It’s May, which can only mean one thing. The Bordeaux
2023 En Primeur Campaign has officially kicked off.
Hugo and Ben welcome Ida Weatherall, Sales Executive at Corney & Barrow, onto the podcast to provide an introduction to Bordeaux as a wine region and buying wine En Primeur. Corney & Barrow are one of the UK’s oldest wine merchants. There is no one better to provide an introduction to Bordeaux, one of the most historic and prestigious wine regions globally.
https://www.corneyandbarrow.com/
We try 3 fantastic wines all available as part of their En Primeur campaign:
L’Aurage 2018
https://www.corneyandbarrow.com/l-aurage-2018-10009712018bt12-1.html
Chateau la Grave a Pomerol 2017
https://www.corneyandbarrow.com/chateau-la-grave-a-pomerol-2017-10027162017bt12-1.html
Chateau Rocheyron 2015
https://www.corneyandbarrow.com/chateau-rocheyron-grand-cru-st-emilion-2015-10070272015bt06-1.html
Follow @The_Premier_Cru to keep up to date with future eps and behind the scenes snippets.
Subscribe to our Substack as well to access more exclusive content with our guests. This week we will be providing a vintage report and some en primeur recommendations shared directly from the Corney & Barrow team.
https://thepremiercru.substack.com/
[Music] [Music] hi everyone and we are back in the building welcoming Our Guest Ida weal onto the podcast today Ida is a sales executive at corne and Barrow and corne and Barrow are for those that don’t know one of the most prestigious and historic wine merchants in the UK uh they were founded in the 1700s and they’re probably best known for the Fine Wines that they import from Romany Conti fruit to P petruse but they also have an amazing range of everyday drinking wine and I think the key is that you just find great value for your money at every price point today we have an awesome episode planned we are going to be doing a full introduction to Bordeaux as a wine region and we’re also going to be doing an introduction to buying wine on Premier which will coincide nicely with the bordo on Premier campaign that is currently flooding your inbox as we speak uh but before we get stuck into all of that Ida how are you I’m very well thank you how are you thank you for having me well good to good to have you here we know you’ve got a you got a lunch lined up later on so you made made time to squeeze in the recording this morning so um no it’s good to have you here also miraculously Ida is actually moving to Hong Kong this week I am I certainly am well I’m finishing up work in London and then by the time this is on your screen I’ll be uh stationed in Hong Kong how exciting how are you feeling about that hugely excited um looking forward to life in the tropics a lot of cool wine seen there uh and I’m up for a challenge yeah wine and sunbathing we can get behind that um brilliant well to kick us off I think we’re going to get stuck into our first wine we’re going to start with the Lage 2018 uh from castillon Kat the bord uh run us through a little bit about this wine and the producer cool so uh this so today we’re focusing primarily on wines from the right Bank cor and Barrow we um represent quite a few producers in the right bank so I thought we could do a real Focus Deep dive there bord is such a massive region um so I thought I’d find a bit of focus yeah um larage is one of three wines on the right Bank made by the meville family so Louie meville uh and his sister Nina um are the children of Fran mitchev who is a legend in the wine scene he’s so charismatic makes awesome wines um they have turro bth in Santa milon they have Rock deom in the coat de Borg and then Lage in uh Cason K buo so Cason is about um 15 km to the east of Santa million so we still got a lot of limestone running through there um Merlo is the predominant great variety about 85% Merlo I think uh and the estate is 20 hectares so I’m sure you will know what a hectare is but for those of you who don’t um if you picture horrible days of Athletics running around that ring at school uh we will we will finally remember that 800 me 400 me yeah that that piece of grass or tarmac in the middle of that ring is a hectare so that can help you visualize you know next time you’re ing the Olympics um that that piece inside is a hectare so 20 hectares is uh quite large for some uh wine regions but in bordo that’s relatively small um on to the wine perhaps so um 18 was a vintage of extremes so Bordeaux is uh a very uh vintage um affected or or reflective wine it has a lot of different influences that come in off the Atlantic that will change uh the wine dramatically throughout the growing season um so so when you hear vintage that’s the wine that the grapes were picked and the wine was made um and you know bordo has historically been renowned for its awesome vintages or its lesser or weaker vintages um 18 was one of extremes it had a very uh wet spring and cold winter which is nice it gives the vines plenty time to relax sleep and then a lot of water in the spring to wake them up and then it was incredibly hot in the summer um July was searingly hot um and actually so hot that the vines shut down um which is you know it’s not an ideal situation but actually it’s better that they shut down than they keep maturing and the berries keep growing um so what was produced here in Lage were pretty small berries uh berries are grapes no wine ner term berries um uh with thick skins so you get lovely concentration uh in this vintage I mean the color is is beginning to develop now in the glass it’s got that slightly um orangey Rim which is really nice uh it’s this vintage I think is 85% Merlo and 15% cabinet Fran um which is quite common on the right Bank yeah why did you you know you were thinking right bordeau is Big era got a Zone in On Let’s Zone in on the right bank and get a bit of a theme why did you pick this wine specifically um I have very fond memories of drinking this wine um we’ve been looking after cor bar have been looking after uh Lage and the mitchev for I think I mean 20 30 years or something um and my Grandpa’s been buying from corny and Barrow my dad buys from corny and Barrow and so there’s always be Lage kind of around the house yeah uh and you know we have some Magnums of it on Christmas day that kind of thing where it’s there’s there’s emotional uh