I have just comeback from the April Barrel Tasting and in general the 2009's are a great vintage. We have decided to offer futures and will be bonded and insured to protect ourselves and our customers. The name Chateaux are holding back their offers, to see the strength of the market demand.
We visited with Jean Delmas at Chateau Montrose in St. Estephe, and after 5 years of guiding that property it stands at the top in St. Estephe, in my opinion. I think he is one of the great men in the Wine Business, the whole team at Montrose has benefitted from his leadership.
The St. Julien and Pauillac Chateau did very well. Branaire, Ducru and the Leovilles (all 3) made superb wine. Gruaud Larose is also very good. In Pauillac all of the names seem to have done very well. Down in Pessac-Leognan they made some great wine, Pape Clement and Smith Haut Lafitte were terific, as was Haut Bailly; but lots of the value priced Chateau are worth investing in, Chateau de France in particular. Of course the wines of Haut Brion are tasted separately, they were near perfect. Parker gave Haut Brion/La Mission 98-100. He also rated the 2nd wines as potential 93 Points. The production of Le Clarence de Haut Brion will be very small in 2009; we intend to take a significant position, it is fantastic. Mr. Parker seemed to prefer the la Chapelle La Mission for its black fruit density. These wines that I love so dearly are getting to be so expensive that I mainly buy the 2nd labels, and even those are for special occaisions.
The other rare wine I must mention is the CUVEE PAUILLAC, the 3rd label of Chateau Latour. It is probably only available in 20 stores in the USA. We have the 2004 and 2005 at the best price in the country. For the month of May, customers can buy bottles of the Pauillac de Latour at the case price per bottle. We are also dropping the price on all JL Chave 2006 vintage wines.
