We dropped off our luggage and headed out to grab lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant in Bordeaux. As we started to walk, we noticed a restaurant with the name "Le Bistro du Sommelier” which we could not resist.

The exterior is quite out dated and we had some doubts. Kelly was in charge of reconnaissance but he immediately got into the restaurant without a moment's hesitation. The place was completely packed with local businessmen. The interior is slightly outdated modern with a nice warm feeling. We sat down and absolutely no tourists were in sight and naturally the menu was only in French. I ordered a pig feet terrine dish that tasted awfully like jambon persille. I have never been impressed by sole meuniere and always wondered why this dish was so loved. I finally had my eureka moment. The whole fish that was lightly breaded and sautéed was perfectly cooked, the meat was sweet and firm, and the skin was crispy. It was more like a mild version of scallop than a fish. I really loved every bite. At 24 euros for an appetizer plus entrée, including a 5 euro surcharge for the sole, it was a true bargain. Kelly had a shrimp kebab dish that was also exceptional.

The extensive wine list consisted of mostly Bordeauxs and zero Burgundy. I didn’t notice any holy grail of wines but I was really happy that the prices were extremely fair. Our total bill was 86 euros all in. I highly recommend the restaurant for an exceptional bistro fare and a well priced wine list.

http://www.bistrodusommelier.com/

Kelly, myself, and three Italian friends who are fellow Grand Jury Europeen members planned the dinner. We have been friends for quite awhile now and it is so much fun to share wines as they are just three easy going guys, passionate about wine.

The proprietor, Fabrice Moisan, created one of the best Burgundy-centric wine lists. There were four to five options for each course. The dishes were superb as he used the best ingredients which were perfectly prepared. We started with a couple plates of Bellota. Although this seemed a bit young/too moist, it was so delicious that I could only have eaten this all night. The scallops in the shell appetizer were sweet and succulent, my main course, veal belly stew, was very homely and delicious and the dessert of apple tart was light and tasty. The perfect way to end the evening.

The first two sessions included mostly wines of the lesser appellations. Nevertheless, I was very happy to taste them as we were tasting the 10s. Francois instructed us to guess the right or left bank. I was able to guess 26 out of 35 and 25 out of 35. At least half of the wrong guesses, I second guessed myself. Always stick to your gut instinct.

I was really impressed with the 10s as most of the wines displayed exceptional concentration, freshness, intensity, opulent fruit, bright acidity and sweet tannins. Despite tasting the lesser appellation wines, they were quite enjoyable to taste as the concentration sweet fruits nicely masked the incredible amount of tannins. The tannins are quite sweet in at least three quarters of them. I don’t plan to post all my notes but if you are looking for a great QPR wine that closely resembles a cult cab, you ought to try the 10 Château Faugeres.

As usual in Bordeaux, the food was catered. The duck breast cooked on open fire was delicious. Jean Guyon, the proprietor of Rollan de By and Haut Condissas brought a double magnum of the 00 Rollan de By. It demonstrated that wine can age quite nicely in a large format.

Dinner was held at Chateau Siaurac, a beautiful property located in Lalande de Pomerol. The domaine of Baronne Guichard consist of this, Château Le Prieuré in St Emilion and Château Vray Croix de Gay in Pomerol. As some of you may know, the minority interest, 49%, was sold to Chateau Latour. As you can imagine, the property is going through major renovation. I have become a friend to the proprietor, Paul Goldschmidt. He seems to be quite happy with the arrangement and looking forward to the future. There is a new wine maker, who by the way is quite attractive, who was the second in charge at Chateau Latour and was the wine maker at Chateau Grillet. It seems the future is bright for Paul and Baronne Guichard. Paul opened a few old magnums of the property's wines. Although they slightly lacked concentration, they matched well with the dishes. My good Italian friend, Robert S, brought the three magnums.

