Slurp

1990 in the Sunshine â�� (May 2008)

Wed, 14 May 2008 09:00:00 +0100

Tasting note from Dr Jeremy Howard.

Two friends and I decided to use the unseasonable May weather to try some Left Bank Bordeaux 1990s. For many Bordeaux lovers, this vintage vies with 1989 for supremacy between 1986 and the vintages of the late nineties. Top Bordeaux wines from the 1990s are certainly not cheap, but they are a little more accessible than the astronomic prices one meets when venturing into the best years of the 1980s (and beyond). Plus I was aware from reading the excellent CellarTracker notes (www.cellartracker.com) that 1990 is drinking really well at this time. With a sense of anticipation we settled down around my patio table in the sunshine to enjoy an afternoon’s slurping. We cooled down with a glass of refreshing and zesty Rosacker Grand Cru Riesling 2002. This wine is modestly priced at a little over £10, but it is a beautifully balanced Riesling with petrol and glycerin balanced by lemon zest acidity. Delicious and refreshing, and a perfect opener on a sunny afternoon.

We then warmed up with a Right Bank Pomerol that Robbie had brought from his private cellar: Chateau Beauregard 1989. This predominantly Merlot based wine was showing a plumy red colour fading to brick at the edges. The nose offered an intriguing combination of violet perfume and damp earth or wool, but without a great deal of red or black fruits. In the mouth the wine showed nice acidity and lovely soft fruits with some strawberry. We scored the wine 88 on account of its rather abrupt finish, but it was a lovely wine to drink with lamb or a chicken casserole.

With our noses and palates suitably tuned in it was time to get serious. Chateau Cos d’Estournel 1990 from St Estephe was first up. We drank all three of the 1990s after decanting for around 3 hours. The Cos has a high (40%) Merlot content and this was immediately obvious in its medium ruby colour with tawny edging. The nose was big with inviting herbs, stewed rhubarb and redcurrants. I was expecting a more tannic and full bodied wine, given the appellation’s reputation for austerity, but what presented itself was a finely balanced delight with softened tannins and very restrained acidity. In the mouth the wine was beautifully refined and balanced with pan fried steak and roasted peanuts at the finish. After some debate we decided that Robert Parker’s 95 point rating was a tad generous, and we settled on scores of 93-94 – marking up the wonderful purity of the wine but recognizing a slight lack of complexity and a shorter (20 sec) finish than we would have liked. It could have been a boisterous Right Bank wine, we felt.

Chateau Leoville Poyferre 1990 grabbed our attention from the outset. Dense purple in colour, with only slightly pinkish edges, the wine immediately looked younger and fuller than the Cos (reflecting the lower Merlot content). The nose showed further herbs, but also tobacco and cedar and a much more feminine and ‘sexy’ bouquet. Once in the mouth the wine had a genuine ‘wow’ factor that the Cos had perhaps lacked. Cedar and vanilla and voluptuous black fruits fought with still elevated but exciting and spicy tannins. The finish was bigger than the Cos and I noted a touch of crème brule at the end. We felt the wine could develop further over 5 years but merited all of its 96 RP points.

For the last wine we move northwards from St Julian, to the neighboring appellation of Pauillac and Chateau Pichon Longueville 1990 . This chateau has had a fair amount of favourable press coverage in recent years, and it was my first experience of the chateau. In the glass the wine glowered dense purple with only the very edges yielding any pinkish hues. I began to suspect what awaited before lifting the glass to my nose. Once there my nostrils were filled with classic Pauillac aromas of saddle leather, coffee and mocha, with earth and rocks. The wine was the antithesis of the Poyferre. Where the Poyferre had shown perfume and femininity the Pichon was dark, muscular and oh so masculine. The palate was full of dark roasted coffee, mocha and black fruits. The finish was huge and long, and coated my mouth for 45 secs plus. Drinking beautifully now, we thought the wine would last another decade at the very least.

Try as we could we simply couldn’t separate the Poyferre and the Pichon. Andrew plumped for the Pichon, Robbie for the Poyferre. I simply couldn’t make up my mind – swinging back and forth with each sip. The sun had all but set by the time we picked up our almost empty decanters and headed back inside. But we were delighted with our trip back in time to a truly great Bordeaux vintage.

