Union of Grands Crus Tastings

No one has posted notes so far from the UGC tastings that are being held in several cities - SF, Chicago, Toronto, Boston and NY. Today is Boston and friday is NYC. i recommend going. very interesting. you may remember that most comments were that the vintage was difficult and pretty good at best. then Parker came out with very big support for the wines - to everyones amazement. one chateau i talked to said that to get the quality they got they had to reduce production by 50% from a normal vintage. IMO there was a huge difference between the chateau - some really lovely wines and some not - with quite a few in between. this is a vintage to stay with the real successes only. here are my lists of the real successes and non successes - taking into account their price ranges to an extent.

Successes:
Carbonnieux Blanc
Dom. de Chavalier Rouge
de Fieuzal Blanc and Rouge
Ht. Bailly
Larrivet Ht. Brion Blanc - unique
Larrivet Rouge
Olivier Blanc
Poujeaux - way above expectation
Chasse Spleen
Belgrave
Citran
Cantenac Brown
Ferriere
Kirwan
Labegorce
Lascombes
Prieure Lichine - One of the Best!
Rauzan Segla
Branaire
Pichon Baron - One of the Best
Climens
Coutet
Suduiraut

Not so successful:
Malartic Rouge
Olivier Rouge
Smith Ht. Lafite Blanc
Bouscaut Rouge
Beaumont
Cantemerle
Brane Cantenac
du Tertre
Durfort Vivens
Marquis de Terme
Cos Labory
de Pez

i found suprises on both ends of the spectrum - esp at the upper end where Poujeaux, Labegorce, Belgrave, Kirwan and Citran definitly exceeded expectations. As did Prieure Lichine - the rep said there was a real shift in philosophy beginning in '08 and continuing. can't wait to taste the '09 next year.

[David M. Bueker]

Thanks for the information David.

I've thought about making time to attend the UGC, but eventually decided that since I no longer devote funds to Bordeaux that it would be pointless.

I'm sure it's still a lot of fun (and palate work) to go though.

I might latch onto a couple of your Sauternes comments. Still buy a handful of those.

I actually went to both the Toronto event and then flew back to Boston in time for the Boston afternoon event. The Toronto event was only 2.5 hours long and no where near enough to try all the wines. However, it was well ran and had much better snacks than the Boston event. The Boston event though was 4 hours long and I had time to finish the rest of the wines....had I arrived on time....... but I only got there around 4 pm....

As a summary, the stars of the show were the white wines for me. Pape Clement had an explosive nose and a great density, balance, nervous acidity and power to the wine. Smith Haut Lafitte also had a great Blanc as did Domaine de Chevalier. Chateau de Fieuzal which I normally like had a rather different take on it than others, with a steely minerally driven white that left me thinking I must have been at a teeth aching Loire tasting..

The Reds were also pretty good, but not as good as hyped. It is a solid vintage for drinking, for me similar to a combo of '01 and '06. The wines are very fresh. Many showing nice crunchy red fruits but some did go for hang time and deep dark flavors. Most were fairly balanced and will be good for medium term drinking with some for the long haul with the tannins and solid structures (acidity, etc) that many had. Favs were from different sides of the spectrum, Conseillante, Pichon Lalande, Troplong Mondot, Malescot Saint Exupery, and others.

The Sauternes were a mixed bag. Sudiuraut was lighter and exotic, Guiraud was muted but nicely textured, Climens as expected was my fav...by far.

It seemed to be a year when wineries with means were able to pull it off, but interestingly, other generally solid wineries like Chasse Spleen did not measure up that well for me.

Mike