A few days with Bordeaux’s Premiership of top investment wines reveals what an amazing world I have entered with Vin-X and I cannot wait to go back for more.
It was made very clear on joining the Vin-X team that we were going be rolling our sleeves up and getting stuck into the world of fine wine in a serious way! As my fine wine team-mate James Shakeshaft explained, "no point wasting any time!". My first ‘educational trip’ had to be to where it all began, Bordeaux!
When on wine tour…
The itinerary was outstanding - five Bordeaux Legends in two days. Right Bank first, with Chateau Cheval Blanc and Chateau Pavie on day one. A mind-blowing second day was scheduled with three Left Bank First Growths, Chateau Haut Brion, Chateau Mouton Rothschild and Chateau Lafite Rothschild.
On our first evening, we were hosted for dinner by Chateau Pavie’s CEO, Olivier Gailly and Didier Adam, who were kind enough to pour a perfect Chateau Pavie 2005. Absolutely superb and great with the food served at Brasserie d’Orleans. Not a bad way to start my Bordeaux education, I thought!
Chateau Cheval Blanc
We travelled to St Emilion in sunshine the following morning where we started the day at Chateau Cheval Blanc. One of the original two Grand Cru Classe A estates, Cheval Blanc has an impeccable reputation and has produced some of the most iconic wines in the world. The famous 1947 vintage is said to be one of the greatest ever wines - not on the tasting agenda for us though!
We were welcomed by Commercial Director, Arnaud de Laforcade, who showed us around the vineyard, spectacular vat room and barrel cellar. He then hosted a tasting of Chateau Cheval Blanc 2011 and 2016. Simply sublime!
James was really interested in discovering Cheval Blanc’s view of the 2022 vintage given the extreme weather conditions. Pierre-Olivier stated that global warming is a good thing for the wine right now, but there are real problems for the future. The harvest was early, but the first indicators look fantastic and 2022 could possibly be compared to the really strong modern vintages 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
You can now see what James and I learned at Cheval Blanc in this video.
St Emilion
Prior to heading to Chateau Pavie, we explored St Emilion old town, a UNESCO World Heritage site, which is truly lovely. It’s all about wine – the magnificent limestone village has around twenty wine shops, where necessary souvenirs were acquired to keep our ‘left-behind’ family sweet!
We arrived for lunch, with a bottle of Cheval Blanc 2011 kindly provided by Arnaud, at L’Envers du Décor. Owned by Chateau Pavie owners, Vignobles Perse, there was a minor debate about our corkage request, but gracefully they made sure we enjoyed a delicious lunch with our gift wine!
Chateau Pavie
Chateau Pavie feels much larger than Cheval Blanc, with its vines covering the hillside, rising onto the famous Pavie plateau with views to St Emilion town. We were welcomed by Henrique Da Costa, son-in-law of owner, Gerard Perse. We learned more about the Pavie vines, some of which were planted when the Perse family first acquired the Chateau, to the youngest which are just five years old.
We were driven around the Pavie estate to view the undergound quarry which produced the limestone walls of the estate and the sub-terranean reservoir which provides essential natural hydration to the Pavie vines through their route systems in dry periods. No irrigation is allowed so this is a unique natural resource for these vines.
The Pavie beehives are home to the Pavie bees which make extra special honey of course, all part of the Chateau's bio-diversity program.
The team were in the process of bottling the 2020 vintage and it was great to see the labelling process in action. We were shown the impressive vat room and cellar and special archive area of rare old vintage wines.
Henrique and Didier then provided the extremely special Chateau Pavie 2012 to taste – the vintage when the Chateau first received its St Emilion Grand Cru Classe A classification. The bottle has a special black and gold label to commemorate this great achievement. We also got to taste the prime Chateau Pavie 2016 - awesome.
We left Pavie sated and drove back to Bordeaux where there was more wine to be consumed! Dinner prepared by a private Chef accompanied with Chateau Palmer 2008 followed by a delicious Doisy-Vedrines Sauternes. It was a perfect accompaniment to learning more about Bordeaux’s negociant system.