connection there and I think so much of wine is emotional and sharing and it’s those memories um also I thought it’ be really interesting to look at three different appellations on the right Bank good okay well to be fair that kind of nicely brings us onto our first topic which is an introduction to Bordeaux that’s you know that’s why that’s why um you know want to do on on here today so before we get into more detail let’s just start very sort of big picture Bordeaux as a wine region can you just explain for those that don’t know where it is geographically if you look at the map of France it’s in the bottom left uh there’s that nice curve the Bay of bisque um and it’s kind of north of the Pyrenees um in that chunk bottom left of France it’s an enormous wine making region uh bringing back to hectares it’s 125,000 hectares that’s the size of greater London three times the size of Rutland or half the size of Dorset bringing it home doesn’t know where Rutland is we’ve got another we got another reference and how many uh middle size bits of an Athletics track is that no joking that’s a lot well yeah 125,000 um so it’s a vast area and um I guess the UK has been really linked with Bordeaux for such a long time we’ve had a lot of trade routes with Bordeaux we’ve been huge advocates for it much it’s in the UK and you also see a lot of uh British names stamped on uh all Irish Nam stamped on Shadow so leville Barton exactly like the Bartons that’s not it’s not exactly an French name but that is B um I guess red wine production dominates um Bordeaux with six key varials that everyone now knows and loves because actually in the 1800s when they started exporting vines in a big way to the new world bit of a dubious term anyway but when they started bringing Vines across to Argentina or Chile or um austral austalia a lot of that Hub came from Bordeaux because it was a hugely popular wine making region so now when you buy a bottle of wine in a supermarket often you’ll see Merlo or cabinet svon um or malbeck on the labels and these are actually great varieties that came from Bordeaux originally um you also get cabinet Frankin and uh carire to a lesser extent um but they make up a blend bough as I said like it’s it’s on the Atlantic you get a lot of storms blowing through you get uh weird heat spikes or you get weird Frost patches and so that’s why um traditionally there’s been a blend of different varieties in the wine because one year maybe the murlo doesn’t work very well so they have to use more cabinet Sor or again like the cabinet Bron flourishes and the cabinet 7 is less so it’s kind of like not putting all your eggs in one basket mhm mhm because of these extreme weathers sure and just to be clear for the listeners what are you just list out those those main great varieties and and we’ll we’ll get on to this x I want to talk a bit more about the the geography of Bordeaux for those that don’t know you talked about Left Bank right bank and Entre demare so we’ll get on to that more in a minute but just a high level those six great varieties and then we’ll kind of go by region and what’s grow what’s growing where of course uh so number one c s and Merlo um C Fran malbeck puty Vero and carer um and then for the white wine production which should not be overload some of white bulldo are some of my favorite wines ever uh seron Blanc RS Supreme here um and then also semon which is and also muskat uh I can’t remember which it’s muscadel muscadel yeah uh for the sweet wine production um seon is also used for dry white wines um I’m going to be I’m going to be asking you all about Bordeaux whites in a second so we’ll we’ll stay on the Reds stay on the Reds stay on the Reds for the for the time being and um I think maybe it’s if we look at geography and great varieties uh and it’s not sort of clean cart it’s not black and white but there are differences in terms of what’s grown where could you just talk a little bit more about the the geography of Bordeaux the giron the significance of the giron to the to the wine growing region um and then we’ll look at a bit more detail about the the Left Bank and the right Bank appalachi we’ll go into a bit of a deep dive on those totally so um probably it makes sense maybe to start on the Left Bank yeah um where all your big dog names come from um this is a huge part of Bordeaux you’ve got the medok and then kind of the four key or most famous appellations going from north to south well that’s kind of from West to East CU from the Atlantic in basically you’ve got um Santa St then you’ve got poak then you’ve got San Julia and then you’ve got Margo and this is where four out of the five uh Premier first growths um are found so and we’ll explain in a bit what that means we’ll get on to the classification system in a second classification system is complicated um but with such a vast region it makesense sense that it’s complicated you know there’s got to be lines somewhere but what I find so fascinating is that these lines were drawn In 1855 and really haven’t changed this getting off 200 years old might even that’s the problem when Napoleon decrees yeah you can’t overwrite very easily you know it’s like amendments in America you can’t you can’t just go and start scribbling through those and they were written for a reason and the fact that the quality still stands and still aligns I mean of course there are certain instances where they maybe should be Revisited but on the whole it’s stayed pretty consistent and for those that don’t know can you just sort of explain in like yeah fairly clear-cut terms what what the system is you know what it was sort of set out to do and you know what a first growth versus a fifth growth means to you know the Layman so the Left Bank and the right Bank have different classifications in themselves um so if we look at the Left Bank uh the this was done in 1855 it was decided Ed on the price of the bottle of the wine um and that classification belongs to the shadow so the Shau can buy and sell Vines and still retain that classification whereas in burgundy the classification is a geographical limitation so you there is a finite amount of gron crew and you can buy and sell those Vines but only those vines that produce that wine can be a grown crew whereas here you know lefit could in theory