Grand Vin Wine Merchants UK | Blog

The annual November Bordeaux tasting put on by the Institute of Masters of Wine   is on e I try not to miss. Held at the beautiful Vintners Hall , it is a fascinating opportunity to try most of the top wines of Bordeaux (including First Growths), four years on from the vintage.  The estimable Tim Atkin MW described this year's tasting as a 'scrum' in his write up of the wines. It certainly had the feel of a polite bun fight. But it is a reflection of the cool welcome for the beleaguered 2007 vintage that conditions were positively courtly compared to the mosh pit of 2009, when the 2005s were on show. 2007 was saved from complete ignominy by an Indian summer, after a grey summer and sodden August. Nonetheless, the vintage was rated very poorly by Robert Parker. The best it could ever offer, it seemed, was soft and charming accessibility. At its worst, which was all too easily achieved by those without the resources to invest in protection and selection against rot, 2007 w...

Letter from Junior... Our lovely colleague Martin Lea has gone East to head up BWI's new Hong Kong office. We have managed to squeeze an update out of him after several frenetic weeks. Hong Kong is clearly a fantastically exciting place for a (relatively!) young man to build a new life. Good Luck Martin! It’s only been three weeks since I moved to Hong Kong, and what a crazy and exciting three weeks it’s been! First the opening of the BWI Hong Kong office and our fantastic BWI Hong Kong launch party with Chateau Margaux then the Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Fair  and then the tasting to end all tastings... This week I had the great pleasure of attending one of the most eagerly anticipated tastings of all time, Robert Parker's 'Magical 20' , which focused solely on the much heralded 2009 vintage.  Robert Parker was full of praise when he initially reviewed the wines in 2010, but they have now been bottled and many experts were wondering whether they were goin...

I see from an article in today’s Drinks Business that Robert Parker, speaking at the industry conference WineFuture Hong Kong , has criticised increasing alcohol levels in wine. Parker (quoted by DB’s estimable editor, Patrick Schmitt) suggests that wines should not exceed 15% alcohol: “If you’ve made a wine at 16, 17, or 18% then that is not a table wine, and should not be sold as table wine; 15% I think is palatable, but above 15%, you start to get into a very grey area.” See the article here. The term “table wine” is key: the wine world is rich in acclaimed wines at 16% and beyond, but they inhabit different categories and expectations. A Tawny Port with an alcohol level of 20% perturbs no one because the tension between sweetness, extract, acidity and oxidative ‘bite’ offsets alcohol. We also tolerate and expect that heady, sweet burn: that’s what Port is, and has been for some time. Modern viticultural techniques and warmer conditions have made sugar - and therefore alcohol - leve...