The weather’s been warm, sunny and very dry, giving rise to reports - there’s a summary of them here - of another magnificent vintage on the cards (don’t yawn). Anything can happen before the Merlot harvest begins towards the end of September, and in October for the Cabernets, but let me explain why 2010 is not like 2009.

It is, of course, too early to say how 2010 is going to turn out as September is such a critical month, but some things are so evident - and significant - in the vineyard, I thought I should point them out.

10 key points so far

1. My friends at Liv-ex referred to 2010 last week as being ‘rather dry’. To the end of August, 2010 has been exceptionally dry, with half as much rain here as 2009 and less than half the 30-year average in Bordeaux, in the last six months. If 2009 saw just the right amount of rain - and ‘09 was thought to be a dry year - 2010 has been too dry, causing stress in the vines which has often hindered, not helped, the ripening. Many vineyards, especially those with young vines, are showing serious signs of drought and stress.

2. April and May 2010 were very dry compared to 2009 and 2005, and with March rainfall being much lower than usual as well, water reserves in the ground from Spring rain were far lower - right from the start of the growing season.

3. It has been warm and sunny too, with less risk of mildew, which has reduced the need to spray. Temperature swings at important stages in 2010 have had an impact on the vines, compared to the more constant temperatures with cooler nights in 2009. May was significantly cooler than 2009 which, along with a surge in heat after the middle of May and other factors, impacted flowering (see below). June was a little warmer than the 30-year average in Bordeaux (18.6˚ v 18.3˚C here) and July hotter still (21.7˚ v 21.0˚C). Early July was unusually hot and, so far, August has been warm. If we had had more rain, it would have been fine.

4. Other than the drought conditions in 2010, the key difference with 2009 and 2005 is the uneven flowering and fruit-set; due to mixed weather in late May and early June, and other factors, the bunches of grapes are inconsistent from one parcel to another, and often from one vine to another. More on this below.  Many vines are bulging with healthy, evenly sized grapes, whereas others have a bit of a mish-mash as a result of coulure and millerandage - grapes that either didn’t form properly or different sized berries in the same bunch. Uneven fruit set will mean, more than likely, uneven ripening.

5. There was a generous number and size of potential bunches from the start in most vineyards. Where flowering is successful, it’s a very good-sized crop. Yields are very inconsistent - high in some vineyards but much lower in others with poor fruit-set.

6.  Many of the great terroirs, from Lafite Rothschild in Pauillac (right) to Tertre-Rotebeouf in St-Emilion (left, above), have vines in amazingly healthy state, but the vintage will not be as consistent as 2009 or 2005. For example, parts of Pomerol look parched, with Merlot leaves wilting, yet nearby, on the clay-over-limestone soils of the slopes around St-Emilion, the vines are getting just enough moisture from the limestone ’sponge’ beneath the surface. If fine weather continues through to mid-October, there will be some exceptional wines, assuming careful selection.

7. Great wines could certainly be made if the fine weather continues, but with rain at the right moment. Some vineyards, like this one in Margaux (left), are badly in need of a drink. Young vines and those on dry soils have suffered terribly in 2010 (irrigation is not permitted if the vines are in production - see my rant here). Better adapted terroirs, which give the vines just the right of amount of sustenance, look superb.

8. Many of the leading estates have invested in, or put on trial, the new, super-dooper Tri Optique sorting machines - Mouton-Rothschild, Léoville-Las Cases, Pichon Longueville Baron, and Pétrus (right) to drop a few names - and these will come in handy when separating mature, ripe berries from immature, stunted ones. As well as the Tri Optique systems, which are the most sophisticated and expensive, there are other sorting machines which are designed to sift out the smaller berries - Mistral, Viniclean and so on. In 2009, many of these machines were being put to the test but there wasn’t much to sort - it was nearly all good.

9. The 2010 growing cycle began a week later than 2009 - partly due to a chillier March and much colder soils until the 20th March. (Pruning young vines here in March, left, should have been slightly warmer on the toes.) This late kick-off, and very dry weather, will result in a later harvest in September and October for the Merlots and well into October for the Cabernets. The later the harvest, the greater the risks.

10. Finally, there have been no hail storms in 2010 (touch wood) whereas in 2009, hail in mid and late May damaged up to 19,000 hectares of vines, a sixth of the overall surface area, to a greater or lesser extent. The Entre Deux Mers, the Graves, the Côtes, St-Emilion and Margaux took the brunt of the storms. So for some producers, the only way was up.

