2010 in southern France – rain needed

I saw Jean-Michel Cazes of Ch Lynch Bages and his winemaker of 30 years Daniel Llose down here in the Languedoc last Friday. Daniel was on one of his weekly whizzes from Bordeaux to their property in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Dom des Sénéchaux, and then to their Minervois estate Ostal Cazes (which, I gather, is much more difficult to spin into gold than their manifold interests in Bordeaux and the Rhône). They were therefore ideally placed to report on the growing season so far in all three regions. En bref, here's what they said, with the observation that, thanks to the...