buy some more Vines and make a larger the feed larger production um production size I guess is quite interesting uh or or Shadow size on the Left Bank the average holding I think is about 80 hectares which is pretty big um and I think this is also why it’s opened itself up to the first couple of wines or the first growths um having a first wine a second wine a third wine and sometimes even a fourth wine um I didn’t I didn’t realize they were making fourth wines yeah okay yeah yeah um and you know it it makes sense and it makes it more accessible to to different audiences but sometimes you know you’re better off looking at a third growth um and you get better value there sometimes the difference between a first growth and a fifth growth is a very good question and I’m not entirely sure I know the answer um I guess apart from historically the higher up the rankings you are the more you’ve been able to charge for a bottle of wine the more profile you get so therefore the more more um Investments you can make in your in your Winer and I think what stood in 1855 in terms of quality um the sites that they’re on not that they’re completely geographically limitated but the Shadows can’t up sticks and move you um so I think like what was good Tera then or or land then is continuing to be good Tera um and actually with modern farming and weather apps and that kind of checking that we can do the lesser sites are easier to farm so so again again that’s like why fifth growth perhaps are better value because over time um technology has improved to improve the quality yeah sure what what what I would add to that is that the it can obviously just be used as like a tearing system to Almost Say in theory a first growth should be better than a fifth growth um so when you see the first growth you’re like okay that’s the the Big Daddy but what I would also say is like all things in wine there are annoying caveats to basically everything and because it was done in 1855 there are some shadow that have really excelled in recent years that are probably you redid it today slightly misplaced um so a good example of that would be Ponte can that we had the privilege of visiting you know they’re probably far exceeded their fifth grow ranking now but and the same example as well exactly so use it as a guide not a rule and and also I mean it’s kind of like a pyramid scheme there are only five first growths and then there are numerous fifth gross um and I think also maybe aging potential can come into play there so like uh a lefit or a muton two two of the first growths maybe I should the five first growths are leit uh muton Margo oel and l l of course of course that was close um and so they’re probably the wines that will age the longest you can leave those in your Cellar uh for 50 60 years and you know in a good vintage they’ll be amazing still whereas perhaps at fifth growth you’ll be able to approach them younger um and enjoy them younger doesn’t mean to say that they won’t age for 20 years but gosh it’s you know you put it like that and it’s like you know that saying where it’s like um the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago yeah yeah so the best time to buy a shatow of feet was in yeah 1855 yeah okay I think you know maybe it’s also worth saying all of this that on the Left Bank of bordeau which is what we’re discussing right now that not every shadow is part of this crew Class A system that’s essentially for like you know the well I don’t know how many are part of the crew Class A system maybe I’m going to spit ball here and again correct if I’m wrong but I’ll say like 80 shatow I think probably more more 100 more we’ll call it we’ll call it like we’ll call it like 100 yeah we’re looking at essentially like a group of the top Shadows that have been split into you know it’s like the first team second team third team fourth team fifth team but it’s not every shadow on the Left Bank there are the systems and classifications in place but this is kind of just for like you know the the best ones at the time in 1855 and of course there you know largely as we’ve discussed still still it’s still that way still that way today um and one of the things that also want actually before we move on to that just to recap a bit on the geography of the the Left Bank focusing on the stylistic differences as we run from north to south from uh Santa step in the top to San julan in the South what what are the differences between those Appalachians because I think places like Santa Stef or Pak uh you know Margo particularly and San Julia people would have heard of but maybe don’t have an idea of how um the characteristics of wines from those regions differ between each other could you just give us a bit of an overview on that yeah they’re I mean they’re all relatively close together I mean not very very close together but they neighbor each other um and grally soils dominate here fast draining free draining Sandy gral soils they all um border or or Bank on to the giron EST um and cabinet s is the the principal great variety here um cabinet svon copes really well in the heat um and so and doesn’t need so much water so that’s why the fast draining soils are good for Gap s um so that’s the great variety that will dominate the style the difference I guess between something like Santa in the north and um Margo in the south is uh Santa is closest to the um ocean and we’ll get the most moderating or cooling effects that come up the river um so that will perhaps make wines with a fresher style um slightly crunchier fruit um and then down in Margo in the South like it’s the most protected um it’s the most Inland and so you’ll get really plush ripe fruit from am Margo um quite pretty and elegant and warm and wines um poak I always see is quite powerful it’s like really full tanic wines it’s kind of the PowerHouse um and then San julan I went out to taste last year the the omom Vintage and I said San julan was stealth wealth it’s like classy uh but a lot of power going on inside uh whereas Margo is more perfumed phrase yeah I don’t know if that’s coined by cor we have to take that I don’t me crew first I like that I don’t think that’s a corny I don’t know I don’t know if that’s on the record there it’s on the record here oh [ __ ] yeah I think we catch that um