Notes on the flowering

1. Crucially, flowering across Bordeaux was impacted by a sudden rise in temperature after the middle of May 2010 (which was 2.3˚C colder overall than May ‘09) and then colder weather returned. It felt like the vines had been jolted into action by the heat, only to go back to bed when it got colder again.

2. Flowering this year is very uneven and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why one vine or parcel is in great shape whereas another nearby looks grim. For me, the fruit-set in 2010 is very hétérogène - inconsistent, quite unlike 2009. Some old timers say that when there are a lot of big potential bunches, the flowering can be poor - ‘the bigger the bunches the lower the yield’, or words to that effect. That’s certainly true in patches.

3. Merlot is vulnerable to Coulure, when the flowers don’t open properly in cold or damp weather, are not fertilised, so the grapes don’t form. This can be seen on both sides of the Gironde in 2010 - from Pauillac to Pomerol, and from St-Julien (right) to St-Emilion (above, left).

4. Millerandage (called ‘hen and chicken’) is common too, both with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Individual berries in the same bunch are of varying sizes, and will remain at different levels of maturity. This is largely down to the chilly weather at the wrong moment. There’s been quite a bit of millerandage in Burgundy too, I gather.

5. Most of the Cabernet Franc I’ve seen, such as at Angélus, Cheval Blanc, Ausone in St-Emilion and at d’Armailhac in Pauillac, looks in very good shape.

6. The great terroirs seem to have succeeded far better than the lesser ones in the same commune, as far as flowering is concerned. The Cabernet Sauvignon on the gravelly knolls at Lafite and Mouton, for example, and other top sites in Pauillac, St-Julien and St-Estephe, looks superb. Likewise the Merlot on some of the clay-limestone slopes around St-Emilion.

7. In some of the lesser Bordeaux appellations, such as in the Premières Côtes de Bordeaux, yields look substantial.

Roll on September

The weather over the next month or so can make or break a vintage: September sunshine saved 2002 and 2007 from near disaster, proved crucial in the great vintages 2000, 2005 and 2009, and had a significant impact on the very good vintages, 2001 and 2008.

So it’s all to play for.

All the above are simply my own observations, as I don’t like to bother managers and owners during the August holidays, with recent photos of vines and grapes all taken in Margaux, St-Julien, Pauillac, St-Estephe, St-Emilion and Pomerol.  The weather charts are based on our local weather station, south east of the city of Bordeaux. Figures will vary from one area to another (eg St-Julien is 70 kms from us, St-Emilion and Pomerol just 25 kms).

I’ll report back after I’ve spoken to a few wise folk - do follow me on Twitter for updates: http://twitter.com/GavinQuinney

Too much rain in the Summer of 2007, frost in April 2008, hail (twice) in May 2009 and, yes, drought in 2010. “What next,” asked a friend, “rivers of blood?”

Welcome to viticulture, Bauduc-style, and 2010 will be remembered as the year of the drought. (Cue monsoons during the harvest.)

We’ve seen half the normal rainfall in the five months since the beginning of April compared to the 30-year average in Bordeaux (see weather graphs in this article). Remarkably, the young vines have kept up with their older counterparts and look surprisingly healthy: with the lack of damp in the air, the risk of mildew has been reduced - unlike in humid Augusts like 2007 and 2008, for example - so most of the leaves look green and verdant with minimal spraying. But yellow leaves around the fruit zone tell a part of the story, as some of the vines have effectively shut down and the grapes have stopped ripening in certain parts of the vineyard.

Of course, these problems resulting from the lack of rain are avoidable. Firstly, choosing to rip out crappy old vines and replacing them with young ones lead to this. Guilty as charged, but I’m glad to see the back of 3 metre-wide rows of Cabernet Sauvignon on vigorous rootstock (SO4 to be precise) pumping out bunches of grapes that never ripened properly and tasted of green peppers. I’m fond of our new Sauvignon Blanc (featured in all these photos taken today), planted on low-yielding rootstocks in 1.8m wide rows.

The old vines, with deeper roots, are quite happy. More importantly, we could irrigate the young vines but we are forbidden from doing so by law. This archaic notion - if we were in New Zealand or South Africa we’d be watering our Sauvignon Blanc for sure - has its roots in the Appellation Controlée system that was created in France in the mid-1930s. It was decreed that no irrigation would be allowed in any AC area, which is not the case for ‘lower’ quality levels like Vins de Pays which also allows for higher yields.

