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Wine Thoughts 2007
Thoughts from 2007....
A Christmas Message
With Christmas fast approaching I thought it would be appropriate to outline plans for The Winedoctor over the next couple of weeks. I will hopefully continue to update the site as usual during the festive season, but will, as you no doubt expect, be taking a break from such updates on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Otherwise I will be here as always, writing about whichever wines have excited me or disappointed me, but obviously with a celebratory theme in view of the time of year. I feel next week's Wine of the Week may well be a vintage Port, to get us in the mood for Christmas, and perhaps the week after that some vintage fizz in anticipation of Hogmanay (that's New Year to those who aren't attempting Scottishification, as I am).
During the next week or two I will be adding my 2007 Review, a look back at the good wines, bad wines, bargains, disappointments and more from the year just past. I may even reflect, blowing my own trumpet for a change, on the massive updates I have made to the site over the last twelve months. Surely this has been my busiest year ever? It certainly feels that this is the case. At the start of the year I promised myself I would turn the site into a strong resource for Bordeaux and I feel I have done so (and continue to do so); I even have some evidence to back up that thought, in the shape of informed feedback! I suppose now I have declared that, I will have to include such evidence in my review...
Despite this push on content I have also felt for a little while that this glaring mix of greens, a mainstay of Winedoctor design since 2004, is beginning to look somewhat cold and flat. And so sometime over the next week or two (maybe January 1st, who knows?!) expect a moderate facelift for The Winedoctor. There will be no change in layout, as I think what I currently have works quite well, and change for the sake of it can be confusing, as anyone who has upgraded to Windows Vista or Office 2007 will know. But other things will change. And in the meantime, I will continue to reorganise my tasting notes pages, so that they favour vintage rather than date of tasting, hopefully making it easier to find any particular tasting note. This, however, will be a long and ongoing project which will carry on well into 2008. I hope to see you all then.
Best wishes for a peaceful and merry Christmas!
- your host, Chris Kissack. (21/12/07)
More Days Away...Next Update October 22nd
I haven't really written anything of merit on this page for months, but I suppose in that respect it is similar to many wine blogs that can be found on the internet, so perhaps I shouldn't be too worried. Instead it seems to have become a notice-board to warn of forthcoming breaks, of which I have two coming up. Having just returned from the Czech Republic I am off yet again, this time for a whole week, as I am taking a break in the Scottish countryside to explore my new country of residence a little, as well as attending cookery school for a day, courtesy of TV chef Nick Nairn. That should be interesting!
When I return, the end of my Bordeaux push, perhaps before the end of the year, perhaps in early 2008, as I have lots of St Emilion and one or two Pomerol profiles lined up. Also coming soon, lots of notes from a recent Bordeaux CIVB tasting I attended in Edinburgh. Hopefully, especially with more Bordeaux tastings and another trip to the region next year, this should start to cement The Winedoctor's position as a valuable Bordeaux resource. I hope to keep it this way indefinitely, but perhaps relax and broaden my outlook a little more next year. We shall see. (12/10/07)
A Quick Note
The very frequent addition of new and revitalised Bordeaux profiles this year has left this part of the site rather sparsely updated. I'm not too worried though; the site is hopefully better as a result, with more genuine and contemporary wine information then ever before. I suppose I could have written something else here, but I wouldn't like to clog up this stream of infrequent and sporadic (as they were) thoughts with lots of non-wine related drivel just for the sake of adding something.
It has, however, been quite hard work, and I am now going to have a break. Three weeks off for me, drinking rather than tasting, no internet and no site updates. I leave you with a site that has seen a huge expansion over the last six months, the most recent addition being these notes of nine vintages of Beaucastel, spanning the decade from 1994 through to 2003 (with 2002 being the obvious absentee). When I return, probably some Loire updates, lots more on Sauternes and Graves, a little on the right bank too, possibly a new Bordeaux guide and who knows what else? À la prochaine fois! (30/6/07)
Days Away
Just a quick note to say that I won't be updating the site for the next couple of days, as I am off for a mini-adventure in Rioja today, hopefully returning in time to add an update for Friday. It looks like being a good trip! À la prochaine! (5/6/07)
March Update
Well, it is March and already I am reflecting on how quickly the year seems to be zipping by. There is plenty of vinous activity at Winedoctor towers, with a tasting trip (and no doubt some relaxation) planned for the Loire this summer, followed by a (tentative, at the moment) trip to Burgundy. And in the next couple of months, I'm looking forward to tasting the latest releases from Champagne, and also my first look at the 2006 vintage in Bordeaux. Speaking of Bordeaux, perhaps an update on my Bordeaux profiles might be in order?