As stated above, the tasting was hosted at Chateau La Dauphine, a beautiful property located in Fronsac. I stayed here a few years back and I got lucky to be hosted here once again. From my tastefully updated room, I had a beautiful view of the impeccably tended ground and gently slopped vineyard, and at the end, river Dordogne. The young proprietor, Guillaume Halley who is always soft spoken and wears a constant smile, joined us for a couple sessions and ensured that the tastings were conducted in ideal condition.

The wines in these sessions were even better than the day before. I have rated a lot of wines in the low to middle 90s. The best showed great concentration, freshness and structure. These would represent very good value for money. I feel that Bordeaux really has a bad image in the States which I mostly attribute to the exorbitant prices as well as the very corporation like feeling of the top properties. However most of the wines tasted in the sessions including Grand crus St Emilion, Pomerol, Fronsac and etc. are priced competitively against other wines regions of the similar quality. It was actually a fun to taste almost 80 wines, which is rare.

For the lunches and dinners, the producers offered the wines. This time, I got to drink the 03 La Duaphine again. For me, young La Dauphines are nicely balanced though not terribly impressive. However, with ten years of cellaring, the wines gain nice complexity and work well with most simple meat based dishes.

We have a tradition of hanging out at Chai Pascal, a quaint small pub/restaurant in the center of St. Emilion where Alain Vauthier, the owner of Chateau Ausone, stops by to have a beer every evening. Last night, we were there and as expected, he showed up. Christian Roger greeted him and offered a glass of white wine to sample. He in turn invited us to taste his 13s.

After quick lunch at La Dauphine, we drove to Chateau Ausone. Alain and Pauline greeted us. He gave a quick synopsis of the vintage and we proceeded to taste his 11s.

This was the first 13s that I tasted and I was pleasantly surprised. The yields were very low, often only 50% of average for the grand vins. This may helped as the wines showed very good concentration and balance without any green notes. The Ausone, while not showing incredible concentration and vibrant energy of the 09, it was an excellent age worthy wine.

After the tasting, Alain was quite candid about the difficult situation that some of the chateau owners face. After having three lackluster vintages, the owners are cash strapped. There are at least a few dozen Chateaus for sale at the moment. Although Alain seems to be doing fine, he expressed serious concerns for his neighbors.

After the afternoon session, we were heading to St Emilion once again. Jean Pierre Giraud, the commercial director at the barrel maker Taransaud told us that we can taste at Tertre Roteboeuf. Although some of the guys have visited the property in the past, it is easy to get lost in St Emilion and we drove around for over thirty minutes before we got there. It was my first visit and when we entered the cellar, it was more like a Burgundy cellar than a Bordeaux one. Kelly commented Henri Bonneau cellar of Bordeaux.

François Mitjavile greeted us. He was a soft spoken intellectual, sort of an oddball that you seldom find in Bordeaux. He spent a lot of time explaining the wines, wine making and the vintage.

Moritz left his ipad at Chateau Ausone and Mr. Vauthier offered to bring it to the Chateau. At the end of the tasting, Alain came in and it was a special moment to observe two grand men of Bordeaux having a conversation.

During the 09 EP, I rated the wine 98 pts. I also loved the 10. I bought a lot of the 09s and have drank a few. IMO, the wine is solid warranting 93-95 pts. In blind tastings, I rated the 09 and the 10 in 93-95 pts range in the bottle.

The fifth session was the last session for red. Once again, the wines were impressive. The six session included the 12 dry whites and the 10 sweet Bordeaux wines. I thought they were decent but not up to the level of the reds.

Every year Abi Duhr, the proprietor of Clos du Paradis, brings his wines to drink/taste. His wines once again showed beautifully, so intense, bright and mineral. The 09 La Dauphine was quite enjoyable.

Our original plan was to stay at Chateau La Dauphine for one more night. However, since we were having a dinner in St Emilion, we decide to stay at a hotel. We had no reservations but we were able to stay at Au Logis des Remparts only a block away from the plaza. Although there are a lot of visitors for the EP, most folks are hosted at chateaus and the hotel seemed not too busy. The room was decent and the rate of 89 euro per night was quite attractive.