The theory put about is that by not watering the vines, the roots have to dig deeper in their search for moisture, resulting in a mature vineyard that is more faithful to its terroir (a handy French word for soil, sub-soil, altitude, slope, meso-climate and growing environment, to name a few components). I’ve said this many times to visitors here (although a little unconvincingly, it has to be said). This may be true, but when you see vines being unduly stressed by lack of water, ‘faithfulness to terroir’ is a minor concern, whereas we are concerned about fruit quality, vine health and, of course, the quality of our wine that goes to our customers.

I spoke yesterday to Jean-René Matignon, the long-time winemaker at Chateau Pichon-Longueville Baron, about how things were going up in Pauillac. I touched on the sécheresse (drought) and the reasons for irrigation being illegal. He told me that the ruling was in place because in the old days - and vignerons might well take advantage today - growers would water their vines just before harvest in order to inflate and dilute their grapes and their volume of wine, and completely compromise quality. (Couldn’t a watering ban after the end of July stop this?)

We live and learn and despite being a supporter of many of the rules that are laid down in triplicate, I’m becoming a bit of a sceptic. Next year, if we see a repeat of these conditions, watch out for drip-feed systems at Bauduc - and Vin de Pays or Vin de France or Vin de Table or Vin de Sod the Rules or whatever on the label. Not sure anyone really gives a damn, just so long as we deliver. As for this year, if you see ‘dry-grown’ written on the back label of our 2010 white, you’ll know it was said through slightly gritted teeth.

A couple of years ago I thought I’d plant some illegal grape varieties, under Appellation Contrôlée rules, in our Bordeaux ‘garden’. The photos were taken here at the very start of August and again three weeks later, before and after they changed colour - a stage called véraison. The Pinot Noir, which you’re more likely to see in Beaune, Oregon or Central Otago than Bordeaux, was well on its way in late July - much earlier than any of the other reds. Syrah is normally grown in the Rhône - notably the North - amongst many other places (it’s called Shiraz in Oz), while Grenache is found in the Southern Rhône and beyond (it’s known as Garnacha in Spain).

This has been all in the name of research, of course, and there is absolutely no suggestion that any of these terrible, alien grape varieties will turn up in our wine. However, they seem to be doing just fine, so perhaps I’ll have a good look at the ‘Vin de Pays’ or ‘Vin de Table’ option. Bordeaux Pinot, anyone? Watch out, DRC.

Here are the six red grape varieties which we are allowed to grow in Bordeaux under Appellation Contrôlée laws. The photos were taken at Château Bauduc at the very start of August and again three weeks later, before and after they changed colour - a stage called véraison. A rule of thumb is that the grapes will be ready to pick some 45 days after mid-véraison. The third shot in each series shows the leaves of each variety, which for me is the easiest way to tell them apart (remembering what you’ve planted and where also helps).

Most of the 117,500 hectares of Bordeaux vineyards are red - 89% in fact. Merlot is the most widely grown variety, with 64% of red, and is the dominant grape on the Right Bank - St.Emilion, Pomerol, Fronsac and the Côtes -  where it is often blended with Cabernet Franc (11%). Merlot is also responsible for the tanker loads of straight Bordeaux AC and less prestigious Appellations across the whole of Bordeaux. In other words, there’s Merlot… and then there’s Merlot.

The later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon (24% of all red) reigns on the gravel mounds of the Left Bank - notably in the Médoc Appellations of Pauillac, St-Julien, St-Estephe and Margaux, where Merlot usually plays second fiddle. The other varieties make up 1% of the total plantings, with Petit Verdot sometimes turning up on the Left Bank (at Châteaux like Pichon Lalande and La Lagune) and Malbec on the Right, especially in Blaye. Malbec is the grape of Cahors, 200 kms SE of here, and is most successful in Argentina. Likewise, you’re more likely to find Carmenère in Chile.

We hardly ever get emails from irate customers, or potential customers, so this one really stood out. Forgive me for the length of this article but I thought I’d reproduce the exchange in full, excluding contact blurb etc. The customer’s emails are in Blue, my wife Angela’s in Mauve, mine in black.

ARE YOU IDIOTS DELIBERATELY TRYING TO STOP PEOPLE BUYING YOUR WINE? AFTER 17 ATTEMPTS TO PUT IN MY PASSWORD I GAVE UP. I THOUGHT YOU COULD STICK IT.

