Lynch Bages, Michel Lynch (and the French Rugby Team) comes to town!

Viva la France! One that got away.....again.... Last Friday Jean Charles Cazes treated us to a wonderful tasting via his agents in Ireland, Barry Fitzwilliam. The wines we tasted are listed below. I have to admit he was a genial host who spoke very well given that, at the time, he had no idea France were about to beat us at Lansdowne Road again! For those of you who only know rugby and have no idea of whom, or what, I'm talking about here's a snapshot review of the Cazes family.

1939 Jean Charles Cazes purchases the 5th growth Lynch Bages property in Pauillac, Medoc, Bordeaux. (The Lynch bit did indeed come from Co Galway) The Cazes family already owned the wonderful les Ormes de Pez in St Estephe. Lynch Bages developed and became a byword for quality and energetic development as it passed from father to son and on to brother and sister Sylvie and Jean Charles today. Their father, Jean Michel Cazes had ensured the family name would never be forgotten by his hugely successful management of an incredable array of wine properties on behalf of the AXA insurance giants. (Pichon Baron, Suduiraut, Quinta do Noval and so on). Not too long ago Jean Michel purchased an old favourite of mine, Domaine des Senechaux in Chateauneuf du Pape and more recently has spent a fair amount of his seemingly limitless energy revitalising the village of Batges from which Lynch Bages draws half of its name. Busy family.



Rather surprised looking firstpress with Jean Charles Cazes in Dublin last week. (I'm the good looking fella!).

 Jean Charles began by introducing their branded Bordeaux, Michel Lynch. I've never been a great fan of this wine and up to last week I would have put anything from Thomas Barton and everything from Dourthe before it! Last week I was pleased with the wines. Both showed well and both gave us what Jean Charles believes all of his wine should deliver, 'pleasure, accessable wine and good fruit content'. He accepts that Bordeaux cannot, and never will, produce 'fruit bombs' that seem to appeal to the modern palate but that should not prevent Bordeaux from producing well styled wines with "great balance and refreshing acidity". Don't you just love the way the French can say 'fruit bombs' like noone else can?!

This was a great tasting hosted by a young man who has the ability and the tools to shape fine wine from Bordeaux, and beyond, for a long time to come. It is a journey worth following.

White

Michel Lynch 2009 rrp€12.49

Fine clean and simple: good crispness and length. Has toned down semillon influence. Wine bars will love it.

Chateau Villa Bel Air 2007 rrp€17.99

Very round style showing Semillon to the fore with Sauvignon behind. That said it shows as a crisp and fresh style of wine. Lots of zingy grassiness matched well to a rich and lengthy creamed finsih. Will age well in the short to medium term.

Blanc de Lynch Bages 2008 rrp€38.00

Excellent wine with a deft and yet very delicate touch. Deep and ponderous bouquet where herbs and light lanolin beckon. Palate has distinct herbal twist to the fore yet maintains a delicacy and gentle roundness throughout. This wine caresses. One to age well.  

Red

Michel Lynch 2008 rrp€14.99

Berry and mocha nose. I was surprised as this wine looks good and has a deep seated bouquet. (and that's not how I remember my previous Michel L's). Little bit crude on the finish but there is nothing at all wrong here. Well done meats will love this.

Chateau Villa Bel Air 2007 rrp€17.99

Wood and spice upfront. Good depth to a fine youthful colour. Soft and flavoursome wine where the fruit is well balanced to a firm tannic structure. Like the value here.

l'Ostal Cazes Minervois 2004 rrp€19.99

Here's a cracker. Immense depth of fruit. (I just don't like the powerful Mourvedre/old Grenache wet dog thing....but that's just me!) Very definite and powerful statement being made here. Minervois sitting at the high table!

Chateau les Ormes de Pez 2000 rrp€59.00

Love this wine. Austerity within a lattice of rambling ripe forest fruits. Ageing well (too quickly?) and delivers tremendous softness and depth before an immense structure kicks in. Do make sure the meat has been well hung!

Echo de Lynch Bages 2008 rrp€35.00

Second label of Lynch Bages sports this modern, clever and trendy name. What better to have as a second label than an echo of the first? Jean Charles told a good story of how they came up with the name. His father was having none of it until he was 'reminded' that in their brain storming session he had been the one to bring the idea of using 'Echo' in the first place!!
Loved this for its expressive delicacy and strength. Youthful great depth of ruby. Finely perfumed up to a point and then lessens. Really finely structured palate with a shy fruit. This has youth, restrained strenght and structure written all over it. Come back in three years. 

Chateau Lynch Bages 2001 rrp€90.00

Now here's a wine ageing well. Tobacco, tea, wood shavings and all of that are ageing and jumping up brilliantly. Palate very smooth and generous. This is such a polite wine that its a real shame someone referred to Lynch Bages recently as a Celtic Tiger wine! Nothing aggressive or rude about it at all ...  Jean Charles reckons these wines won't begin to show at their best until they reach ten years of age. Have to admit, this really is showing at its best. (His father, we were told, doesn't like talk like this as it might slow sales down for the younger wines!)  

Chateau Lynch Bages 2008 rrp€76.00

Very young. Lots of deep young and inky fruit with a lot of spikey and stalky elements poking through, some peper, small spice. Big structure showing fine acidity and rich closed tannins. Keep and taste again in 5 years. 

Xisto Douro 2004rrp€37.99   

Nothing extra different to report here other than it fits in well with the current crop of well made wines out of the Douro. Xisto and the rock Schist idea behind the label is too complicated for little old me! Hadn't realised that Mum Cazes is Portuguese. Now I do. 

200th Blog and What to Talk About?

200th blog. Should it be a rant. I like ranting. Should it be angry. I like the angry young man thing. Should it be happy, pleasant, funny, interesting, teachy, tetchy, forgettable, short, colourful, all of the above, none at all?