so yeah so that’s the kind of and I feel Santa SE has more blue fruit characteristics that kind of cooler um cooler style so if we um now hop the river yeah get the fer across we’re on the right Bank of Bordeaux which perhaps um is less well docent mented than the Left Bank and they’ve got their own classification system as well but could you just yeah give us an overview on the the right Bank the the main appellations what people might have you know what people might have heard of um the you know typical great varieties and then we we’ll go into a bit more detail from there um so the right Bank of Bordeaux the the actual city of Bordeaux sits on the Left Bank and so to drive from bord airport to Sant million is probably about 45 minutes so your Crossing um quite a lot of land that is all planted for viticulture but it’s not really classified um so the the stronghold of the right bank is Sant million it’s a medieval a medieval Town um and it’s on this Limestone Plateau so so the Left Bank is very flat and it’s kind of the max there is maybe 40 m above sea level uh but probably even less and then the right Bank kind of culminates um with this town of santon with this amazing line Stone plateau and actually the Limestone Plateau Wiggles eastwards more um and then it gets more and more mountainous but um there kind of the topography gets a bit more interesting you go to the Left Bank of bordo and you’re like well this is so boring so flat the architecture is more interesting than the land totally um so s million is the stronghold and that has its own classification system um 60 % of sant million is gr crew classified um one of which we’ve got today exactly reron um and then they have a premier gr crew Class A and then there’s a premier gr crew Class B and a Premia gr gonr classic a nice and simple so simple um and actually this gets uh reviewed every 10 years and um rather controversially things like uh tourism facilities or or Shadow structure have now become part of the um classification which has caused a lot of controversy um because a lot of people think that it should really just be the wine that is judged rather than all the fluff and puff um around what kind of stuff they looking for pretty swag chatau some big some big buildings um and well yeah a bit less just like flash um and actually sent Aon as a UNESCO world heritage site and so it kind of doesn’t really match up they want all these big shiny new buildings but then they also want it in line and keeping with the medieval scene and then on the other side of the scale is pomal which um is a very small appalation has no uh classification system um and has lots of very tiny uh producers I think like the average size of a holding in Pomo is 5 hectares or something uh and on the right Bank in general I think uh maybe the largest holding in Santa milon is 30 hectares so when you compare that with the average on the Left Bank of 80 uh there’s the big difference comes into play I think that really that stat sets the tone as well a bit for the right bank because obviously again because Napoleon set out his guns on the on the Left Bank and got it all sorted plus they’re much bigger Shadow with bigger Brands it often gets a bit more publicity and is better understood but actually and which is why it’s so exciting today we’ve got three right Bank wines but typically it’s less explored and less understood in the UK definitely and it’s yeah I think because it’s also more complicated and more um fractured exactly it it it’s a little bit more confusing for the consumer um but right Bank Merlo Reign Su Supreme a great variety um because it it needs less warmth to grow there’s slightly higher elevation and also the clay and Limestone soils that dominate the right Bank retain more water so that cools the soil temperature down but also like means the vine has more water to combat the hydr stress or the heat stress um so Merlo I guess can be defined by like sweet Fruit Juicy fruit um sometimes the wines can be called Jammy that’s not necessarily a good thing um but it is that kind of softer Supple more approachable style especially for earlier drinking as well um the Tannon structure is is softer um and they’re I mean like we’re tasting today none of these have been decanted and they’re all like a delight to just and enjoy you wouldn’t have that with Left Bank wines I mean if we were opening like a crew boura or something now like so that’s not in the growth system that we discussed earlier it would be tight the tant would be really tough and these are actually pretty open immediately upon release so that’s quite a big Advantage I say of the right Bank wies definitely especially for a younger consumer yeah yeah um and also restaurant lists you know majority of people are probably drinking their wine in in restaurants and these are great restaurant wines yeah you don’t have to order it a week in advance for it to be can yeah there’s also to bring some stories to life about the the right Bank our next wine is a 2017 and there is a funny coining or coincidence yeah between us all is that we were all in Bordeaux I’d say what Ben and I were doing was hardly working but you were actually working in bordo in 2017 vintage um just tell us a little bit about what you were doing because you were based on the right Bank yeah I was actually working for a company called establ Mox um who make this wine like graa pomal so uh this is a again a personal connection emotive an emotive wine um and I spent four months there uh half my time in the marketing department um and half my time in the vines which I just absolutely adored um 17 I mean sorry just we get half the time in the vines which you adored cuz I think our experience was mixed what was what was so good about that cuz we we had some uh maybe not so enjoyable experiences in the vines so what what you know what were you doing were you you know pruning were you picking grapes I so I have done a harvest and that was not I don’t think I was best suited well my maybe my work ethic wasn’t best suited for that on my back okay um and I was quickly ushered into the cellar to kind of tamper with the not tamper play you know check on the barrels yeah uh but in 2017 at MOX um I was there from March to July so and 17 like 2017 we had a beautiful spring really