The Tasting Panel magazine

MARCH 10

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22 / the tasting panel / march 2010 E ach January in Southwold, an attractively old-fashioned sea- side town in Suffolk on Britain's east coast, a group of a dozen or so tasters—mostly trade, but with a few scribes: this time Jancis Robinson, Neal Martin (Robert Parker's man in the U.K.) and myself—meet to taste more than 200 wines described as "Cru Classé and equivalents" from a four-year-old vintage. The tasting, four sessions over three days, is hosted and organised by Adnam's wine merchants, the wines all being collected by Bill Blatch of Bor- deaux's Vintex, whose four decades at the heart of the action have put him on close terms with the producers. The wines are tasted blind in flights of 12, half an hour per flight, and marked on the 20-point scale. Where there are more than 12 wines in an appellation of commune, the "lesser" wines are tasted first. Left Bank First Growths and "Challengers" are tasted separately, as are the same from the Right Bank. As a rule, the trade tasters, who represent the backbone of en primeur purchases in Britain, mark slightly more severely than the scribes, and Bill Blatch, who sends a written report to all the châ- teaux, asks for several justifications on each rating. His often-spoken opinion that "we may be marking differently, but we are basically saying the same thing" proves once again that the tasters' descriptions are of more value than the numbers. It is the numbers, however, that provide the average rankings, and some of the results are noted below. The general character of the '06 vintage for red wines showed a robust colour, all but a few still youthful, with a good attack followed too often by a leanness on the finish due to rain that compro- mised perfect ripeness. Although the difference between the successful (i.e., those that can afford every effort for quality) and the less successful wines will be more obvious in the problematic 2007 vintage, there were many wines which will not lose their green streak. The better red wines need another five years in the cellar to soften out. The dry whites were surprisingly patchy, much less good than in 2007, with Malartic-Lagravière and Smith-Haut- Lafitte showing best, while the sweet whites were mostly quite stunning, and uplifting end to our marathon on the final morning. Here, Doisy-Vedrines, de Malle and Doisy-Daëne led the second growths, and Fargues, d'Yquem and Suduiraut the firsts. The Left Bank First Growths and Challengers—ten wines from 18.50 to 17.32—were, in order: La Mission Haut-Brion, Léoville-Las Cases, Palmer, Mouton-Rothschild, Haut-Brion, La- tour, Margaux, Pichon-Lalande, Cos d'Estournel and Lafite-Rothschild. The Right Bank and Challengers—12 wines from 17.93 to 15.82—were, in order: Pétrus, Angelus, Pavie-Decesse, Lafleur, Elgise-Clinet, Ausone, Le Pin, Vieux Château Certan, Trotanoy, Tertre-Rote- boeuf, Pavie and Cheval Blanc, the bottle of Figeac being out of condition. Within each flight, once the names were revealed, there were many sur- prises, and I would single out the fol- lowing châteaux as being very good val- ue in the 2006 market place: Left Bank: Cantemerle, Belgrave, Cos Labory, Phélan-Ségur, Haut-Bages-Liberal, Glo- ria, Branaire, Saint-Pierre, Lagrange, Pouget, Rauzan-Gassies, La Tour Mar- tillac, Branon (which led the flight of Pessac-Léognans); Right Bank: Joanin- Becot, Clos Badon and L'Hermitage, all from Saint-Emilion and all new kids on block in historical terms. PHOTO: DECANTER Steven Spurrier's Letter from London

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