Bordeaux 2013 Primeurs: St Julien
Like a frenzied Maindrian Pace I braked hard, causing the nose of my hire car to dive down towards the tarmac, before swinging the wheel around and turning into the grounds of Château Lagrange. I could smell the warmth of the brakes, their only means of complaint (other than disintegrating completely, of course) after a series of sharp brake-and-turn manoeuvres. Now, as I made my way towards the château and cellars, I joined the back of a queue of cars, trundling in an infuriatingly slow manner towards the Union des Grands Crus tasting of the St Juliens of the 2013 Bordeaux vintage.
I was ruing my misfortune at hitting this slowly moving roadblock of vehicles, all being steered so gingerly down the dusty track towards the château by their post-lunch pilots, when I had a stroke of luck. All the host châteaux have parking attendants for these tastings, as the grounds can soon become ensnarled with vehicles, and somebody needs to maintain some sense of order. The attendant waved on the first few cars, directing them to some distant temporary car park on the edge of the vines, probably half a kilometre from the cellars where the wines were being poured. Perhaps he thought the lengthy walk to the cellars might help them clear their heads? But then he directed me towards a freshly vacated parking space right within the courtyard between two long cellar buildings. The game was back on. I parked up, grabbed my laptop, and hot-footed it towards the tasting.
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