2009 Toro and some smart Rioja

Nothing like a nice Rioja to revive the senses after a 4 hour drive from Priorato. Well, certainly, if its one of Marcos Eguren's. The Egurens are the vinous Kings of Rioja, if not all of Spain. Their wonderful San Vicente was one of the original modern Riojas, hand made from a low yielding single vineyard La Canoca in the Rioja Alta zone, which produces the region's most subtle, elegant wines that combine fresh acidity with fine fruit and tannic backbone. It is regularly voted best red wine in Spain, by the Spanish great and good, and you can see why.

2007 was a small, cool and late harvest, picking did not finish until the beginning of November in some vineyards. An absolutely wonderful vintage not a rich blockbuster, far from it, but intense, fine and fresh. I always have a soft spot for San Vicente Rioja, i don't think there is better value wine in Spain, the 07 exemplifies its typically sophisticated, nuanced style. However for sheer quality Amancio was something else. Another single vineyard wine but most of the fruit goes into other cuvees, only 8% of the vineyard's grapes, the creme de la creme, are used for Amancio. All flowers, high notes, minerals and forest fruits, understated yet so powerful. It will be a wine for ageing, if a still far too young but equally impressive 2002 is any indication.

Further south in Toro the Egurens have been busy fine-tuning their Teso La Monja wines. They sold their Numanthia Termes estate in a bid to make something more elegant. Their idea was to buy only high altitude, mainly north facing vineyards ranging from 40 to 100 years old, with a view to prolonging the vegetative cycle and make a more refined style of Toro. 2009 conditions were great and combined with the experience gained from the two vintages already under their belt, has made for staggering results. They are not as massive, thick or extracted as the Numanthia Termes wines were but they are even more intense, more floral finer and longer. In general the best Toros taste like very good wines but without any particular identity that marks them out as specifically being Toro. This is where Teso la Monja excel, they are quite simply sumptuous seductive and unique. Dios mio! their top wine, Alabaster, left me breathless - smooth silky floral but with a marathon finish. As soon as journalists and wine trade professionals have had a chance to taste, it will surely not being long before its consider one of Spain's true greats.

Nou Wave Priorato

So to the land of El Bulli and FC Barcelona, Catalans show as much flair in the kitchen as they do on Nou Camp's glorious turf, the region has become a must visit for the most serious of gastronomes. The wine is catching on, too. Home of Priorat and its rugged, slate-rich hills. A unique land where red grapes are grown on dangerously steep, crumbling hills of slate.

The region is rediscovering its identity after the unwieldy, heavily oaked Cabernet Syrah and Merlot influenced wines of the nineties. Over the last 10 years the region's top producers have concentrated on the land's more traditional grape varieties, in particular the area is awash with seriously old vines Garnacha and Carinena (Grenache and Carignan.) Ok so the wines of Priorat are never going to be shrinking violets, but from today’s top producers they are definitely unique, potently moreish wines with an unmistakebale mineral streak running through them. There are about a dozen top flight producers and I have come to taste three of my favourites: Vall Llach, Mas Martinet and Mas Doix.

I am here to taste 2008s and 2007s. Two very different vintages. 07s remind the contagiously enthusiastic Sara Perez (of Mas Martinet) of the 2004s, full of richness , velvet texture with a nice but very gentle thread of acidity running through it, wines for hedonists. 08s are altogether more ethereal, in one of her more artistic moments Sara describes 2008 as a “clouds” vintage, by that I think she meant a vintage of high tones, as opposed to the more obvious but immediately seductive 07s. I adore the finesse and terroir complexity of Sara’s wines, characteristics that are perhaps more marked in 2008 than 2007, they don’t always wow the journalists because they are not all upfront, but how incredibly fine they are and they age wonderfully. The glorious, wild cherry-infused 2000 Clos Martinet that I tried at the estate will attest to that. The Vall Llach and Mas Doix offerings were exquisite, too, albeit in a slightly different style to Martinet, super sumptuous and silky yet with wonderful bright mineral lift. I believe that a certain someone across the Atlantic concurs, both of their 2007s are in the Wine Advocate’s top 10 of the vintage.

