Victoria Moore on Bordeaux: The Risk Takers tasting | The Telegraph
| Original Title | The small Bordeaux wine producers going against the flow, and the company dedicated to seeking them out |
| Publication | The Telegraph |
| Author | Victoria Moore |
| Published | 15 March, 2019 |
Victoria Moore gives her review of the Vine Trail tasting event Bordeaux: The Risk Takers (6/03/2019) in The Telegraph
The words “risk” and “Bordeaux” sound contradictory. Bordeaux is, after all, the most establishment wine region of them all; even in the 21st century it still carries a faint whiff of club and country cellar. This made an invitation to a tasted titled Bordeaux: The Risk-Takers a real interest-piquer.
The tasting was hosted by the wine importer Vine Trail, whose managing director, Nick Brookes, explained that the risk in question was, “the weather” – the growers exhibiting wines at the tasting were all farming biodynamically or organically – though this turned out to be almost the least interesting aspect to the wines and individuals gathered in a room at a London restaurant one day last week.
Bordeaux as a wine region comes with a lot of baggage. It isn’t easy to get to see behind the window dressing (or “l’envers du décor”, as the name of the St-Émilion restaurant has it). There are thousands of producers and a tendency for certain categories of wine to suck up all the publicity oxygen. At the top end, the annual en primeur circus successfully diverts attention away from those who do not take part. Then there is the 1855 Classification, and the dozens (if not hundreds) of chateaux that have become highly effective brands in their own right – I’m not just talking about the high rollers, but also names such as Château Sénéjac that have established reputations for being a go-to good value bottle (you can find Sénéjac at the Co-op, where it sells for £17).
The producers at the Vine Trail tasting all came from the hidden middle of those artisans making beautiful wines with integrity and style. These were people whose backstories did not fit the classic Bordeaux clichés.
For instance, Osamu Uchida is a Japanese vigneron who grew up in Hiroshima and was drawn to France by a fascination with French culture and a desire to work in wine. He settled in Bordeaux, and now works at the city’s Ecole du Vin. Uchida also rents a tiny 1½-acre parcel of cabernet sauvignon vines in the Haut Médoc and takes their fruit to his garage just behind Château Mouton Rothschild, where he transforms the grapes into a beautifully elegant wine with plenty of flow and a lightness of touch – his first vintage was 2015, and I tasted the 2016 Miracle (available direct from Vine Trail, around £26).
Laurence Alias ploughing the soil with their horse Jumpa, Closeries des Moussis Then there are Laurence Alias and Pascale Choime, who started up Closeries des Moussis together in 2008, making their first vintage in 2009. “They really think out of the box,” says Vine Trail’s Raphaël Rodriguez. The two women work close to the city of Bordeaux and rent tiny parcels of vines, including one that comes from an ungrafted pre-phylloxera vineyard whose oldest vines are 150 years old.
Vine Trail is also the importer of Domaine du Jaugaret – a cult estate, if you move in the right circles. There is nothing new about Jaugaret – the vineyard, which consists of just 2½ acres of vines close to Gruaud-Larose, has been in the same family since 1654. The wine carries an exquisite sense of place – St Julien to the core.
Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible to buy. “If we can get 120 bottles of this to sell a year we are lucky,” says Brookes.
He describes the act of hunting out and signing up producers “an accumulation of effort from various people within Vine Trail – we pool research, which really helps as we all have slightly different angles, read different books and magazines, and so on.” He says his three French colleagues, Raphaël Rodriguez, Lionel Lamadon and Jean-Remi Barris, have been vital to the cause. One producer apparently did not deign to speak to Brookes: “First of all I am English and secondly my accent… he kept turning to the others and saying, ‘What’s he saying?’”
Persistence has been vital to the acquisition of producers. The owner of Château Bel Air Marquis d’Aligre (maker of sublime margaux) had made 67 vintages without ever exporting to the UK. He did not own a fax machine or a computer and, “wasn’t prepared to fill out the relevant paperwork that would enable the wines to be shipped under bond, so the only way we could get the wines out of him was to pay all the duty up front when they passed the port, which we’ve never done before in 30 years of trade,” says Brookes.
The wines of another Margaux property, Château des Graviers, also impressed. Graviers is the family property of fifth-generation winemaker Christophe Landry. I spoke to Christophe’s wife Isabelle who is originally from the Loire – the couple met on a horse-riding holiday in Morocco. She explained that things changed quite a lot when Christophe took charge: first, he began to work organically, then, in 2005, began to work biodynamically, though he has never sought certification, a process that would involve adhering to someone else’s rules.
How did the neighbours react to the biodynamic news? “Well,” says Isabelle, “He’s vegetarian as well so they called him ‘the druid.’ But now they come and knock on the door to ask how it all works.”
Christophe Landry of Château des Graviers showing his biodynamic preparation All of these wines are recommended – you can contact Vine Trail directly through vinetrail.co.uk to find out more, and I’ve listed three bottles below.
Château des Graviers Margaux 2014 Bordeaux
A fresh and bright wine from an attractive vintage, this is based on cabernet sauvignon (61 per cent) with merlot, cabernet franc, petit verdot, carménère and malbec in the mix.
Château Canon Saint-Michel Canon-Fronsac 2014 Bordeaux
Situated on the right bank to the north-west of Pomerol and St-Émilion, Canon-Fronsac is an area that can deliver great value wines, but there’s a hard green taste that can creep in even to ripe grapes. This is merlot-based, and a real beauty.
Clos du Jaugueyron Haut-Médoc 2014 Bordeaux
Very stylish and pure cabernet sauvignon-based wine from a teeny estate. There’s beautiful blackcurrant on the nose. Excellent.