Day 2 of Vinexpo started with a tasting of the Union des Grand Crus de Brodeaux all the wines being from the 2003 vintage. Again, it was nearly impossible to make coherent notes due to the crush of people but I was able to scribble a few which I will post separately. Mostly it was the Chateau owners themselves pouring the wines so if you persevered you could have short chat with them to discuss the wines.
I was registered to join the seminar on Alsace but I decided to skip that and instead I joined the seminar on the noble sweet wines of Germany; again to be covered in a separate posting although I will say here it was the single best tasting i attended and the only one where I finished allthe wines poured and didn't spit at all.
Wandering around the main hall after the Geman tasting we tried some Lebanese wines from Ksara, Israeli wines from Yarden, and some Jordan and Wente from the US.
We also passed by the Sauternes booth and again had a comprehensive tasting of nearly everything on offer. Again no spitting here.
Our final destination was Emilio Lustau where we were treated to another comprehensive tasting of several sherries. The marketing company for Lustau also handles the marketing of Vega Sicilia in non-Spanish speaking markets. Spying a bottle of Vega Sicilia on the shelf, we asked if it would be possible to also have a tasting of Vega Sicilia to which Colin, our host, readily agreed.
Unfortunately I did not make notes but we did try an Alion, the vintage of which I can't recall, a Valbuena 2001 and the Vega Sicilia 1995.
The Valbuena is a very deep, concnetrated wine of great potential. We were later told that no Vega Sicilia will be made for the 2001 vintage because of some damage to the grapes due to the weather. As a consequence, the grapes for Vega went into the Valbuena hence its outstanding quality. The 1995 Vega Sicilia needs more time. It isn't showing much yet being very tightly wound and closed. I asked Colin if he preferred the 1995 or the 1994. Definitely the 1994 is the superior wine according to him.
We ended the day with a dinner of roast goose at Yung Kee; exhausted but fortified for the next, last day of the show.