Bordeaux 2013 Primeurs: St Estèphe
My annual primeurs tasting trip is a mini Bordeaux-marathon, all crammed into one hectic week of tasting. In an effort to maintain independence, and to devise the perfect timetable which allows me to squeeze in as many tastings and visits as possible, I arrange the entire week myself. I don’t just tag along with a group of merchants, as I know some others have done, even though I am sure that is a very convenient way to work. Indeed I don’t engage any outside assistance at all, paying my own airfares, hiring my own car, and doing all my own driving. I am personal assistant, chauffeur, taster and writer all rolled into one. Taking on all these responsibilities myself is time consuming and then tiring, but it allows me to make the most of my week, and hopefully to write the best and most comprehensive report I possibly could in the time. And on the whole, over the past two years, it has gone remarkably well.
Juggling so many balls is not without risk, however, and this year I managed to drop one of them. In error I turned up to taste at Château Cos d’Estournel earlier than intended, when I should have been at Château Montrose. And so when I subsequently turned up at the latter estate, an hour after my scheduled appointment, I was confused to find the cellars and tasting room deserted. It was only at this point, on reviewing my carefully drawn-up timetable, that I realised I had transposed my two appointments, and in doing so missed out on my scheduled tasting at Château Montrose. The best-laid scheme of this particular wine-reviewing mouse had “gang aft agley”, as Robert Burns would (and did) say, because I had been too stupid to adhere to the very timetable I had so meticulously drawn up. In other words, I had screwed up, and with a tight schedule I was immediately dubious whether or not I would be able to rectify this error.
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