nice hot warm spring and summer um so I was pruning in the vines with the birds singing um and having a lovely time that does sound quite idyllic um our our experience was yeah quite the opposite so we we rocked up hugan ey for those that we talked about this the podcast for those who don’t know yeah we did the Von we did the Great Harvest in vaux uh at chatow Mar DM in in Margo so Left Bank um on the on the south side and we rocked up on the first day late having almost run out of petrol trying to get there and having you know gotten lost trying to find the bloody place um we were you know sort of I think a coffee and a parir of Shola down and out the door it was like right we need to go and we rock up on the first day and it’s quite warm um Hugo gets given a crate he straps his back I got given a pair of secas we’re just told to fill up you know fill up the crates so here goes here goes the mule I’m I’m the cutter and essentially we were demoted within about 4 hours we were being stung by mosquitoes or bitten by mosquitoes bitten by ear wigs um it was all just a bit stressful I I chopped a leaf off the vine to um try and try and you know get get um get access to a bunch of grapes um I was told off big time that 4 hours hours later if that yeah it was probably we probably made it till lunchtime um and then we were told to um go and work on the Sorting tables inside and you know they were they they moved us away from the vines pretty quickly so when you were like oh yeah we had a really enjoyable experience I was just sort of thinking back to our brief stint in The Vines um you know sweating wearing shorts being bitten by all these mosquitoes thinking hm sounds like quite a contrasting experience to also you have the like Old Timers who’ve been doing Harvest for 60 years and they’re literally running up the L like they’re Wizards so fast they’re Wizards so fast I was looking like you know I sort of pick a pick a pick a bunch look up and like everyone else is like the end of the row it’s tomorrow it was it was our Lenny and George moment everyone’s had like to have read of M and men as part of some sort of ridiculous gcsc reading list I don’t know what they even called now and yeah that was our our Lenny and George moment um but you know what it was actually really enjoyable and we learned it tons uh and yeah it was it was super cool but does come with a lot of hard work uh and baggage um tell us then a bit I mean you must know this property so well then tell us a little bit about it and a little bit about what their philosophy is and the family and everything about it um so the mo family are amazing uh Jean Pier MOX first came to pomal to Bordeaux in the 40s 50s um and there was a terrible Frost in 56 I think was it 55 um and basically everyone in pomal it was such a bad Frost they thought their Vines were completely dead and they would never come back to life and he had faith that they would come back to life um saw a business opportunity went and bought these Estates in pomal um and now the MOX family I think have seven different Estates in pomal um so the gra of pomal uh is about 10 hectares grav gravel that’s gravy soils with some fine sand uh fine fine clay um and currently edar moex is the third generation to be to be running the estate or the moex uh business um and his father Chris J was a huge Pioneer um in vulture and he has an estate called Dominus in California um he went quite famous isn’t he he went to study in in California um and fell in love with the area and so built Dominus um but lraa pomal sits within their kind of their group of Estates um chat troton Noir is probably the the most famous one in in um pomal laf Petrus laa pomal uh hosana the list goes on and that’s what they own yeah he he he did quite well for this little business opportunity you saw the 50 and M actually also bought uh Petrus at the time um but Petrus was left to his uh son um Jean franois uh whereas Christian was left um all the other Estates and Christian actually ran petus for a very long time until uh the Next Generation took over and they’ve kind of parted ways um but it for for those that don’t know petus is probably bordo’s most expensive wine yeah probably um and I was actually very lucky unfortunately I went there a couple of weeks ago um which was very spoiling trip um and again I mean pomal is a very small place and so you can kind of stand at petus and you see all these neighboring say it’s like con um Gaza everywhere you know it’s so close um and petus is yeah only 11 hectares do they have a nice sense of community because of that the Growers um I don’t really know loaded question I don’t think I can answer that yeah we’ll ask you post recording yeah yeah um okay that makes a lot of sense and one of things I was just going to say just because having tried the one that’s so nice and maybe it’s a little bit of a fact to the 17 vintage as well but this one for approachability it’s so smooth and okay it’s slightly hasn’t maybe got the body that other bordo vintages has but if you’re looking for one buy now this would be so good just because it’s going to you’re going to be able to open it and basically you don’t benefit from decanting but it’s not a necessity uh and I actually think it’s quite refreshing to have something that doesn’t necessarily have like that much muscle but it’s actually quite elegant and really nice in the mouth definitely 17 gets quite bad rep um well 17 was really marked by this awful there two awful Pickers down to B wasn’t my fault um there was really intense Frost uh so Frost is normally fine for Vines um they can quite Hardy in the winter but as soon as the buds break or the kind of little it’s called Bud break but imagine like the plant waking up and turning a bit green um if there’s a frost once that happens then it can be not fatal but it will right wipe wipe out your crop for that year coming so um 17 had a really warm and dry winter and spring and then on the 27th of April there was this really hardcore Frost um I remember I was living in Santa milon and I got the call being like come down to the vines now uh and the the most the coldest point of the day or the most dangerous for the vines is kind of just before Dawn breaks so 5 6:00 in the morning um and so I went down to to pomal santon’s