Really sorry you had so much trouble with the website - I will try and find out why your password didn’t work.  If you let me know what wine you would like we can arrange to have it delivered for you.

All the best, Angela

From: Gavin Quinney    Subject: Re: Password, idiots and so on

Dear xxxx Thanks for the email. Obviously our website gave you some problems, so sorry about that. I’m afraid I can’t find you registered on our system at all. When you put in your email address, at the question:

‘Are you a new or existing online customer?’

Did you click ‘I am a new customer’ or ‘I am an existing customer, and my password is..’?

If you click ‘I am a new customer’ it should work.  By all means give me a call.

Kind regards, Gavin Quinney (aka Chief Idiot)

Hi Gavin

Great response! Yes I did click “new user” but it wouldn’t accept any combination of password-all letters, letters and numbers, 4 digits, 6 digits, 8 digits and so on. We had just about finished a botttle of your superb rose and wanted to order more- hence my frustration when I couldn’t !!! Nor were there any “help” instructions to say what the password should consist of. Confused!?

Dear xxxx

Thank you for the reply. There are no restrictions on what the password can be, hence there are no help instructions.  Here’s my on-the-spot guide to placing an order. Please call me if this process continues to cause a problem, and we’ll go through it on the phone. Or email (or call me) with your order and we can take it from there.

On our website, click on ‘Buy Wine’, then click ‘Red and Rosé’. This link will take you to the page.

Select the Rosé.  Select Quantity then click either ‘Add 12 Bottle case’, ‘Add 6 mag case’ or ‘Add 6 bottle case’.  Once the basket is shown, click ‘continue shopping’ or ‘checkout’.

At ‘checkout’ you’ll see ‘Sign in or create account’; enter your email address as requested.

Next at ‘are you a new or existing customer’, tick the box ‘I am a new customer’, then click ‘continue’. (Leave the password box for existing customers blank).

Then fill in the boxes ‘title’ ‘first name’ ‘Last name’ ‘email’ (which is already filled in with the email address you’ve given) then ‘choose a password’ then ‘confirm password’. Then ‘Daytime number’ because we need that for deliveries sometimes.

Then under ‘your address’, add your postcode, and click ‘find address’ and click the one from the shortlist presented. Or you can add the address manually as shown.

After that, you can choose a different delivery address, and there are some simple delivery instructions you need to complete, so that we can leave the wine for you if you’re not in. Then a final chance to check the order before completing payment details.

Kind regards, Gavin

Unbelievable! It worked!!!!! And first time too. Must have been having an “England Soccer Team” moment last time, as I did exactly the same as last time (including drinking the same quantity of wine before starting). Thanks for your help Gavin.

Bauduc Order Confirmation

Thank you very much for your order.

Your order will be handled shortly and we will get in touch if there are any issues at our end.

If you have any questions, please contact me on team@bauduc.com and quote the order number. Or call me or my assistant Monique on UK freephone 0800 316 3676 (international 0033 5 56 23 2222).

Thanks again, Angela Quinney

(then Order Details….)

Dear xxxx

This is just a quick note to check that everything has gone well regarding your order - especially after the problem you had ordering our wine online in the first place.

I know our couriers left the case of wine around the back as you suggested we should. Since then, I hope the Rosé’s been going down well.

Feel free to comment on anything - we’d be very pleased to get any feedback, however trivial, good or bad. There are many steps along the way from the vineyard to you, and we’re a small team.

Thanks and kind regards, Gavin

Hi Gavin

Wine arrived no problem, has been SUPERB, so thanks very much. Have retold the story about your excellent handling of my complaint to many people (including all my staff!) and really admire your follow-up.

Regards, xxxx

Thanks xxxx

That’s great. I like the fact that you’ve retold the story.

Come to think of it, I would love to do a blog post about this - if that’s alright with you. Would that be okay? It would make quite a good read - and emphasize that we deal direct.

I would mention no names of course - unless you want to add a comment afterwards (which can be in a cryptic name). Fun summer reading.

Best wishes, Gavin

No problem. Please don’t mention my name though!

Regards, xxxx

Bauduc Bondholders had a sense of déjà vu last week as English winegrower Geoff Bowen pitched for a £60,000 investment in a vineyard scheme near Exeter, in the first of a new series of the BBC show. Confident that 20 wine lovers would splash out £9,500 for 5 cases of English sparkling wine a year for 10 years, he wooed canny Duncan Bannatyne.

