near the Chateau to change. Margaux have solved
the problem of stilettos (not mine stupid) and gravel paths by laying out
a long beige carpet.
Apertifs
on the lawn at the back of the chateau and it’s still sweltering. Talk
is of the amazing heat and the problems the New World stands had in hall
three. The great and the good are all here. Recognise lots of famous wine
journos from around the world and a couple even recognise me. Also dotted
around are the owners of almost all the top cru classes in the Médoc.
Krug ‘88 is flowing like lager but sadly I allow myself only a couple of
sips as I’m driving. Finally decided that the Krug style is a little too
full on for me. Prefer something more elegant like Dom Perignon, which
John Salvi MW tells me was the alternative discarded choice. He also
claims that, in retrospect, Ch. Margaux people were a little embarrassed
at having given the MWs such a brief tour and tasting a few weeks
previously, as Haut Brion had put on a spectacular tasting and Mouton had
served 1953 at dinner.
9.15pm.
Eventually move inside to eat. Remarkably they’ve shifted heaven knows
how many barrels to accommodate several hundred of us. Worryingly it’s
nearly as warm in the cellars as outside. Will 2002 vintage be baked? Find
myself at a table with Anthony Barton, owner of Leoville Barton and
Nathalie Schlyer of Kirwan. The phrase Irish mafia springs to mind. This
is actually an extremely smart bring a bottle party as the hosts of each
table have brought wine from 1990 and 1985. The 90s shine for me. Leoville
Barton is wonderful, (93/100) but after a slow start Kirwan opens up and
becomes fragrant and mellow (88/100). Margaux 1983 with the cheese, which
I have to say given it’s first growth, under whelmed me (89/100).
d’Yquem 1986 with the dessert is a beauty (96/100) and seems a baby with
decades of life ahead.
After the meal there are speeches. Hugh Johnson offers thanks and Corinne
Mentzelopoulos says that the high price of Bordeaux wine is entirely
reasonable as it is the result of the market place. So now you know.
Chateaux only releasing small tranches at a time or negociants refusing to
sell to those that don’t buy their stocks of off vintages at inflated
prices has nothing to do with it.
12.00am
After the speeches there’s a band downstairs in the 2nd year
chai, where somehow a stage has been erected. Sadly I have a 90-minute
drive back to my humble chalet, so give it a miss. Outside there are
thousands of candles lighting the driveway making it very atmospheric,
Victorian even. Half expect to see horse drawn carriages.
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Mon
June 23rd, Bordeaux
12.pm The MWs and Drinks Business magazine are hosting a lunch and finding
the marquee that they are in takes an eternity given the insane size of
the place (main hall over 1km long). Bump into Paddy O’Flynn of the Wine
Buff on the way . The great and good have all turned out for what turns
out to be a pleasant lunch and this time I actually drink the stuff rather
than sipping as I’m not driving. Linger over lunch – another day when
precious little tasting gets done, but I keep telling myself this thing is
on for 5 days. Seems Sonday was just abut the hottest day in 50 years or
ever, depending which report you believe.
3.30pm. Spend most of the afternoon tasting Diageo’s wines with Joel
Butler MW. Thankfully I bump into the Gilbeys crowd in the Diageo tent and
tell them I can’t make dinner at Ch Magnol, as it’s too hard to get
home without transport and I can’t afford a taxi. Stop for a cleansing
Cooper’s ale at the de Bortoli stand on the way out and remarkably they
are all driving to Arcachon, so I grab a lift.
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Tuesday
June 24th , Bordeaux
8.30am Catch the train into Bordeaux and the stupidly expensive shuttle to
Vinexpo. Resolve to taste much more today than yesterday but the sheer
scale of this place is daunting. Finding anyone takes ages.
1pm Taste Hugel wines with Andrew Higgs of their UK agent Dreyfus Ashby.
