Confessions of a Wino

I’ve just received my first case of 2004 en primeur and although arguably a bit early to drink, I always like to have a taste of any wine I receive.

I’m not sure how much this wine cost me in the end, since I lost my records.  The only offering I could find online was in magnums from Berry Bros and Rudd at an equivalent to £20.75 per bottle.

I got strawberries dipped in dark chocolate and champagne sauce. It opened up after while to reveal notes of blackcurrant and grapefruit. At 13%, a powerful wine but not over-alcoholic.

Verdict – very nice wine but needs longer in the bottle.  The Winediva also seems to like 2004 Batailley although warns of patchy quality around Bordeaux from that vintage.

The first Batailley I tried was from the 1996 vintage and I remember thinking what good value it was for the quality of the wine.  This one again is good value.  2004 may not be the best year ever in Bordeaux especially when compared to the remarkable, 2000, 2003 and 2005 vintages that ambushed it.  But I like it and very much look forward to trying my next bottle…in a year or so.

I am in danger of teaching my Grandmother to suck eggs.  Not my real Grandmother, I mean you.  You are probably aware that generally, whilst in Bordeaux a Premier Cru is better than a Grand Cru, in Burgundy it’s the other way around.

Anyway, I was curious as to the difference between a Chablis, a Premiér Cru and a Grand Cru so I’ve started an experiment.  I decided to pick a brand and try all three.  So I waited eagerly for the Sunday Times Wine Club to deliver my mixed case of two of each from the Domaine Long Depaquit stable… I was badly let down.

The six bottle case actually had two bottles of Premiér Cru and four bottles of Grand Cru.  I decided not to complain, albeit that this is hampering my test.

So to the question of the title.  The short answer is that I don’t know yet – I have only tried the Grand Cru.  To give it its full title “Domaine Long-Depaquit, Les Clos 2002 Albert Bichot Chablis Grand Cru”!  It tasted of rich creamy butterscotch and oozed class from every sip.  An elegant wine with lots of complexities to savour but at £24.99 a bottle it should be bloody good!

The 2004 Premiér Cru was £13.99 and the 2005 bog standard £11.15.  When I have tasted the PC I’ll get back to you.  In the meantime I’ll just ponder why the Domaines of Bourgogne put so much information on their wine labels whilst the Bordelais so little.

Anyone who has tasted the “ordinaire” from 2005 please leave a comment…

Although I generally disapprove of pre-selected cases, I do subscribe to the President’s Cellar from Sunday Times Wine Club which pings me 6 bottles every 6 months at about £20 per bottle.

It does force me to explore wines that I would not otherwise choose and you probably know that I am not the greatest fan of Australian wine.

This bottle of Tamar Ridge Pinot Noir 2002 came to me a few years ago from Tasmania, via the President’s Cellar and was getting to drinking up time.  So I opened it.

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Take a red bell pepper, half it then add a dash of fresh lime juice and cook over an oak smoked barbecue.  Then serve it with some fresh berry fruits.  This rather specific and hyper-pretentious description of Grand-Puy-Lacoste came to me as I finished off the bottle with my brain somewhat the worse for wear.

I bought two Bordeaux wines en primeur from the 2003 vintage.  I have already posted about Château du Tetre from Margaux.  The other was Grand-Puy-Lacoste from Pauillac.

The wines are said to be more robust in Pauillac.  Personally I love the subtlety of Margaux.  However, Pauillac is one of the (if not THE) most respected wine regions in the world so I must take it seriously.

A very promising wine.  Maybe just needs some more time in the bottle.  I think 2003 was a good year so I may seek out some cheaper wines from this vintage.  Especially now that everyone is falling over themselves to spend every penny they possess on 2005…

When I turned 18 we did a sort of lad’s rite of passage thing.  Some guys did sickly things like inhaling a whole cigar.  Others did amateur self harm (but not on Iggy Pop’s scale).

The idea I most admired was the guy who ate a whole pot of jam.  This doesn’t sound very rock and roll does it?!  But have you ever tried it?  The first spoonful is delicious but by the time you are half way through the jar, it is getting sickly to the point of making you gip.  In that sense it’s a bit like drinking an Aussie Shiraz.

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Have you ever heard of the Fratellis?  I bought their new album, Costello Music, recently and I was not impressed.  I may be showing my age here, but I have heard it all before.  One track sounded like Status Quo, the next was reminiscent of The Clash and the next could have been (maybe was???) written by Ray Davies.  One hit wonders, if ever I made such a prediction.

So why did I buy it?  Because I heard someone on BBC Radio 2 mention it as the latest thing.  And this is broadly the same reason I bought 2003 Bordeaux en primeur.

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