There was a big dinner to commemorate the completion of construction at Angelus. After a few days of catered/structured dining, we really wanted to relax and shy away from Bordeaux. This led us to my favorite restaurant in St Emilion, L'Envers du Décor. Although tete de cochon was delicious, our mains were not quite up to their excellent standard. Over the last couple of years, the wine prices have gone up a bit, although still relatively reasonable for a restaurant. The real issue was that at least three wines we ordered were sold out, including the 06 DRC Duvault Blochet.

I suggested to the fellows that we should head to Hostellerie de Plaisance, hoping the wine list was decent. As we expected, most of the Bordeauxs were 2.5 times the cost of retail. However, we were happy to see the reasonably priced Burgundy section. Since I really like the wines of Comte Liger Belair and always look for an opportunity to drink, I ordered the 10 Clos du Chateau. This was drinking really well but the others wanted to order the 06 Duvault Blochet, which was sold out at L'Envers du Décor, to compare with the 10 Clos du Chateau. Both wines showed really well. We really enjoyed the wines. When everyone left, Kelly and I sat out and enjoyed some fresh air, and in Kelly's case a nice stogy. It couldn't get any better than this, a beautiful night at the heart of St Emilion.

This year, the tasting was held at Chateau Bellefont-Belcier, a very imposing old looking property very close to Chateau Pavie. The property is owned by Chinese and Christian Roger who was hosted there told us that there were three or four Chinese flags in his room, kinda weird.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the whites. Most of them are quite fresh, clean and pure. These would complement the food quite nicely.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the mid-upper level right bank wines. They showed good concentration, bright acidity and good length without any noticeable green/dry tannins. Although only three were sampled, this appears to be a very challenging year for the left bank properties.

We drove to Chateau Le Gay. The chai was going through a renovation. The tasting was held in front of the chai and it was a bit cold. I ran into Neal who was hard at work. Michel Roland was very convivial as usual. I thought the property made some nice wines in lieu of the vintage. I seem to always rate them in the low to middle 90s when tasted during EP.

IMO, Le Gay is one of the earliest maturing top Pomerols. The 08 and older wines were all quite enjoyable to drink already. I was really surprised by how well the 07 was drinking. Chateau Le Gay is not the most complex and refine Pomerol but it always provide a very solid pleasurable drinking experience. I always find a black truffle note which I really love.

As usual, the Chateau hosted a Sunday EP lunch. The 08 La Violette was incredibly floral and perfumed. Michel Rolland spoke about the difficulties of the vintage and how some of the properties made extreme efforts to make the best wines they could.

The next visit was at Chateau Angelus. The renovation was just completed and the property looked very new. The tower bells, which can play the national anthems of all the nations, looked a bit cartoonish.

We got a last minute appointment. As usual, soft spoken Alexandre Thienpont greeted us. It was a short visit but well worth it as the wine was really good as usual. The yield was extremely low.

When I spoke to him at Villa D’Este, Stephane mentioned about how difficult the vintage was. Once again, the wines showed very good balance but very soft and some were lacking evergy.

Since I didn’t get to taste the 12 Beausejour Duffau, I asked Stephane how the 13 was and he told us to go to Pavie Macquin as it was only five minutes way. We unfortunately took a major detour and it took us almost fifteen minutes. The property is situated close to the top of a hill, a great view of the town of St Emilion and all surround vineyards. When we got there, Nicolas Thienpont was there. We tasted through his portfolio. The wines were nicely balanced but not quite energetic and intense as the 10. They still did show nice balance and finesse. After the visit, he personally took us to the terrace where we enjoyed the panoramic view of St Emilion and the surrounding vineyards. He then kindly took us to the vineyard where he proudly showed us a couple wild tulips. The yellow tulips were really beautiful.

We went back to L’Univerre once again. This time, we were nine or ten. Francois suggested that we each buy a bottle from the list and taste blind. Contrary to what some may believe, I am not a big fan of blind tasting in a dinner setting as I just like to relax. Most of the wines were tasted blind except the CdC, the 62 HB Blanc and the Roty Mazis. Although extremely young, the Roty was so much fun to drink.