Thing about my blog is that it's supposed to be an adventure in the world of wine where opinions, ideas, facts and thoughts that don't fit elsewhere can be aired. There is no other agenda. That's why I named it Free Running by firstpress ....or did I do that because it sounded smart at the time?!

Honest, unfettered opinion is lacking in most wine writing. The print media will say that they need (now more than ever) full page adverts from the multiple grocers. These adverts are threatened, we are told, if the grocers' wines are criticised. So we read positive comment all of the time. With regards to books etc, well, John Hinde postcards come to mind as I heave the latest opus onto my desk! Magazines? While they are often preoccupied with tasting scores and notes they are the best of a poor lot. Shame we have no wine magazine of our own. It still seems wrong to me that we take advice from overseas with relative ease. Shouldn't we ask a few questions first as to whether we might be a different audience.

So, everything is rosy in the wine trade. It's all great craic and the only bad guys are the fellas who levy taxation on the good times. I wonder. Do we need  more Free Run Opinion? Where should it come from?

Wine blogs have grabbed the mantle of wine opinion as a raison d'etre. No harm in that so long as the danger of unedited, ill-informed and biased opinion can be recognised. This is a real problem. When a wine company, or a marketing company working on behalf of a region or a brand, is pushing a product no-one should be foolish enough to actually believe the story?! It's a sales push. Individuals will be fooled but in general there's no real harm. Sales sites tend not to tell lies but rely instead on flowery prose extolling impossible virtues.

It would be good if we could somehow work out a bloggers knowledge and or experience. I have no probs whatsoever with an opinion being blogged on a wine or the wine trade from someone who knows nothing whatsoever about either. I think its great. I have a big problem with those same people then being quoted as being expert. Ah, the bane of my life. The ignorant expert. Go to politics where you will be treated most royally. But this is not necessarily dangerous. Its just a feature of the blog world.

Dangerous blogs are those that don't come clean and say who paid for the trip; who paid for the wine; who is paying for the column; who the blogger is actually working for! What if the motoring correspondent of a national daily was actually working for the Ford Motor Company? Could we believe anything said about Ford or indeed any other brand of car for that matter? The same standards must apply to wine correspondents and I have to say, the bigger their readership the stronger and more stringent the regulations should be. Have a look at Jancis Robinson's excellent code of ethics.

As for putting a bottle of wine in front of a camera and then working your way through a turgid tasting process. I just won't go there. Give me the sabrage guys any day or even SourGrapes opening the bottle with his shoe! (Personally I prefer the telephone book .... ) or someone trying to teach and not to preach. There is a difference.

firtspress receives advice on the noble art of sabrage from GlennThomson at Domaine Chandon in the McLaren Vale. Trip courtesy of Wines of Australia 2010

Well, that's it. Noone else would have published this. Very few will find it all that useful. But I have said it. It's gone now and I can move along guided by my previous thirty years in the wine trade through which I have worked in all aspects of the trade except production itself; a trade where I meet enthusiasm, honesty and trust on a daily basis; a trade where a primary wealth generating agricultural product has been built into an art form, a global commodity and an investment vehicle; a trade where people do matter; a trade where information is no longer hidden and sparsed back sanctimoniously; a trade that cannot deny the value of life long education.

Ah, It was good to get that last one in!

Wine Brand Accessories - necessary or just another sales pitch?

Last week I was genuinely pleased to see Brancott, formerly known as Montana, Estate announcing that it had commissioned a range of jewellery to accompany the brand. I like it when leaders lead. I like it when brands from faraway places make an effort to engage with their audience. I like it when a brand recognises that it has elasticity and begins to explore its own latent excitement.  The quirkier the better. OK, jewellery doesn't exactly come into the range of quirkiness (we're not talking nipple piercing here!!) but at least it's not another line of branded corkscrews or glassware. Take a bow Brancott.

Check out a cool competition here to win - oh, sorry. It's only open to UK residents! Hate that, don't you?

   

Last month New Zealand impressed me no end with their annual trade tasting. A real highlight was the impressive quality of all the wines on show. It's not just a Sauv Blanc gorge any longer. They seem to be getting to grips with Syrah quite nicely, improving their Pinot Grigio offerings very well and beginning to bring out a lot more Pinot that we can actually afford to drink. It's a good news story all round. Why am I mentioning it here? Well, New Zealand Wine is attempting to achieve 100% sustainability by the year 2012. Loosely defined as about, 'meeting the needs of today without adversely impacting on the needs of tomorrow' it is an amazing goal. But what was I impressed by. The pen! 

The branded pens that were given out on the day had outers made entirely from recycled paper. A very simple and quite brilliant thing to do for someone pushing the ideals of sustainability.

Take a bow New Zealand. New Zealand Wine. Pure Discovery



The Pen - poor photo my fault!



I don't think these are sales pitches. No-one is pushing me to buy anything. It's just good business sense coming to the fore. We need more of this in the wine trade. I can't rememeber the last time anyone came up with a good Value Added Promotion. It's all a downward slide of Price Promotion only. Does this mean that marketing has no ideas. Does this mean Morketing will be discontinued in favour of wine electioneering and hard sell only? Hope not. Come on guys New Zealand is a very long way away. Get in before they steal your thunder. They already did with the Screwcap Initiative of 2001. Ten years old and up to 3 billion in use at any one time around the world now from 100 million ten years ago. Well done New Zealand.

The Death of the Cork’ – original NZSCWSI members (from left to right) Dr John Forrest, John Stichbury, John Belsham and the late Ross Lawson conduct a funeral for the cork in 2001.

Time to go. This wasn't meant to be all New Zealand at all. Just shows you how they're getting in first!!