Brits buying French Vineyards

Tue, 13 May 2008 15:10:35 +0100

The number of British-owned French vineyards “must now be well into four figures,” says Jancis Robinson MW. And given the lack of involvement of Alistair Darling in the country’s taxation matters, she says “it is hardly surprising then that a substantial proportion of the hundreds of thousands of them who own French property has been tempted by the apparently bucolic life of a vigneron”.

Jancis Robinson versus Robert Parker â�� a Slurp Taste Off!

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:00:00 +0100

Review note by Slurp fan Dr Jeremy Howard

The lack of consistency between wine critics can be both baffling and infuriating, and nowhere more so than with the leading US and UK critics Robert Parker and Jancis Robinson. Given that much of the difference in how these critics score wine is down to their own personal palates, we thought that the only way to settle the argument of who was more reliable was to arrange a tasting of a few wines they gave very different scores to. We chose four French candidates for the exercise:

RP Score JR Score
Chateau Veyry 2002 Cotes de Castillon 88-89 14/20

Chateau Pontet Canet 2001 Pauillac - Bordeaux 89 18/20

Chateau Pontet Canet 2003 Pauillac - Bordeaux 95 17/20

Chateau Gazin 2001 Pomerol - Bordeaux 94 16/20

Chateau Veyrey 2002 – Cotes de Castillon (RP: 88-89 , JR 14/20 ) Chateau Veyry 2002 is a 100% Merlot wine that displayed a new world accessibility young in its life. Lots of juicy black fruits on the nose were supported by a full bodied, licorice infused palate that we felt made the wine approachable and a good food partner now. JR’s 14/20 points suggested a wine barely drinkable. But whilst we felt that the wine had somewhat limited interest and aging potential, the general agreement was that a score in the high 80s was probably a fairer reflection on the wine-maker’s success in making a well balanced and pleasant wine in a generally difficult vintage. Round one to the American.

Chateau Pontet Canet 2001 – Pauillac - Bordeaux (RP: 89 , JR: 18/20) The first Pontet Canet of the evening was the only wine JR scored more highly than RP. In the glass the wine was elegant, balanced and refined. We noted vanilla but not a whole lot else. Whilst the finish was long (30 secs plus) we wondered about the lack of complexity and about its potential to evolve further. There was heated debate around the table about the ‘correct’ score for this wine. But the consensus was that while the purity of style was laudable, there simply wasn’t enough going on in the glass to merit JR’s elevated 18/20 rating. We were also critical, however, of RP’s lowly 89 rating – feeling that perhaps something in between would have been fairer. No score draw.

Chateau Pontet Canet 2003 – Pauillac - Bordeaux (RP: 95, JR: 17) Two years on and the wonderful Pauillac terrior of Pontet Canet (Mouton Rothschild is just the other side of the little lane that leads up to the chateau) produced another beautiful wine: Pontet Canet 2003. For the 2003 the scores were virtually reversed, with RP offering a whopping 95 points and JR a more modest 17/20. So what did we think? Personally, I was in no doubt that the 2003 was the superior year. The wine appeared denser and deeper purple in the glass, and offered a lot more red and black fruit to the nose. It was generally more concentrated and certainly had more pronounced cedar and vanilla (read ‘oak’) characteristics. But the bottom line was that the wine just seemed interesting. Whereas one sip was really enough to define the 2001, with the 2003 I found my hand drawn again and again to the glass to see how the wine would present itself this time. So whereas with the 2001 we were prepared to say that both our critics had it wrong, with the 2003 all but one (Roger) felt that the 2003 was the superior wine. Chalk another one up for Mr Parker!

Chateau Gazin 2001 Pomerol - Bordeaux (RP: 94, JR: 16) Our last wine was the Gazin 2001. Again, this was a wine rated much more highly (on their relative scales) by Parker than Robinson. The wine diffused strong perfume even from the decanter and in the mouth it was wonderfully full-bodied with an almost Graves-like palate of scorched earth and roasted black coffee. We felt the full impact of the 13.5% of alcohol on the wine, but noted that the acidity was doing its job of ensuring that the fruit did not show as jammy or stewed. Overall, we felt this was a delightful wine with a great future ahead of it. 16/20 seemed very unflattering and once again the general consensus was that Mr Parker was probably closer to the mark. But it should be noted that Mr Parker's associate at the Wine Advocate Neil Martin scored this wine a dismal 86+ recently!

So what did we conclude?