kind of fine because it’s on a hill so the cold air flows down but pomal is quite low Ling and quite flat in general um and it was apocalyptic all these candles were burning there’s crazy smoke and then some of the uh better off Estates actually were using helicopters to um move the air flow uh and get the cold air off the Vines um but this affected the whole region um in in Bordeaux and producers lost you know between up to 80% of their crop some are in the like lesser um Appalachians as well lost 100% of their crop because because this Frost was just so thick and cold and persistent um so all the buds uh froze and then the sun comes up and then they like the ice crystals intensify the sun lays and they all get frazzled and die wow is pretty dramatic God that is dramatic especially when you describe the sun crystals and frazin very scientific terminology oh my Lord okay um and actually that’s why you will have seen I mean lots of people will have seen uh pictures in the news of these Vineyards with candles and it’s actually quite beautiful and pretty it looks like some sort of wonderful celebration but but it’s not the helicopters not so much um yeah more of that stealth wealth coming in that’s actually that’s actually crazy okay I didn’t I didn’t know they bought in uh helicopters I’m now going to ask you a little bit about the whites of B we said we wouldn’t Overlook them and we’re not going to do it um let’s start off with the dry whites because if there’s they actually get even more overlooked if there is a a segment of it you mentioned the grapes before San Blanc and seon what are some of the core characteristics of those two grapes s Blanc um has incredible acidity really bright fresh acidity it’s a pretty versatile grape it can grow from the lir valley all the way down to New Zealand so it can take a bit of heat if it needs it um normally well in Bordeaux in particular it has quite grassy notes sometimes like green bell pepper uh in warmer vintages it can H towards more tropical passion fruit pineapples sometimes but there’s always this wonderful acidity that carries through the wine um which is makes it very refreshing and moish um but also is why it’s so good for the production of sweet wine because you want the acidity to balance the the sugar um 7on Blanc also has amazing aging potential um and kind of in the LA you see it less but in um in bulldo they also oage their their seron Blanc which I adore because you get this kind of toasty rich flavor and then also a lot of acidity and some of those like fresher nodes um um and then SE uh is quite it’s a funny grape variety it has quite thin skins SE Blanc also has quite thick skins no uh average mediumsized skins um and uh sem in its youth like doesn’t really show much it’s quite a neutral grape variety and then with bottle age it turns into really lovely honeyed um floral kind of uh I guess honey is the like overwhelming thing even in a dry wine uh but it has this kind of softer floral sometimes I don’t know if this is just our limited experience but I find sometimes has a bit of a sine note to it as well that has kind of like a salty character that’s quite nice yeah and again a nice Counterpoint to that quite rich honey definitely you get on the front yeah um and so pessac um and grav uh on the left Bank are kind of the best two places for for white production actually a lot of bigger States will make their own white um and de manger chaler Blanc is one of my favorite white bulldo I just absolutely adore it I mean it’s special treat wine it’s about 85 a bottle but you know and is is that you’d say that’s your favorite I was going to ask you what your oh God I mean I I don’t drink enough white bordo which is a shame but um I I think like uh you know it’s so associated with red wines that it doesn’t probably get the air time it deserves I certainly in the in the UK Market you don’t have it that often we don’t see plays second fiddle um which is a bit of a shame some of the ones are so good and can represent very good value maybe not domainal more on the spensive end but yes um yeah and also I guess they don’t a lot of the UK trade go out to taste on premer so when the wines are still in the barrel um and sometimes they just the whites don’t really show that well or maybe were too calibrated on trying the Reds um and I think a lot of the magic for white bulau is it comes with a bit of bottle age um a bit of maturity um but I think I mean the real star of the show is the so turn and the the sweet wine made in bordo so yeah when we get on the first thing I want to ask you is where is soan because we when we discussed the Left Bank we were talking kind of a bit further north those Appalachians but so turns quite a bit further south yeah so I think if my memory says me correctly it’s um South uh east of Bordeaux City so kind of it’s the other side uh but it’s near the um garon River yeah um so to make a a sweet wine in Bordeaux um it’s made by betrus which is a fungus uh also known as Noble Rot which is much nice way of saying it basically um but for a fungus to grow you need quite damp humid conditions and so that’s why Bordeaux is perfect for it because it’s pretty humid a lot of weather coming off um the ocean uh and then also these Rivers everywhere um that create quite a damp environment um there’s often a Mist in that part of bord exactly when wake up in the mornings and stuff that sort of sits and that isn’t that that’s kind of essential for creating the that’s it um that’s where the magic happens you want you have your ripe berries or your ripe grapes September October time and then The Mists come and Through The Mists in the morning uh this fungus or rot appears and the fungus looks hideous if you look it up online it’s not a pretty picture um but actually if you take one the rotten berries it tastes delicious um and what the fungus does is it and they also say it’s very good for you to eat the rotten berries as well health what is the supposed health benefit I think it’s something to do with all the bacteria that’s in there it’s like you know good bacteria yeah wow exactly guys I think we should do something cafir meets cfir meets so turn in a wonderful concoction yeah could you [Music] imagine and then then well I I was wrong San Blan has thin skins because um