2009 Fougas Maldoror
I thought this was a sleeper of the vintage from barrel, and it is even better than I thought from bottle. Loads of black currant fruit intermixed with dusty, loamy soil notes and some subtle smoke jump from the glass of this dense ruby/purple-colored, concentrated, full-bodied wine, which has no hard edges. The texture is beguiling and the wine long and pure. This is definitely a wine to buy by the case, as it probably has 5-7 years of life ahead of it.
Rating: 90  Estimated Cost: $14-$20

I am not certain of the details of my first ever meeting with the wines of Château Suduiraut; I have many good memories of bottles opened, and bottles shared, but can I be certain which of those bottles - opened before the days of rigorous note-keeping, or even more rigorous online publishing on Winedoctor - was the very first? I am certain of my first meeting with the modern face of Suduiraut though, this being Christian Seely, and he had a bottle (or rather one in a sequence of bottles) of Suduiraut in his hand at the time. And if that weren't enough, who could forget clapping eyes on the wine trade's most famous bow tie for the very first time?

The afternoon was slowly giving way to early evening; outside the shadows were lengthening, and the temperature was on its way down once again. It would soon be well below 0ºC, and - although I didn't know it at the time - there was a night of heavy snow ahead (see my Pierre Luneau-Papin update for more on that). We had just finished two detailed tastings of the wines first of Yves Guégniard, then of Vincent Ogereau, who was now just in the process of packing away his recently opened bottles. There was only one more tasting to go before we would have earned a rest, and who knows....maybe something to eat as well? Perhaps Vincent and the others were thinking the same thing, four minds lost in a moment of gustatory anticipation; a silence had descended over the room, a silence into which the crashing opening of the door intruded very suddenly. As if to add insult to injury, the open door also allowed in a sudden, jarring rush of near-Arctic air. A face wearing a cheeky grin appeared around the door-jam.

There are some obvious destinations when looking for a Muscadet to drink, top names such as Domaine de la Pépière, Pierre Luneau-Papin, Domaine de l'Ecu and others. I have these pretty well covered on Winedoctor, with some detailed profiles, recent updates and plenty of associated tasting notes. More recently I have been throwing my net further afield, trying to take in other domaines, some famous and long-associated with the region and the wines, some perhaps less well known. Some I have met and tasted with, as in the case of Bruno Cormerais, while others, such as the wines of Domaine de la Sénéchalière have been the subject of armchair-based exploration. Yes, armchair-based. I would like you to conjure up an image of me in a giant high-backed armchair, surrounded by fresh oysters and scallops served with Monique Luneau-Papin's beurre blanc, all washed down with an array of Muscadets poured by my butler. The reality is not like that at all of course. Nevertheless that's the image I would like you to have. So please try.

I really can't abide hanging around waiting for things to happen. Time spent kicking my heels is time lost, and this is especially true when visiting a wine region, the Loire, Bordeaux or otherwise. I don't fly over to Bordeaux so I can spend half the morning in bed, and so days on which the first appointment is not scheduled until 10am, or even later, feel to me like days half-wasted. And so I was delighted to be here at Château Talbot at 9am - bright and early in most people's books, and good enough in mine - for my first tasting appointment of the day on this trip to Bordeaux in late 2011. I brought my hire car to a halt at the gates, which were securely locked by an electromagnetic mechanism, and pressed the intercom button for the bureau. A minute or so later, with no response, I tried again. Then I tried the button for the régisseur.....again, no response. Hmmm....this was strange. Perhaps they were all still in bed?

Yves Guégniard, Jim Budd, Tom King and myself were taking a look at some of Bergerie's oldest vines, trying to shake off their blanket of snow, when Vincent Ogereau drew up in his little blue combi-van. Perhaps sensing there was just as much gossiping going on here, about the latest vintages, wine and the world in general, it was not long before Vincent had left the secure warmth of his vehicle to join us among the vines.