Well this was obviously nothing close to a scientific or controlled experiment - just a bit of fun with some friends, and so the results should be ‘judged’ accordingly. It did indeed seem that a large part of the discrepancy was down to the personal palates of the critics. Mr Parker did, true to reputation, seem to favour the larger and fuller bodied offerings, with Jancis Robinson marking up the purity and finesse of the Pontet Canet 2001 but marking down the unmistakably fuller and sweeter 2003. But I was certainly not alone in awarding the prize overall to Robert Parker for consistency and coherence.

But this was only a tiny sample, and we all agree to organize a re-match with a wider selection of wines at an early opportunity.

Slurp.co.uk Secures Second Round Funding from Aspiration Capital

Tue, 8 Apr 2008 17:00:00 +0100

Slurp.co.uk has announced the closing of its second round of financing. An undisclosed sum has been raised from venture capital fund Aspiration Capital alongside business angels and existing management.

The funds will be used for a major marketing campaign in 2008 and for the further development of the www.slurp.co.uk website. Slurp is also negotiating with a number of smaller producers about importing and marketing their wines into the UK.

Slurp Managing Director Paul Mitchell said:

"There is no question that people are increasingly looking for an alternative to mass produced, supermarket-style wines. And people love the convenience of shopping for their wine on the internet. This is why Slurp was founded.

The closure of our second round gives Slurp the opportunity to promote our message more effectively and to invest more in developing our range and innovative new services.

We also believe that a lot more can be done with the internet to help people choose the right wine for the right occasion. This investment will help us complete our suite of internet tools to do just this.”

Aspiration Capital

Aspiration Capital is a private early stage venture fund primarily focused on the technology and internet markets. Aspiration Capital has invested in several promising media and technology firms in addition to Slurp. Aspiration Capital was founded by Dr. Jeremy Howard, formerly Head of Convertibles Trading with Deutsche Bank in New York City. More information at www.aspirationcapital.com

Buying Bordeaux to Drink Not Keep

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:00:00 +0000

France is one of the oldest wine producing regions in Europe and is the world's largest producer by value. Despite some small exports from Bordeaux, until about 1850 most wine in France was consumed locally. People in Paris drank wine from the local vineyards, people in Bordeaux drank Bordeaux, those in Burgundy drank Burgundy, and so on throughout the country.

Then, in 1855 at the request of Emperor Napoleon III in preparation for the Great International Exposition in Paris, a regional appellation system was developed for the Médoc. At the request of the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce, the Union of Brokers attached to the Bordeaux market identified the Grands crus classés (Classified Great Growths) and organized them into five categories:

four Premiers Crus (First Growths)
15 Deuxiemes Crus (Second Growths)
14 Troisiemes Crus (Third Growths),
10 Quatriemes Crus (Fourth Growths)
17 Cinquiemes Crus (Fifth Growths).

The rankings were based entirely on recent prices. Within two years of the classification system being published, wine sales by the classified producers increased by 250 percent.

Those who have been fortunate enough to have tasted any of the wines can attest to the fact that often they are outstanding and clearly a class above the rest but usually so rare or expensive that only the lucky few can experience them. They are traded, auctioned, cellared with care and rarely drunk! They still command ridiculous prices for outstanding vintages. So what of other properties that didn't make the cut in 1855? Well there were obviously a lot of disgruntled property owners who felt it unfair that their neighbours where given this new status while they, as far as they could see, had vineyards on virtually the same 'terroir' and were capable of making excellent wine. Many years passed before anything further was done but in 1932 the Cru Bourgeois classification was established, naming 444 estates in its rankings. Amendments in 2003 saw this reduced to 247*.

These wines offer consistently good quality and offer much better value for money and we tend to stock those that are ready to drink now rather than needing to be kept before they can be drunk, although most can be kept for a while too.

Wine Prices Set to Rise

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:00:00 +0000

The Chancellor will make his Budget speech to the House of Commons on 12th March 2008 at 12:30pm and if the rumours are to be believed, Mr Darling is probably going to add between 10-20p per bottle on wine. This is a huge hike and will mean that duty could rise to as much as £1.57 per bottle. Whilst this will make less of a difference on a £10 bottle, it will kill the sub £5 market. So if you are to take the advice of top wine writers like Tim Atkin of the Observer, now is the time to stock up on lower priced wines. And where better to do that than Slurp.co.uk? PLUS you can use some of the Cork Points you've earned!