Our first appointment of EP Monday had been at Chateau Haut Brion in the past. This year, we started at Pape Clement. As you may know, Mr. Magrez has a wine empire. He has properties all over the world. There were a lot of wines but I only tasted a few from Bordeaux. I thought both red and white Pape Clement were very good.

It is a tradition that we taste the wines with Mr. Delmas at Chateau Mission Haut Brion. This year, the prince joined us once again. We sat with the prince and Mr. Delmas in the beautiful courtyard and talk about various topics including the 62 Haut Brion blanc drank the night before. A while back there was an article written which portrayed the prince as a pompous stuck up. My few dealings with the prince have been very pleasant. He is a classy gentleman who makes you feel quite at ease. He will listen to you carefully and always provide insightful responses.

The tasting was held once again at the second floor of LMHB. I took my usual spot and tasted through the wines. I personally thought the Haut Brion was quite solid definitely in the low to mid 90s. The Blanc displays great precision and purity. I was pleasantly surprised by the Quintus as it is starting to show more finesse like the other wines of the property. The visit is always a treat and this was no exception.

As usual, we started with separate tasting of Merlot, CS and PV. I thought all three showed well, fresh and good concentration.

Dominique Befve kindly hosted lunch for us as usual. He asked us to guess the wine. Since I already looked at the menu and knew the wines, I just played along. Kelly W actually got the both vintages right. That was an excellent job and I was darn impressed! Dominique seemed to think that the US market will improve for Bordeaux and so will the Chinese. I mentioned to him that the US consumer’s interest in Bordeaux has been declining and the younger wine lovers think Bordeaux is a passé.

The recent vintages of Chateau Lascombes are quite controversial due to its modern style. IMO, the oak tend to attenuate with time. It would be interesting to follow how the wines evolve.

Our next vist was at Chateau Margaux. Thibault Pontallier kindly received us. He mentioned how the great terroir and extreme efforts helped overcome this challenging vintage. No Merlot in GV I believe. The wines were incredibly soft but nicely perfumed.

Chateau Leoville Poyferre was renovating the ground. Mr. Didier Cuvelier received us. Once again definitely lacking concentration but good freshness.

Our last dinner in Bordeaux is usually held at Au Bonheur du Palais, a great French Chinese restaurant in the heart of Bordeaux. Christian and Laurent had their flight to Geneva at 9:30 pm but we all saw the need to have one final meal. The restaurant typically opens at 7:30 but Laurent talked to the owner and we managed to start around 7.

Kelly and I were not quite done yet. We wanted to find a place to share one last bottle of wine. The owner at the restaurant told us that a former partner of Fabrice Moisan, the proprietor of L’Univerre opened a small wine bar nearby.

After bidding farewell to Laurent and Christian, we walked to the wine bar. It is a small quaint place and I immediately recognized the owner. The place has only twenty seats. The husband serves and the wife cooks. We ended up staying there for a couple hours. There were three Danish importers and we ended up sharing a number of wines.

We had a quick stop over as usual and shared a bottle of dauvissat. They also have the 08 Raveneau Blanchot on the list for 100 euro.

While dining at Univerre, Laurent Vialette told us about a restaurant in Paris that was having a Chablis promotion and showed us a picture which included the 08 Raveneau Les Clos, Valmur and Blanchots for 120 euros. I still have the fond memory of dining there almost fifteen years ago. The restaurant hasn’t change at all, and now both the interior and exterior seemed a bit out dated. The menu also had not changed, which is a good thing. I ordered fresh oysters, small soles and small fried shrimps, the same dishes I had fifteen years ago. The oysters came without any sauce, and a bit more brine than I am used. They were plum, succulent and juicy. The small soles battered and fried were incredibly flavorful. I ate the whole small fried shrimps. A couple who sat in the next table both ordered the shrimp. They were discarding the heads. Oh well! This was a great way to end another wonderful trip!