St Emilion, Pomerol & Sauternes

130 Bordeaux samples in less than 48 hours and here's what I noticed:

A diverse group of tasters, mostly French, Asian and Brittish crowded the Chateaux in anticipation of an apparently super-hyped vintage. It doesn't take long sampling these wines to realize that dream of terrior is starting to fade away. Chateaux poured very proudly these wines of excellent concentration, almost boasting their oppulence. Even James Suckling from Wine Spectator is already making excuses about the extraction of Oak amd Skin Tannin (yes, after I completed tasting I checked to see what others thought of this vintage.)

Beyond being a trade professional, I am also a huge wine fan. Not like so many of my counterparts that want to drink what's free, I enjoy the search for that great bottle of wine to purchase for my wife and I to share. So when I see the evolution of what I considered some of the greatest wines on Earth, it can be disturbing. When I see Hype and not substance pushing the prices sky high, I have to call a spade a spade.

Is 2009 a great vintage? It appears to be Very Good to Great

Is 2009 in parallel with 1982 as one of the greatest vintages? Only time will tell, people knew 1982 was a great vintage but it wasn't until later that it started to deserve it's reputation as one of the best ever.

The last truely proven great vintages in my opinion - 2005 (?Maybe still too tannic to tell), 2000, 1995, 1989. To me, a great vintage is one when you open a bottle it just makes you melt with anticipation for another taste. It's layered, complex, balanced and focused.

Vintages that I found issue with -

2003 - the wines were overly ripe and many display cooked fruit nuances and lack freshness.

2005 - Some of the petite Chateaux and Cru Bourgeois were excellent. Some of the 5th growths that I tried were amazing. Some of the 1st growths and 2nd growths were so extracted and tannic, they need 10 years just to hope that they come into balance.

I don't remember which wine maker told me this, but I swear by it. A wine doesn't grow into balance. If the wine is not balanced with fruit, acidity and structure than it can't just appear. As simple as it sounds, I think some critics have forgotten that simple rule of thumb.

-On to what I thought of St Emilion, Pomerol & Sauternes

On intial impression, it just seems if Merlot got over-ripe, super-ripe, too ridiculously ripe. SOme of the alcohols were a touch hot, only exaggerated by the huge tannins. There were those that did manage to make fantastic wines and overall you can still tell it was a good ripe vintage. It's a lot easier to make good wines from ripe grapes than green and plump (rain) grapes. It seemed as if some wineries saw the wines taking on an overipe quality and used stems to extract structure. You could really see some of what most have been extreme heat in the Sauternes. They boderline cloying. They seem to as a majority lack the zipline of acidity that makes them truely special.

On my top performers:

Pomerol

Chateau Gazin and Chateau La Conseillante - Both deserve a good mid to low 90's score.

St Emilion

Chateau Pavie Macquin & Chateau Troplong Mondot - These deserve mid to high 90's, they were really superb and really did a lovely job managing some of the prune and raisin quality I found in some of the other St Emilions. By the way, you must come to St Emilion at some point in your future and just see how gorgeous of a region it is. I am always amazed at how pretty it is. Since I was lost twice today as my GPS kept trying to send me down roads that no longer exist, I saw some picturesque countryside.

Sauterenes

Chateau Guiraud & Chateau Suduiraut - These will proabably score very high by critics but I think they should be in the more mid 90's. Nowhere near the freshness that I found in the 2001, which are still just absolutely amazing.

Tomorrow I head back to St Emilion this time to taste with some small estates that can't afford to be a part of the Union des Grand Crus. I hope to get a video or two of what they think candidly of the 2009 vintage. By the way, Wine, Hail, Rain, punishing winds, these are the lengths I go to bring you these reports. Just think of me as the guy from CNN, who stands near the Hurricane, only I have Purple teeth and I get to taste wines the whole time. Ahh the sacrifice!

Cheers,

Amier

P.S. It seems as if spell check in France, only checks for spelling in French - so sorry for all my grammatical errors. I plan to do a spell check when I get back to the States and just see how bad I am at spelling. I think I am in the aweful range.