Viva the revival!

2009 Update

Apologies for the recent lack of blogs. After weeks of inactivity we have been inundated with releases in the last few days. Prices have resembled the weekly salaries of some of our under-performing football players, but the market has decided that they offer much better value for money. In fact it's now a race to see whether the campaign will finish or the England squad will return home first. My money's still on the England team...

The biggest news is that Lafite, Mouton, Latour and Margaux have released. Due to unprecedented demand the Chateaux have released only a fraction of their production onto the market. We will continue to buy on the secondary market and wait for further traches before we offer at an amalgamated price. There is no real prix de revente for the first growths, but we can tell you that the first tranche has been around 550 Euros per bottle to us. We wait with apprehension for the further releases...

Recent headlines from the campaign include:

- Magnificent La Mission is out at £6200.
- Palmer releases this morning – Second tranche is released after lunch...
- Leoville Barton sells out in one afternoon; we await a second tranche.
- Big hitters, Leoville Poyferre, Montrose, Pichon Baron and Conseillante are out and will be allocated.
- Rauzan Segla and Troplong Mondot are approaching the end of the first tranche.
- Second tranche of Beychevelle now available at £650.
- Bordeaux negociants arrested for working a 35 hour day.
- Hindsight is a beautiful thing - bag a 2008 bargain. `08 Clarence Haut Brion £430/case.

Domaine Clos de Tart

How time flies. It is now twenty years since Justerini & Brooks first became involved in supplying and developing the Singaporean fine wine market, and over those years it has become increasingly filled with very serious connoisseurs and some genuinely world-class cellars. Though we meet with our customers in restaurants and private houses all over the city, the private dining room within the Jiang-Nan Chun Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel has been J&B's prime venue of choice for entertaining throughout this whole time. There have been many spectacular dinners held here over the years, and a few days ago we added another. Sylvain Pitiot, from the Burgundy Domaine Clos de Tart, flew out to join us for two dinners focused on the vintages made under his stewardship of this Grand Cru monopole estate. It is no longer a secret that since his debut in 1996 this ancient estate has been producing its finest flight of vintages in decades, and the dinners more than proved that point.

The 1996 was drinking beautifully , with mature wild plum and cherry flavours and silky tannins giving the wine a wonderful complex finish.

The 1999 was still very youthful and firm , but packed with ripe, luxurious and explosive fruits.

The 2001 had a beautiful pinot noir definition; fresh, seductive aromas and a perfect balance of fruit and minerals. A real star.

The 2002 was still a baby. Tight, concentrated, intense and pure. It is waiting to show its real colours.

The 2003 was big textured, rich and sweet, and seduced with damsons and black cherry, yet had that Pinot Noir structure to counter the wonderful bold ripeness.

The 2005 was glorious; that simple. Full of rich, ripe, dark fruits, yet balanced by a powerful minerality. A truly complete and grand Clos de Tart.

2006 is a vintage Sylvain rates particularly highly. Youthful yet harmonious and refined; a terroir-dominated vintage. Subtle , complex berry fruits, fine tannins and a haunting sweet yet mineral finish.

2007 is lovely, seductive, ripe Pinot. Fleshy and sweet black cherry and sloe fruits follow through. A real charmer.

The 2008 was cool, refined and with a purity of fruit that would be hard to match outside the best Grand Crus. Quite simply it is a great wine and even in its youth reflecting the best of a grand terroir.

What was so special about this flight was that without exception each wine was true to the conditions experienced during the growing season and harvest, and to its unique Grand Cru terroir. What is evidently clear to us is the talent of Sylvain Pitiot in both the vineyard and cellar in guiding Domaine Clos de Tart through a new golden age.