Those of you who treasure facts and information – and who doesn’t? – may like to visit the site of Bordeaux University’s Faculté d’Oenologie for their annual summary of the vintage. Here you can find detailed analyses of vintage back from 2006 to 1978, the most recent years in English as well as French. Just click on the Millesime 2006 panel in the bottom right hand corner. I owe this tip to David Graves of Saintsbury winery in Carneros – not notable for its Cabernet and Merlot but certainly notable for the academic rigour of its team.
To provide a little lightweight divertissement from all these facts and figures, I am prepared to share with you a couple of the more ridiculous sights of the recent Bordeaux primeur circus. At Mouton it is always a bit of a performance tasting as the establishment has so many different buildings and rooms. This year the team excelled themselves by laying on little golf carts to ferry us from the reception desk in the main offices to the salon in the château itself where the wines were poured, close to the famous wine museum and just under the late Baron Philippe’s bedroom. Below is proof. Miss Prim.
But the prize for most visually arresting château on the circuit has to go to Ducru-Beaucaillou where the tasting room is almost indistinguishable from a boite de nuit and one is greeted not just by hostesses in fetching black boots but also this bikini-clad work of art (the one in the foreground).