the the fungus pierces lots of holes in the skins and then once the sun comes up it burns through the mist and it um heats up the berries and the water evaporates from the berries through these tiny holes um leaving acidity sugar and flavor uh really concentrated in the grapes so that is how you get the water content out of the Vine in um in so turn which makes it sweet and concentrated so they’re essentially sort of drying up on the vine losing that moisture um which is also um part of the reason why it’s it’s so difficult to make right totally because production is you know production your volumes are quite low really reduced yeah it’s quite stunning so this is actually a good for anyone listening this is a really good tip is that the prices of so turn are remarkably low for the quality of the wine and how difficult it is to make yeah yeah and the yields the how difficult it is to make um and it is remarkably low and they’re slightly out of fashion sweet wines just generally um but they really are wonderful so if you want to fill your boots up do it are there any producers that you’d recommend of so turn and sweet wines from bordo well we actually make a fantastic own label so turn I should have brought it uh today but see as we were doing the right Bank Trio I didn’t which was foolish um uh I mean DM is obviously the obvious one but it’s obvious for a reason because it’s Sensational final topic we want to ask you on is buying wine on prere so this is a little bit complicated as I said people’s inboxes are going to start getting flooded and most people don’t know what the hell open your emails yeah but check them uh what does on premer actually mean so on premer is actually a pretty ancient way of selling or buying wine um but it means it’s a Futures market for wine um but so all three of these wines have spent at least 14 months in an oak barrel after being the grapes being picked and so to Aid cash flow um for the chatau of The Producers om promar really started in in in foro on the wider scale um but in order to ensure that the Chateau can pay their bills pay their workers uh the UK wine trade would Trot off down to Bordeaux and taste these Wines in the barrels and so um what you’re buying is an unfinished product uh you’re buying the wine still in the barrel you’re trusting your UK Merchant or Merchant wherever you are um to understand how that wine can potentially develop through years of tasting um we can give you a good guide um the benefit of buying wine on Premier is you are able to secure a wine before it sells out quite a few top states sell out on prier um you are getting a Keener price because you’re buying you’re hedging your bets an unfinished product uh and the third uh benefit is because the wine is still in France the tax man can’t get his grips on any tax because it’s not a physical product um and so then in the once the wine is bought uh you have an under bond price um whiskey also works under Bond uh and Wine Works under Bond um and we have our Big Shiny shed we’ve got one just outside the M25 uh and the wine can then travel from France or wherever it’s made um to our shiny shed without incurring any Duty or vat we have a Bonded Warehouse um so the wine can sit there this is beneficial uh again because if you’re buying a wine that will be aged for a long time um wine is a perishable product so it is subject to heat light humidity um all other kinds of factors and so you want it stored in Optimum conditions to ensure that 20 years later your wine is still singing and it’s or 50 years you know however patient you can be that’s the thing it’s like I don’t want to wait that long um and so if it’s in our big shiny shed it’s ensured that all those conditions are correct and then if in 10 years time you think oh god I’ve got too much wine I’m never going to drink all of this um you can sell the wine under Bond and wine can trade hands thousands of times um whilst remaining in our in our shed um and that’s beneficial for the wine because it doesn’t move it stays in its place it’s not being shaken around sh up in the same place in the same shiny sh for the buyer this is also beneficial because you know that that wine has had a perfect Journey or perfect provenance from the barrel to the bottle from The Cellar to our shed and it hasn’t moved since then um I’m sure you guys have watched sour grapes uh it’s a great advert for knowing your provenance on the wine you know if you know where it’s come from you know it’s legit it hasn’t been faked wine is a very easy thing to fake a question for you on the concept so let’s say I haven’t been a good customer and I’ve taken it all out being like I’m going to drink it and then I’m like either I got to flog this What complications do I encounter if I’ve taken it out of bond um well firstly boringly for you you have to pay the duty in the vat when it’s delivered uh home so that’s an extra 20% that you’ll paying just if you don’t want to drink it um but the benefit of buying on Premier is that you um when you take it home for delivery you’re only paying the duty and the vat on that purchase price so say you buy a case for £200 and it goes up to £400 in value then you’re only paying the vat on that2 200 case which is nice um if you then want to sell it we have a broking service so we sell wines on behalf of private customers um but if you’ve had it delivered home and you’re like oh I’ve just kept under the kitchen sink we’ll say no thanks we don’t really want to sell that because we have a duty to our customers and also a duty to the Estates that we look after to ensure that the wine we sell is in the best condition possible um but if you’re lucky to have a nice seller somewhere in a nice cool condition we can come out and look at your seller and if we vet it and we are happy that um we’re confident that the Wine’s in good neck um and we’ve got a traceable lineage of where those wines have come from then we will uh broker it for you and so if I’m buying on prer for the first time when roughly from point of email and me placing my purchase do I then get an email saying your wines have arrived and how quickly do you have to make that decision about whether to take it out keep it in bond so each region is different but now we’re talking about Bordeaux so say uh the bord campaign