© S. Peter Smith, 1997
Quick Sales, High Prices and Great Promise!
How would you like to make a product and sell your entire year's production in 2 hours?
Better still, at more than twice last year's price? For some of Bordeaux's top vineyards this was the situation when they released their 96 futures just a few weeks ago.
Bordeaux's negociants are notified of their allocation from the various chateaux, and in years like this they waste no time in confirming their options. In many cases, prices were up by a good 30%, but with the quality of the vintage this didn't slow anyone down!
On our visits to Angélus and Montrose in June (two properties that more than doubled in price) by the time our visit was over the entire 96 production had been sold - an exciting time to drop in on someone!
The 96 vintage is showing wonderful promise so far, in many cases even better than '95. Despite the press reports last fall of rain and disaster on the right bank, we have tasted some great young 96's from St. Emilion. The Médoc is really outstanding and so is Graves - especially the whites; the Domaine de Chevalier white 95 and 96 may well be the best that Olivier Bernard has produced, and that's saying a lot!
Likewise, 97 is coming along fine so far. Early May was chilly, and the early start that the vines had was curtailed a little, but we're still expecting harvest to start in most places in the first week or two of September. This of course is a great thing in a region where the harvest usually occurs right around September 21, the autumnal equinox which generally brings rain.
At dinner a few weeks ago Denis Malbec, the Maitre de Chais of Chateau Latour, just for fun opened with us a bottle of the '89 Grappillons of Latour. This is the wine made from the 2nd generation of grapes, the tiny "Grappillons", which flower a month later than the real crop, and usually are left on the vine for the birds. In 1989 the season was so advanced that this 2nd crop ripened and was picked in late October - the only time to anyone's knowledge this has been done. Only 4000 bottles were made, and none sold to the public, but I can tell you it was pretty darned good! This year there's a chance that this rare curiosity may again be made if the fall stays warm; that's how early the season may be.
Anyway, apart from tasting the new 96's we've been doing our usual "work" of eating and drinking our way through France. We've had a great spring and early summer, which culminated with the Fete des Fleurs in St. Emilion on June 15. During the week of VinExpo, the world's major wine fair, we were busy visiting with our friends from Chile, Italy and other parts of France, then we were back to the fray with tours through mid-July. Life is not dull here in the back-country of France!
If you've been on a tour, thanks for letting us share a little of France with you - if you haven't been yet, try it: we think you'll really like it - ask those who've been!