When I committed myself to a massive expansion of my Bordeaux information (in the post below, as it happens) I knew it would be a monumental task, especially as I wanted to keep adding other information and new tasting notes, such as my recent tasting of Ridge (including four vintages of Monte Bello), Warre's, top Chinons from Joguet and more. As well as some of the other wine-related bits and pieces that add to the site, such as pertinent book and restaurant reviews. In order to keep the info flowing, I have been making a few weekend additions (such as this one) as well as my usual weekday ones. In themselves, meanwhile, the Bordeaux updates are progressing well; St Julien is now thoroughly covered, St Estèphe has improved somewhat, and I am currently attacking Pauillac. I hope that the quality of information is sufficient for those reading, but I am always happy for feedback from anyone with an opinion.
Sticking with Bordeaux, my recent perusal of some French newspapers alerted me to something of a crisis for fans of Bordeaux classifications (do such people exist?). The past few years have seen the announcement of two major new classifications, the 2006 St Emilion and the 2003 Cru Bourgeois. Both new systems, however, seem to have collapsed. A challenge to the Cru Bourgeois system was successful, and thus the 2003 list is now null and void. More recently, the same occurred in St Emilion, an important point of the case being that some proprietors seemed to be both jury and the judged, as some of the tasting committee were assessing their own wines for inclusion. If the French have their own Private Eye (I would love to be informed if they do) this would be perfect fodder. As a result, the 1932 and 1996 systems still stand. That's if you really care, that is.....let's face it, it is what is in the bottle that counts. Nevertheless, I will update my classification pages ASAP.
Lastly, I was very sorry to hear of the death of Roger Leech, of www.finewinelist.net, who died in January this year. Roger had been a staunch supporter of The Winedoctor for many years, and was one of my most long-standing sponsors. He had a wonderful brain for business, a courteous and professional manner, and undoubtedly a remarkable enthusiasm for wine. I will miss my occasional exchanges with him greatly, and those who have had the good fortune to have dealt with him over the years will no doubt miss him too. (17/3/07)
The Year of Bordeaux?
As I write I am also wondering what last-minute items I should thrust into my bag, before I head off for France once again. This time, however, it is not Bordeaux, but Paris. A weekend of relaxation, culture, fine food (some good restaurants are booked, including Le Table de Joel Robuchon, recently elevated to two Michelin stars) and hopefully some good wine.
Over the last couple of weeks I have been hammering away at The Winedoctor, and plan to significantly increase the coverage of Bordeaux on the site, hopefully to something approaching what can be regarded as comprehensive. Pomerol might be difficult - I have so little experience here - but otherwise I think I know enough to profile all but a few Médoc, St Emilion, Graves and Sauternes châteaux. My recent visit to Bordeaux convinced me this is the way forward for the Winedoctor, especially as the amount of high quality, freely information available on the internet, with regard to Bordeaux as well as many other regions, seems to be on the way down rather than up. Perhaps I am just a glass-half-empty person, but that's the way it seems to me.
To facilitate these developments I have recently adjusted the left-hand menu on all my Bordeaux pages (save one or two, for technical reasons...they will change next week) to provide links to my new profiles, and these are changes that will be rolled out across the site as a whole. I have started with Mouton-Rothschild, but new profiles coming up in the next few weeks include a revitalised Latour, Lafite, Margaux and Phélan-Ségur (four first growths and a Cru Bourgeois estate seems like a strange combination - perhaps I should have done Haut-Brion next!), as well as new pages on Dauzac, La Tour Blanche, Figeac, Pichon-Lalande, Montrose, Lascombes, Brown and many, many others. Those that prefer to drink outside Bordeaux will continue to have some entertainment, with new info and tasting notes on Domaines Schlumberger, Cloudy Bay and another carefully selected bunch from the Loire, and that's just for starters.
It should be a great year for The Winedoctor! (5/1/07)