You can imagine the scene. Or at least I hope you can, because I wasn't there, so we are going to have to imagine it together. We are in a very clean-and-clinical tasting room, all stainless steel sinks and white laminate worktops, somewhere in central London. Gathered together within this sanctuary are some of the great and the good of the Bordeaux-interested London-based wine scene, some of them Masters of Wine, all of them deeply familiar with what Bordeaux has to offer. The task in hand? A blind assessment of the 2005 Bordeaux vintage for Decanter magazine, all finished now, with only the labels to be revealed. The tasters had swirled and slurped their way through dozens of wines, and were now eager to see the identities of the five-star wines, an unprecedented 25 of them. Of these wines, only three were unanimously ranked as five stars by everybody present. The covers are slowly removed. Wine number one....... Mouton-Rothschild. Murmurs of appreciation fill the room. Wine number two....... Pichon-Baron. Sighs of mutual admiration can be heard. Maybe a back or two received a gentle pat. And wine number three....... Pédesclaux. Huh?! What? Pédesclaux?!

There was a still a soft blanket of snow cushioning the vines at Domaine de la Bergerie when we arrived. France had, until late into January at least, been enjoying a relatively mild winter, drier than the norm in many parts, with hours of sunshine much higher than expected. But no more. It was mid-afternoon on the first Saturday in February 2012, and for the first two weeks of this month - the date of this year's Salon des Vins de Loire - the 'Hexagon' had been plunged into a mini-Ice Age. Despite warmer temperatures later in the month, this was France's coldest February since 1986, and the fourth coldest since 1947. That was a great vintage of course (for Bordeaux, as well as the Loire). A portent of good things to come perhaps? Well, we can hope.

I find keeping abreast of what is going on in Bordeaux and the Loire is hard enough. Trying to keep a broad overview of the entire world of wine is near-enough impossible, and it is countries like Portugal that really rub salt in the wound in this respect. Twenty years ago any keen student of wine could, once he (or she, of course, please take that as read) had managed to become acquainted with the principal styles of Port (and of course Madeira too - we mustn't forget this sub-tropical island remains under Portuguese jurisdiction today), have peremptorily ticked Portugal off his 'to do' list. Now, what's next, our student would mutter under his breath. Hmm, South Africa. Not much there except rubbery Pinotage and Steen. Shouldn't take too long.....

Take a look down the list of 'famous' names within the 1855 classification and you will quickly realise that, actually, not all of them are famous. Looking at Margaux in particular, it soon becomes clear that for every Palmer, Issan or Brane-Cantenac there is another estate almost unheard of and rarely seen or tasted. Some are really quite obscure. Few, though, are quite as obscure as Boyd-Cantenac. This estate, which sits on the edge of a patch of woodland just south of the village of Cantenac, has maintained a very low profile for many years. In part this is because the proprietor Lucien Guillemet works without the support of the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, and thus Boyd-Cantenac - as well as Guillemet's other equally obscure classed growth estate, Pouget - will not be encountered alongside the UGC tastings in Bordeaux (during primeurs week), London, the USA or the Far East.

Château Clerc-Milon is a property with which all lovers of Pauillac should be familiar. Although in illustrious ownership (it is part of the Rothschild stable that also includes Mouton-Rothschild) it hides at the fifth growth level, one of the dozen Pauillac properties that dominate - in numbers at least - this rung of the 1855 classification. But wine buyers interested in quality know that this ancient classification cannot be wholly relied upon, and that there are many châteaux outperforming their rank. Lynch-Bages is a classic example, consistently ranked as the equivalent of a second growth, and as a consequence prices are higher than one might otherwise expect. The recently rescued Pontet-Canet is another under-rated fifth growth. And, while I accept that it does not challenge the super-seconds by any stretch of the imagination, based on my assessment of the wines I have long been content to recognise Clerc-Milon as another over-achiever. With recent reinvestment and new facilities put in place by the Rothschilds, however, things are set to only get better here.

As my review of the Loire 2006 vintage makes clear, the Loire vignerons - from Muscadet right up to Sancerre - did not have an easy time this year. This was a vintage which saw weather that swung from baking hot drought to tropical deluge, and touching on every possible type of weather in-between. This meant that many vignerons had to deal with significant problems both in the vineyard and winery; vine diseases such as mildew and uneven and questionable ripening of the fruit are just a taster.

Take a look at the reports from the French meteorological service (otherwise known as the Météo) for 2006 and you will find a story of summer heatwave, of extreme temperatures in July to match any that had gone before. This is of course surprising; after all, we're all familiar with the record-breaking temperatures that were experienced in Europe during 2003....but in 2006? Surely not?