“There are some really toe-curling moments in the Den,” reads the BBC Dragons’ Den website. “And they don’t come worse that Geoff’s opening minutes in front of the Dragons.

“The Devon-based winemaker starts his pitch and immediately faces the moment entrepreneurs dread - he completely forgets his lines.

“Seconds pass like hours as he struggles to regain his composure under the baleful eye of the silent Dragons.”

Reminded of the brilliant spoof by Harry and Paul (below) sweating nervously in front of the Dragons, I watched with interest as Geoff recovered to explain that he could entice 20 members of the public to pay £9500 for 600 bottles of his sparkling wine, spread over the next ten years. With a few extra costs, it would work out to £20 a bottle, he estimated.

Oddly enough, none of the Dragons questioned this - after all, one can pick up a decent bottle of good English sparkling wine for twenty quid, such as Bob and Sam Lindo’s Camel Valley, with no strings attached. Or a grower’s Champagne, of course.

After James Caan (née Khan) had ruled himself out on religious grounds, the remaining Dragons were treated to a tasting - a nice touch that - while we, the viewers, were treated to embarrassing jokes about ‘not wanting to upset the French by calling it shampiiine’. The Dragons then focused on Geoff’s ability to repay the £60k seed investment that he was after, in return for 20% of the new business. The new business would run alongside his existing vineyard.

As grumpy Deborah Meaden laid into poor Geoff over his figures, Duncan Bannatyne was quick to make an offer of £60k for 40% of the venture, called Pebblebed Partner Vineyards, provided that he would be repaid in full after 12 months. As he made clear, if Geoff had 20 x £9500 = £190,000 coming in, plus the £60k investment, less £144,000 in set-up costs, then he would be able to repay the £60k straight away. After some ritualistic ‘I’m outs’, the deal was done.

So will it be fizz or flop? My take on the arrangement, and I’ve been in touch with Geoff, is this. (Update: see Geoff’s comment below.)

Firstly, Geoff will need to swiftly maximise the exposure that he’s had on national TV, on a well known BBC show to boot, to have any chance of winning over 20 people to pay nearly ten grand each for 600 bottles of sparkling wine - even if he has promised to put bespoke labels on every bottle. Despite the awkward start, he came across as a very nice, genuine guy with experience and passion.

That’s not the trickiest bit. If he can attract that amount of money, I’m not sure why he agreed to give away 40% of the equity for a one-year loan. This could come back to haunt him. Duncan Bannatyne is no fool and once again established that he has, along with a certain charm about him, the sharpest entrepreneurial mind of all the dragons, and is as slippery as a fish’s wet bits. He won’t want to be crossed - and if he is, he might tweet as much to his 120,000 followers on Twitter, which wouldn’t be nice.

If Geoff struggles to find the 20 people to pay £9500 in year one to repay Bannatyne the £60k, whilst proceeding with the purchase of the land at the same time, and starting to plant it up (that’s another story), much will depend on his new relationship with the straight-talking Scot. Can the loan be extended or the terms changed and made fairer to Geoff? If Geoff can keep him onside, then it could work out.

I hope so, because, in principle, it’s a fine idea and very much in line with the Bauduc Bond that we first launched in 2004. As with Geoff’s scheme, we needed to plant vines - but in Bordeaux, not Devon.

Our scheme was a little different, and a lot less expensive to the consumer. We offered 8 mixed cases of different Bordeaux wines in the UK per year - red, white and rosé - for a total of four years. That’s 32 cases, or a total of 384 bottles of still wine, equivalent to £2700 at today’s Bond price, which works out to a third of Geoff’s bottle price at £7 per bottle (the original Bond price was £2150, or £5.60 a bottle, when UK duty rates and the exchange rate were much more favourable). Bondholders could also add two extra cases to their stash per year by collecting from Calais. Plus there are other goodies included, like the Bondholder dinners at the Chateau.

Sure, our wines are not sparkling - and English sparkling wine is in vogue right now - yet our wines were all endorsed by Rick Stein and Gordon Ramsay as house wines or as special selections on their wine lists.

We have over 200 Bondholders today, as many renewed their original Bonds in addition to new customers. The existing Bonds are scheduled to expire this year and next, so we’re looking to come up with an attractive offer to extend the programme for our loyal supporters, if they choose to do so. Our Bondholders have certainly been great ambassadors for our wine.

