A mixed bag of Berry Brothers (and sisters) are here in Bordeaux, ranging from Hayato, the General Manager of BB&R Japan, to Billy Wong, the Lynch-Bages-pin of Berrys’  Hong Kong.  We had a great opportunity to re-visit some 2008’s yesterday, which are coming on tremendously.  We honestly did not taste a bad wine yesterday – in fact quite the reverse – everything has been excellent, with a few stand outs.  A quick show of hands in the bus brought ’08 Margaux out with a landslide win – stunning poise and complexity, and the most tremendous finish.  From a personal standpoint I loved all of the wines from  the Lynch Bages stable – Ormes de Pez ’08 was singing and Lynch itself was genuinely fantastic – showing real Pauillac power and class; a true thoroughbred of a wine.

Ducru showed brilliantly too – Rene, the charismatic Maitre de Chais told us (in between charming the legs off the ladies) that he prefers his ’08 to the ’05, ’06 and ’07! 

What else?  Well, the new chais at Cos was magnificent (above left) – there really is nothing to match it.  We survived lunch at the Lion d’or without being abused by Monsieur Barbier…More to follow on the ’09 vintage….