will run from May May and June normally dominates after the first May bank holiday is normally when the releases start coming um they’ll then so that’ll be bordo 2023 it’ll probably be bottled early 25 or late 24 which means it’ll probably be shipped uh in the summer of 20 5 so it’ll arrive in 2025 you then have a two well with us different Merchants will work differently you have a two-month grace period um where you get an email saying your Wine’s arrived what would you like to do with it you can either keep it in store with us you can transfer it to another Warehouse or shiny shed yeah we love sheds uh the Mind trade love shed I love sheds I went to go and look at our shed and I was like whoa this is amazing yeah um I was used to watch How It’s Made when I was younger so I’m like kind of obsessed with factories and maybe maybe Greg Wallace should do one inside the factory do like an inside uh inside the shed inside the shed my residing piece of advice to anyone listening on buying on PR or in bond would be but keep it in bond don’t take it out uh unless it is absolutely ready to drink and you have a reason uh two would be take people’s advice because they’ve tried the wine not you uh and three is don’t get too sucked in by the emails because you’ll receive a lot of them so wait till about halfway to the latter half of the campaign once you’ve received them all to make your decisions uh although iida probably won’t appreciate me saying that do that brilliant Well we I’m really excited for the final wine that we are about to try uh Ida take it away on this one I’ve just had a sip it’s absolutely delicious um take it away on what this wi’s about who produced it and the Vintage um brilliant so this is chatow Ron uh from Sant milon uh this is about 3 km away from the center of sant milon but still on that Limestone uh Plateau it’s um a small estate 7 hectares uh that was bought by uh Peter cisek in 2011 uh Peter C Peter cisc is kind of a wine making Superstar he is Danish um then he went to go and work with his uncle in Bordeaux uh where he did his kind of formal training and then in the late ’90s he went to rera Delo in Spain um and founded uh Domino de Pingus which is one of the world’s greatest wines uh and certainly within Spain um Pingus has then floreda Pingus that second wine and then Sai which is a larger negoti uh project um and Peter is so Charming uh and he’s just he’s a font of knowledge um and has such passion for wine and uh uh strive for excellence so he um he also has a Sher estate called Vin corales in uh her and my semi side Hustler is to make Sherry Chic or bring bring Sherry back I think it’s hugely underrated so uh I admire Peter even more for for putting herth on the map um um and so reron he bought in 2011 uh the vines were pretty old I think average age 40 years old when he bought them um with about 85% Merlo and 15% C Fran which you can kind of see as a theme on the right Bank um he uh his true love is I guess terroir expression um and he believes that through organic biodynamic farming practices you can get the most pure expression of the land and let the vines uh shine historically um well obviously before herbicides and pesticides everything was organic but um Bordeaux really uh got involved with herbicides and pesticides it’s a damp soggy climate uh which means a lot of fungus and disease and pest so um from the the’ 70s I guess the borderl got quite heavy-handed uh with even something called I don’t know want to bring this up but bord mixture isn’t that I don’t know yeah like a phrase for something called bord you can put on it but you’re right because of partly because of the climatic conditions would maybe more necessary in theory to use it there so there’s a question we haven’t actually asked about viticulture so is this certified organic and biodynamic this so he started in 11 both the organic and biodynamic process um they’re very difficult Hoops to jump through um I think Ron was certified organic in 2020 but this the 15 was farmed organically but takes a long time for you to get the paper didn’t have the paper yeah yeah and it’s in still in the process of being uh certified as biodynamic um biodynamic is like a level up from organic farming and it was following the cycle of the moon um to to it like follows the water flow throughout the vine um and clearly the moon has a big effect on the water on the planet so it sounds a bit mumbo jumbo but I’m a firm believer and actually like the finest burundian Estates will work biodynamically um and I think the cool thing about russan is you can really taste vintage throughout like as Peter’s work in the vineyard becomes more embedded you can really taste the wine getting better and better and better and better do do you think do you think there’s also like a con sort of it’s consumer Le in some sense as well that’s maybe what people are looking for now drinking less but better quality wines and they’re looking for maybe you know stuff that’s been made with more care rather than just being sprayed with a whole load of chemical I think so yeah there’s a lot more uh consumer demand and pressure um and aail like information is more available now everything is so at Touch of a fingertip to find out what people are doing um so I think there’s more transparency in what’s going on um well with that I think Ida we’re going to wrap the episode but we just want to say a massive thank you to you for coming on the podcast talking about all things Bordeaux Left Right Bank Reds whites so turns um really really appreciate you taking time of your day to come here um I think for our for our listeners um if you want to learn more about corny and Barrow or try any of the wines that we featured on the podcast today please do check the description uh we’ll put a link in the description to the episode so you’ll be able to you’ll be able to find there please do also link like And subscribe to our Channel follow us at the premier crew see all sorts of shenanigans that are up to on on uh on social media but um yeah I think final thing to say is that hug and I be back next week we’ve got another guest featuring so stay tuned for that um but Ida thank you so much for coming on the podcast and welcome to the premier crew thank you very much for having me [Music] he [Music]