Take a straw poll of wine drinkers on what Saumur means to them and you will probably receive, in the main, one of two answers. The first answer, from the Saumur tourist perhaps, will be sparkling wine. Indeed, the inattentive traveller visiting Saumur might be forgiven for thinking, on scraping the town's surface, that this particular style of wine is the region's vinous apogee. Giant hoardings advertise wine from the likes of Gratien & Meyer, Louis de Grenelle or Ackerman, with offers of visits and tours. And on the crest of the tuffeau slopes that march alongside the Loire, above the troglodytic dwellings and the caves à champignons, buildings such as Gratien & Meyer's art deco headquarters seem to boast of wealth and success akin to that found in Champagne.

Having not long completed several days of judging the Loire category in the Decanter World Wine Awards, during which more than a few wines from the 2010 vintage cropped up, I was reminded of these notes which I made at the Charles Sydney portfolio tasting in January this year. Although the focus at Charles' tasting was undoubtedly Loire 2011 (as indeed it was at the Decanter event - I've never seen so many Sancerres, Pouilly-Fumés and Muscadets gathered together in one place before), there was also quite a handsome showing of wines from 2010. And in some quarters this is a very attractive vintage; I am thinking particularly of the sweet wines, which did very well in the Decanter awards this year.

This not-quite-final instalment of my guide to Bordeaux 2011, based upon my experiences in Bordeaux tasting the barrel samples en primeur, completes my collection of tasting notes for the vintage - at this stage at least. As has been the case in previous years, these last few tasting notes describe a rather diverse collection of styles and appellations, taking in what are potentially great, as yet inadequately exploited terroirs such as Fronsac and Castillon, as well as more generic appellations such as Entre-Deux-Mers and the catch-all Bordeaux of course. There is no hard and fast rule to where the quality lies, of course, as lovely wines can be found at all levels in Bordeaux. As, indeed, can majestic flops. So 'minor' appellations, as I have chosen to refer to them (for want of anything better - I'm open to suggestions) such as these should not be discounted out of hand. There are often wines here worth buying.

This not-quite-final instalment of my guide to Bordeaux 2011, based upon my experiences in Bordeaux tasting the barrel samples en primeur, completes my collection of tasting notes for the vintage - at this stage at least. As has been the case in previous years, these last few tasting notes describe a rather diverse collection of styles and appellations, taking in what are potentially great, as yet inadequately exploited terroirs such as Fronsac and Castillon, as well as more generic appellations such as Entre-Deux-Mers and the catch-all Bordeaux of course.

Dining out one evening at Le Relais, surely one of Angers' best known restaurants, I was offered a glass of wine with a bright, shimmering, mid-gold hue. It's not uncommon to be challenged in this way when dining with wine-interested friends and colleagues, the glass of wine pushed your way with hardly a word - and certainly with no clue as to its origin or identity - for a blind assessment. The hand behind the glass belonged to David Cobbold, wine consultant and educator. The gauntlet was thrown down, although as gesture of goodwill perhaps, one clue as to the wine's identity was provided. This was a wine of the Loire.

My notes on Bordeaux 2011 come to an end this week; as far as my communal reports go I only have my 'mopping up' to do, a rather fractured report which serves as a home for my opinions on everything from Castillon and Fronsac down to Entre-Deux-Mers and generic Bordeaux. As a consequence I didn't think it would be overkill to stick with Bordeaux this week, with a look back one year to Bordeaux 2010, especially as it brings our focus to bear on one of the more niche aspects of Bordeaux; the dry whites.

Can there be any more hotly awaited title in wine than that of Jacqueline Friedrich's updated text on the wines of the Loire? The original, A Wine & Food Guide to the Loire (reviewed below), is perhaps the only comprehensive work in existence which systematically explored the Loire, region-by-region, domaine-by-domaine, reviewing and rating all from Muscadet up to Pouilly-Fumé. Throw in some information on local delicacies, restaurants, hotels, street markets and the like and we had, in Jacqueline's original work, the ideal guide for not only the wine drinker, but also the wine-orientated traveller. It has, though, long been in need of an update, an update that has been long-promised. Here, at last, is that update.