However, we have never offered bespoke labeling on 60 bottles and, perish the thought, it’s unlikely that we ever will. Life’s too short for that and I, for one, wouldn’t want Duncan Bannatyne on my case, asking for his money back.

So for that reason alone …

If you’re interested in the scheme - and do leave a comment below - please contact Geoff directly at geoff@pebblebed.co.uk or take a look at his website. Geoff is keen to promote the involvement of the new ‘partners’ - helping to plant the vines and so on - and he is certainly closer to home for most people.

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At least England lasted longer than France, finalists four years ago.

The locals have hardly mentioned Les Bleus, and the headlines across Europe have been ferocious at their teams’ poor showings. Meanwhile, our seasonal workers are happy with their cut-price Rooney shirts: most of them are Morrocan so anything to have a dig at Algeria, France or, to a lesser extent, England.

As well as some of the more hilarious headlines, here are a couple of our favourite views on the French catastrophe that have been doing the rounds. First, a brilliant Bayeux Tapestry-inspired cartoon (click on the image to enlarge) from Dotmund and secondly, this short of video of why Henry wasn’t on top form.

All over now bar the shouting.

Here, in my humble opinion, are the Best Buys - at the opening prices - of Bordeaux 2009, broken down as follows:

10 Expensive wines - but sound investments.

£400 to £1000 - 17 Fabulous quality, blue chip names.

£200 - £300 - This is where the values of 2009 lie: 20 cracking wines.

Under £200 - 12 lovely wines from the Left Bank.

The 2009 columns, on the left, show the price per case in £ En Primeur (EP) from UK merchants. Then my scores (GQ) and Robert Parker’s, using the 100 point system, Jancis Robinson’s out of 20.  On the right, I tasted all the top 2005s in bottle for Wine & Spirit magazine for the Dec 2007 issue, five months before Robert Parker released his final scores, followed by both the price EP and now.

10 Expensive - but sound investments

That is, at the opening prices shown. To show all the First Growths would be boring, so here’s my personal selection. Clinet, for example, which I tweeted as ‘a Must Buy’, was released ex-Chateau at €58, or £820 to the consumer, is now being offered by the UK’s biggest merchant at £1600.

£400 to £1000

17 Fabulous quality, Blue Chip names

£200 - £300

This is where the values of 2009 lie: 20 cracking wines that would grace any cellar. In some cases, such as de Fieuzal and La Tour Figeac, prices have yet to catch up with quality. And you can’t say that about many top wines in 2009. Rouget, for £300, is right opposite L’Eglise Clinet and Clos l’Eglise in Pomerol - and they cost £3400 and £1500 respectively.

Under £200

12 lovely wines from the Left Bank: Poujeaux and Chasse Spleen for around £200 are favourites, while Labégorce, not really liked by Parker, is good value. The Wine Society are also offering Fourcas-Borie, another Listrac, which is terrific for £98.

If only I could afford the lot.

For those who like lists: with the massive ‘en primeur’ price increases from 30 of the famous Bordeaux Châteaux last week - 196% up on average on 2008 - I thought it would be useful to compare points and prices of the top 2009s with both the 2008s and the last great vintage, 2005.

The table below shows my scores (GQ) and Robert Parker’s (RP) for the 2009s and 2008s from barrel, and the price in British pounds En Primeur (EP) from UK merchants. On the right hand side, I tasted all the top 2005s in bottle for Wine & Spirit magazine for the Dec 2007 issue, five months before Robert Parker released his final scores. Buyers are dipping back into the market for the 2005s and 2008s against the more expensive 2009s: there’s a lot of sense in that.

2008 was a very good vintage, even if, in many people’s view, Robert Parker was a little generous with some of his scores. It makes for some bizarre comparisons: Ducru Beaucaillou 2008 was rated 96-98 and the 2009 96-98+, yet the the latter is three times the price of the ‘08. I’ll be re-tasting the 2008s from bottle in the autumn - follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/GavinQuinney for updates.

Meanwhile, the better deals on 2009s were to be found on wines released earlier in the campaign, so it’s worth searching them out as many are still available. See also my separate post to follow for my ‘Best Buys of Bordeaux 2009′ and my summary of tweets throughout the campaign.

NB The exchange rate for the 2005s En Primeur in June 2006 was €1.45/£. A 2009 or 2008, at €1.20/£, is 20% more expensive for UK buyers than the 2005s were En Primeur, even if the price ex-Château remains the same.