Spend most of an hour talking football rather than wine. Note that Johnny
Hugel is eating a sandwich washed down with a beer. Odd, as I thought his
wines were quite good.
2.30pm Mamouth tasting at Jaboulet stand, but the wines suffer a little
because of the heat I reckon.
7pm
Turn down a couple of invites to dinner as I have to bus and train it back
to Gujan Mestra. Bus is delayed in traffic so miss train and wait two
hours for next one during a spectacular storm, which has, it turns out,
reeked havoc on the vineyards of Entre-Deux-Mers and destroyed a glamorous
tented party at Ch La Gaffelière. Train
finally turns up and eventually 4 hours after leaving Vinexpo I trudge,
famished into the chalet.
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Wednesday
June 25th , Bordeaux
9.am Decide I can’t risk the train again and will drive and spit all
the many, many samples I want to try today.
10.30am
–. Meet up with Peter O’Malley of The Irish Times Wine Club to
taste at the Paul Boutinot stand. Boutinot has an absolutely stunning
Loire chardonnay that Sam Harrop of M& S said I had to try. He was
right. Whilst tasting Lillian Barton, Satorus, Anthony’s daughter
passes. I stop to thank her for the invite to the party at Margaux and she
exclaims ‘oh just the man, we’ve had a cancellation would you like to
come to the Fête de la Fleur party at Mouton tomorrow night?” Silly
question of course, I would.
12.30.
Coincidentally I’m due for lunch at the mouton tent today so I can
casually drop into the conversation that yes of course I’ll be going to
the party tomorrow night. Turns out they are hosting the big bash to
coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Rothschilds owning
Mouton. Can’t wait, especially as I’m told they’ll be all sorts of A
list stars and there’re serving the 1983! Lunch includes Opus One and
Almaviva but maybe because they are served at 12C, straight from the walk
in cellar or rather a refrigerated truck that they don’t really shine.
Am told that Mouton had a staff party n the marquis until 3am. They look
remarkably well on it.
7pm
Actually got some tasting done this afternoon and head for home.
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Thursday
June 26th, Bordeaux
10am Blitz the South African stands, having missed their big tasting in
Dublin last week as I was on my way here.
12.30pm
Pick up my invite which Lillian has left on the Boutinot stand. Greeted
with cry
of "Ah here comes The Comte de Blagard"? I’m confused but it
seems that my invite is in the name of an Italian Comte as they haven’t
been able to change the name!
1.00pm
People are starting to pack up and leave, even though the show doesn’t
finish until 5pm? Why The answer it seems is that on the last day they let
the unwashed civilians, as Liz Hurley might call them, in and they swoop
across the hanger like a cross between a plague of locusts and Mongol
hordes. Everything that’s not nailed down is plucked and shoved into a
cardboard carton. There must be thousands of people walk around with
little fold up suit case trolleys or old lady shopping bag on wheels jobs
grabbing as many bottles as they can carry. One man has a trolley with
about five cases on it and a rucksack on his back bulging with bottles.
Clearly this is a ploy by the organisers to get the place cleaned on the
cheap.
4pm.
Chaos. Fighting a loosing battle actually trying to taste as stands I want
to see have closed or am constantly interrupted by people grabbing bottles
I’m trying to taste. Embarrassingly I’m beginning to look like one of
the marauding looters as I’m carrying around bottles given to me by
winemakers who know I’m staying on a week and would rather I took them
than the hordes.
5.00pm.
Stop for a quick tasting at Yarden of Israel stand. Shock of the week, as
the wines are very good.
6.00pm
stuck in traffic on way to Mouton.
7.00pm
Use same side road near Margaux as on Sunday to change into DJ suit. This
time though a coach pulls up just as I’ve taken my trousers off!
7.30pm
Parking is on the quays at Pauillac for security reasons. There are police
and sniffer dogs everywhere and muscular men in suits with earpieces and
bulging breast pockets. This is a serious do. Present my invite to the
clipboard nazis without saying a word as clearly I am neither Italian or a
Comte. Thankfully with a smile and a nod I’m in.
