Grand Vin Wine Merchants UK | Blog

The En Primeur campaign for Bordeaux Vintage 2009 saw high prices, huge demand and praise that ranged from fulsome to hysterical. On the 18 th October 2011 came the opportunity to taste the finished wines at the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux tasting at Covent Garden. Broadly, the wines seem to be fulfilling that early promise. It’s worth considering why they might not. 2009 was not a shoe-in (or, at any rate, less of a shoe-in than 2005). The blissful and long summer dominates the memory and vintage reports, but the hail of spring, and the drought of that summer, brought challenges. Ripeness is a many-splendoured thing, and while sugar levels soared (potential alcohol of 14% was commonplace) and acidities fell, phenolics in skins and pips came along worryingly slowly. The skill was in extraction, and in thereby avoiding the danger of highly alcoholic wines of moderate acidity and hard, coarse tannins. At this stage (and it’s still very early days for 2009) Saint...

Behind the scenes I love putting on wine dinners, but of all wine experiences they take the most work. The search for the perfect and available venue is infinite. We were delighted to get in at Glaziers Hall, a relative youth of the London Livery Halls, which has lovely spaces, a central location and a super efficient events team. The wines may be the star attraction, but if the food disappoints, the evening will fail. So we blew the budget and chose award-winning caterers Inn or Out, whose director, Lena Bjorck - a knockout 6 foot Swedish blonde – inspires unfailingly high standards. Menu – by Inn or Out Selection of warm canapés: Lobster Bisque with a Parmesan and Fennel Straw ‘Old Spot’ Pork Belly with Apple and Honeyed Crackling Line Caught Halibut Wrapped in Pancetta with Gremolata Autumn Mushroom Beignet with a Béarnaise Dip Butternut Squash and Sage Risotto Served on a Spoon Jersey Royal with Melted Aged Cheddar and Sour Cream Ficelle and Crisp ...

This is my fifteenth Autumn in the Wine Trade, but still I have staggered to the end of September slightly shell shocked from the suddenness of the end of holiday, and the intensity of the return to serious tasting. Some tastings are extended shopping trips. Or at least, wish-list compilation trips. We are seeking out fine, beguiling, benchmark wines to add to our range of Bordeaux: Italy, Burgundy, the Antipodes, and South America are on our hit list. I was particularly excited by my early peek at 2010 Burgundy: scintillating Chablis is a star of this fresh yet juicy vintage, as are Côte de Beaune whites. There are some irresistible and inexpensive wines from the Mâconnais. My other tastings this month have been academic, as I join a small group of fellow Masters of Wine to taste, double taste, argue over and finally select the 50 or so wines that will be inflicted on the poor souls about to sign up for the MW education program. This is like tasting boot-camp: we taste blind,...