Chateau Haut Brion
I knew day two was going to be a big day and it started with Chateau Haut Brion, the only 1855 ranked First Growth outside of the Medoc, in Pessac Leognan. The Chateau is currently undergoing renovation, so the team hosted us at sister property, Chateau La Mission Haut Brion, which is often referred to as ‘the sixth First Growth’. It’s beautiful with a great heritage dating back to 1540 and strong links to the Church. It was a privilege to be shown the stunning chapel on site, La Chapelle de Notre Dame d’Aubrion, which was built in 1698.
In contrast, the vat room and highly modern, impressive cellar created by the current owners, Domaine Clarence Dillon, shows the ongoing significant investment in La Mission Haut Brion and Chateau Haut Brion.
The first tasting of the day kick-started with Chateau Haut Brion 2017 and Chateau La Mission Haut Brion 2017 – amazing! So much so, James acquired a 2006 La Chapelle Haut Brion to be enjoyed later.
We then headed up to Pauillac for our second First Growth of the day, grabbing a quick ‘bread and cheese’ picnic by the Garonne River enroute, whilst we debriefed a great morning.
Chateau Mouton Rothschild
Owned by Domaine Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Chateau Mouton Rothschild also has an amazing history but where it has perhaps been unique and a market leader is its association with art. Baron Philippe first introduced the tradition of commissioning a contemporary artist to create a vintage label. The first was produced in 1945 and then every year since then has featured great artists including Picasso, Hockney and even our King Charles (then Prince). We even saw a letter from Queen Elizabeth II permitting the Chateau to use the Royal insignia on a label.
Each artist produces five pieces, and the family then chooses the artwork they want from these for the label. Mouton’s gallery exhibits all the label art created over nearly eighty years to date. We did ask, but our host wasn’t permitted to disclose the artist for the pending 2020 label!
Baron Philippe and his daughter Baroness Philippine, who succeeded him, have been great innovators for the fine wine world. We were really privileged to witness the Mouton team racking the 2021 vintage, inspecting a sample of the embryonic wine extracted from barrel and viewed specifically by candlelight We were also shown the bottle archive of every Chateau Mouton Rothschild vintage produced, and these wines have never been recorked.
The tasting was really interesting, with Mouton’s sister estates' wines Chateau Clerc Milon 2015 and Chateau d’Armailhac 2016 providing superb introductions to these great vineyards. We then sampled Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2014, which is still showing too young to really savour just yet. James and our host’s view is it still needed another ten years maturing in bottle before approaching its best to drink.
This provided me with a good insight into the investment angle. As wine improve with age, it becomes more attractive to consumers, rarer and prices naturally rise. The ageing potential of great wines is one of the reasons why investors will acquire these wines whilst they are still very young.
Chateau Lafite Rothschild
Our final destination was the great Chateau Lafite Rothschild. This is the one I was really looking forward to as I own a case of the 2009 vintage. We were met by MD, Frederic Mairesse, who escorted us on a tour of the vineyard, explained the vineyard plots and soil types, grape varieties and where they are sorted for blending, which was fascinating.
The vat room was so impressive and the circular underground barrel cellar was like something from a film set – just huge and stacked with precious barrels holding the 2021 vintage!! 2020 bottles will be shipped soon.
Lafite’s library of very rare old vintages has no lights and cameras are not allowed. It’s such a delicate environment and is managed so there are no vibrations. The bottles are recorked periodically.
We tasted a twenty-year old Chateau Lafite Rothschild 2002, which is probably the greatest wine I have ever tasted and apparently currently retails at around £630 a bottle. Suffice it to say, there was no using the spittoon! And that goes for all the tastings during my first educational tour of Bordeaux!
Across the five vineyards I was amazed at how different each property was. Considering they are all doing the same thing the architecture, particularly of the vat rooms and cellars, are all so different and unique.
Tour conclusion
Following Lafite, James and I headed back into Bordeaux for a relaxed debrief over a Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill 2009 Champagne. We toasted probably the most indulgent induction any new recruit can hope to enjoy!
I've now witnessed first-hand the history, heritage, dedication, skill and investment that goes into making the finest wines in the world. Thankfully there's more to explore and I can't wait to get back into the vineyards in the coming months. There's video footage from the great Bordeaux estates coming soon.
Follow my journey in fine wine on my Chris Robshaw and Vin-X accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.