Bordeaux 2007 Primeurs: Pessac-Léognan
Although I have experience of tasting the wines of Bordeaux at this stage before, this was the first time I have travelled to Bordeaux in order to attend the primeur tastings arranged by the Union des Grands Crus and hosted by many of the châteaux of the region. The UGC tasting of Pessac-Léognan, at which many of the notes presented below were taken, was the first event of my three days in Bordeaux; I had stumbled off the airplane at Merignac just 40 minutes or so earlier. Hosted by Château Larrivet Haut-Brion, I walked through barrel rooms and vat rooms and then ascended the stairs to reach the tasting room. The staircase is arranged so that the room is behind you as you ascend; as I climbed the steps, and my ears suddenly became aware of the hubbub of busy tasters behind me I immediately knew that, whatever the quality of the wines, I was about to experience something special and very exciting.
Time was short, nevertheless I managed to look at a dozen or so wines before I and my travelling companions had to leave for our next appointment. Fortunately I was able to augment my notes with others taken on visits to Haut-Bailly and La Mission Haut-Brion (where I could also inspect some of the statuary, below), and I was able to take a second look at a couple of wines, including Domaine de Chevalier and Smith-Haut-Lafitte, during the four days of tastings. The opportunity to revisit wines is not an infrequent occurrence, it seems, and it is a valuable aspect of the tastings.
