Day three began with a trip back up to Pauillac and a visit to our friends at Lynch Bages. There was a very smoky and exotic Villa Bel-Air on show here and an excellent Ormes de Pez but - wow - what a Lynch Bages! I asked Jean-Charles Cazes for a reference point and he said that it was the best since 1989 and 1990. Daniel Llose - who started making wine at Lynch in 1976 - said that this 2010 was off the charts and that it is the most powerful young wine that he had ever tasted here. When we read James Suckling's review last week we thought that he might have got a little carried away with his score.....well he didn't.
Stephen Browett and Tom Hudson with Jean-Charles Cazes
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The next tasting was a great opportunity to try many of the top wines of St Estephe, Pauillac and St Julien under one roof, courtesy of the Union des Grands Crus - the roof this year belonging to Branaire Ducru.
Our compatriot Christian Seely was showing his Pichon Baron which I dared to suggest might turn out to be as good as the legendary 1990 here. No, said Christian, 50% of the fruit used in 1990 goes into the second wine today. This will be far better. It was fascinating to taste the two Pichons side by side - what amazingly contrasting wines - the muscular Baron and the deliberately feminine Comtesse. There really are some great wines in the Northern Medoc this year.
Stephen Browett with Christian Seely
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We then turned South for Margaux. The UGC tasting here was held at Lascombes where even the chai smells of new oak barrels. 2010 must be one of the greatest years ever for this commune. We had a chance to taste Rauzan Segla again - what a wine this is! Also a gorgeously smooth and rounded effort from Giscours. No weak links in Margaux this year - everything is good.
Tasting the Margaux at Lascombes
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After a quick stop at the Sauternes UGC - where Rieussec stole the show - it was back on the bus for a visit to the warehouse of a major negociant who organises a brilliant tasting for us every year on a white table in a black tent surrounded by pallet loads of top Bordeaux wines. Here we filled in the gaps and tasted the remaining wines of the Médoc such as Léoville Lascases - surprisingly charming and sophisticated - as well as several chunky monkeys from Saint Emilion. We have to confess that this is the least satisfying commune so far. In a year when ripeness was achieved by everyone, the late-pickers who left their Merlots on the vines till mid October have really got it wrong in my humble opinion. Some of these wines - we'll mention no names here - are excessively jammy on the palate with excruciatingly dry, woody tannins at the finish. By contrast, the Pomerols seemed much more comfortable in their shoes and suggested that we will be enjoying our trip there tomorrow morning.
2010 Bordeaux gets tongues wagging
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After this marathon tasting several members of our 16 strong team had tongues that had turned a darker shade of black....
Our final visit of the day was to the UGC Pessac-Leognan/Graves tasting and a chance to re-try some of the wines that we first tasted on Sunday. 2010 is clearly an outstanding vintage here with the 50:50 Cabernet Merlot blends appearing to be ideally suited to the climatic conditions. The leading names - Domaine de Chevalier, Pape Clément, Smith Haut Lafitte and Haut Bailly are on a quality level with the very best of the Médoc and there are also some outstanding wines from Chateaux whose wines should be more modestly priced such as de Fieuzal and Pique Caillou. The dry whites are looking excellent too with their natural acidities balancing the exotic grapefruit and pineapple fruit.
Flerence Cathiard of Smith Haut Lafitte with Stephen Browett
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A long and tiring day was over as we returned to the hotel to scrape the tannin off our teeth. It's a night off 2010 Bordeaux tonight as we've heard reports of a restaurant in downtown Bordeaux that boasts a fabulous list of.....Burgundy. Pinot Noir here we come!