Bowled
over to learn that 2000 people have been invited. There’s a marquee that
will house dinner that looks like the Victorian crystal palace. It’s
huge. I’m told, although I never saw them, that Catherine Deneuve, Hugh
Grant and Robert Redford are in attendance along with Madame Chirac and
Pompidou’s widow! A Boeing 777 was hired to take the celebs from Paris
to Bordeaux with exclusive use of the new as yet unopened terminal at
Charles de Gaulle airport. They certainly do things with style at Mouton.
9.00pm Find myself sitting at the Barton table next to Fiona Morrison MW,
who tells me all about the missing Comte, whom she knows. She also tells
me about the storm at La Gaffelière. Just as they were about to start a
huge gust smashed just about every glass, all Riedal, in the marquee and
then a deluge flooded the place and all but collapsed the tent and the
caterer’s tent. Cars parked in fields were waterlogged. They all rushed
into the cellars were the wines, some very grand and old had already been
opened. Guests rescued a glass each and the only food not destroyed was
some cheese.
9.15. A succession of people come to the
table to shake her husband Jacques Thienpont’s hand. She’s whispers to
me that they only want a bigger allocation of Le Pin and it won’t work.
10.30pm As I’m meant to be driving
I’m only sipping the wines which is very depressing. Spotting my
unhappiness Lilian Barton offers me a spare room at her place! Instantly
happier I top up the Margaux 1996 and Mouton 1982. Actually wasn’t very
impressed with the 1996. Parker rates it as near perfect but I’ve had it
twice recently, from bottles from the Chateaux and thought it showed a
touch of Brettanomyces. The Mouton 1982 was sensational
(98/100), still rich but with an array of leathery, spicy developed
aromas. I was grinning inanely, sipping away listening to the sound and
light show to commemorate the anniversary when Placido Domingo stepped
from behind the curtain and started to sing! You could have knocked the
entire crowd over with a single feather. Heavens, can he sing and does it
get any better, sipping Mouton 1982, listening to Placido Doming live?
Someone said that if I’d never been to one of these Fete parties not to
bother coming again as it will never be topped!
12.00am
Another band and Pol Roger Champagne flowing like lemonade at a kids
party. Go for walk around the arena and meet Leigh Claridge of Sichels who
tells funny story about Allan Cheesman, recently retired after 30 years
as a Sainsbury’s buyer but still, I think, acting as a consultant,
sniffing his wet boxer shorts. Seems he came to dinner at d’Angludet on
Monday when it was very hot, so they stripped to their boxers and dived
into the pool. Got dressed afterwards and threw their wet shorts into the
back of Leigh’s car. Leigh gave hem a lift home and at his hotel, in the
darkness it has to be said, he reached into the back of the car grabbed a
pair of wet boxer shorts, which he stuffed his nose into before
pronouncing that they were definitely his! Of course they turned out to be
Leigh’s. So the great nose of Sainsbury’s can’t tell his own shorts
from another man’s! I’ll never trust a Sainsbury label again.
1.30am
Lilian and her husband finally leaves the dance floor and we head out into
the night. Girls are handing out goodie bags that include an eau de vie
and an engraved glass barrel bung. I now have three of these from a series
of visits and haven’t a clue what to do with them. I actually have to
drive the couple of miles to Leoville-Barton as security would probably
blow the car up if I left it. Thankfully the army of policemen are here to
smooth our passage rather than breathalyse us.
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Saturday
June 28th
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Nr Bordeaux
12.00pm. Exhausted but recovering from the stains of Vinexpo I explore the
local Lidl. Buy 8 bottles for just over €15. Amazingly, there’s a
sparkling wine for 89 cent, a drinkable Chablis for €4.49 and a good
Bourgogne Chardonnay with an attractive mineral edge to the flavour for
just over €3.
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