Wednesday 28 September 2011

Video: Clerico's shifting focus...

Posted by Julian Campbell, Buyer

Not so long ago, Luciano Racca, from Domenico Clerico, came to see us. It was a short while before we started what has become our biggest and most successful  Italian En Primeur campaign to date.  Having tasted the whole gamut, it is now quite clear that the 2007s across Piedmont are nothing short of sublime. They combine intense fruit profiles with high-toned aromatics, sumptuous ripe tannic structures with fresh acidities. They really do have everything going for them, and anyone with a serious interest in fine wine to lay down, Barolo lover or not, should probably have at least one case in their cellar. (yes I know we are bound to say that, but in all honesty, it is true!)

Burgfest 2008 Vintage: Beaune, Volnay & Pommard

Posted by Hew Blair, Buying Director and Chairman
In a secluded location in Beaune over the late August bank holiday the most recently bottled vintage of Pinot Noir was put under the microscope. The UK's top Burgundy buyers plus specialist Burgundy wine writers and publishers Clive Coates and Neil Beckett made up a select team of nine tasters. A high sense of high anticipation proceeded the blind tasting of the 2008 vintage (bottled some 6-10 months earlier), with a line up including over 300 Premiere and Grand Cru Pinot Noirs from the Cote d'Or's top Domaines and Negociants.



Monday 26 September 2011

2011 Harvest Report: Cédric Valade of Château La Grande Maye and Château Valade.

Posted by Tom Jenkins, Bordeaux Buyer
The growing season:

‘2011 will remain in the memories of winemakers as a tricky vintage. The season started very early with a warm and dry April that sped up the vegetative cycle of the vines. Disbudding tasks overlapped with the 2010 primeurs tastings. We have never seen such a quick start before! It was the beginning of a race that went on until the end of the trellising of the vines!