So the week is over, and what a week it has been. Sitting now at Merignac airport, all the talk is of the 2008 wines and how they have completely astonished us.

We came to Bordeaux with open minds but, nonetheless, couldn’t help but expect to be faced with dilute, green, tannic wines. This has not been the case. There has been no sense of green, unripe fruit in anything we have tasted all week and, on the contrary, it must be said that in many instances we have been seriously impressed with the quality we have found in the wines.

Pessac-Leognan this morning was an eye-opener. To be fair, we only tasted wines from four chateaux today but these were all uniformly excellent.

Haut-Brion had amazing concentration and complex aromas and flavours of dark fruits and spice. La Mission had elements of red fruit and was elegant, very rich and very pure, but for us the complexity of Haut-Brion won the day. However, given their affordability, the wines from both Domaine de Chevalier and Haut-Bailly really shone with Haut-Bailly for us being definitely one of the wines of the whole week that will end up in our own cellars.

Bordeaux 2008 is certainly an unusual vintage. There may have been bad weather in the summer but the fine autumn appears to have transformed the wines and really rewarded those producers who put in the hard work in the vineyards all year round. We have only tasted the chateaux in which we already had faith but nonetheless feel we now have a snapshot overview of the vintage based on how the best of the best did in 2008.  Here is Nick Pegna’s (Managing Director of Berrys’ in Hong Kong) view, filmed at the end of yesterday’s tastings:

2008 appears to be a vintage which is defined by its ripeness, purity of fruit and precision; not one for long haul perhaps, except in the case of a few big guns such as Ausone and Latour, but certainly superior to 2007.  Neither we, or any producer we have visited, feels able to really compare this to any other Bordeaux vintage. Some say it is a cross between 2002 and 2004. Others have compared it to 1988 which is the only previous harvest which went on nearly so late. For now we would conclude that it is certainly a curiosity – but a curiosity of such fine quality that it should not be missed. Prices of course will be key, as will the ability to buy in challenging economic times, however if, as we are hoping, the wines are more affordable in 2008, this vintage could provide some absolute bargains not to miss. Now it is over to the chateaux and the negociants to make the right decisions regarding pricing and distribution this year. We will keep you informed.