Bordeaux 2022 Primeurs: Primeur Picks
With my final 2022 tasting glass drained, I placed it on the counter and bid my farewell. Outside, I climbed into Twingo’s driver’s seat – managing to avoid the usual Briton-in-European-hire-car error of slipping in the right-hand side and then wondering who had stolen the steering wheel – before turning the ignition key. After allowing it to idle for a few seconds I gunned the engine a little, before slipping it into first and pulling away.
I turned to wave au revoir to Monsieur Propriétaire. His château had been the final visit in my schedule. He was waving back at me.
At least I think he was waving.
Hang on a minute – how many fingers is he holding up?
Two? Must be something to do with the acidity level of his wine. He did say it was 2-point-something. I think.
Never mind. All thoughts of Monsieur Propriétaire’s behaviour soon dissipated, before we had even passed the final stretch of his new anti-frost water aspersion system. It was a sad moment, as I realised I would soon have to hand back the ignition key to Twingo.
“You’ve been here three weeks,” said Twingo, “you must have a pretty good grasp of the vintage by now.”
I was quick to correct Twingo. “No, it’s been fourteen days, I’ve been here from Sunday 16th until Saturday 29th.”
“Yes,” replied Twingo. “That’s three weeks. In the world of primeurs, if you fly in to taste on Monday and fly out on Friday – that’s four or five days of tasting – you call that a week. You, however, have done fourteen consecutive days – I didn’t even get a rest on Sunday! So round it up to fifteen, and call it three weeks. Even better, you did half of April, so round it up to one month. And with all the planning involved, you should probably call it two. Now, how many wines did you taste?”
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