PARKER CANCELS 2002 EN PRIMEUR TASTINGS

The American influencal wine critic says in an open letter written in French and sent to Bordeaux producers and negociants, "..due to the desires of my family I must put off my visit." He said he will come to Bordeaux "later this year when the world is calmer." Quoted on his website  "..many of the Bordelais were already saying the late harvest and slow malolactic made these wines unusually "unforthcoming"....I did taste some of the big Medocs when I was in Bordeaux in January to taste 2000s from bottle and follow the progress of 2001s... 2002 should not be discounted... mid-September thru mid-October were very dry.. I tasted big, big wines with lots of tannin and slightly higher acid profiles than normal. Waiting several months to taste might be the smart call... except for those who must sell the wines as futures." Many in the wine industry reckon the absence of a Parker score may adversely affect Bordeaux producers. (Source: http://www.erobertparker.com/ )

CHATEAU MARGAUX STAYS IN COMPETENT HANDS

Chateau Margaux shareholder Corinne Mentzelopoulos is set on owning the outright of the first growth and most renowned property in the Medoc area along with Latour, Lafite and Mouton Rothschild. Mentzelopoulos already owned 25% of shares in the Château. The remaining 75% stake belonged to the Agnelli family of the troubled FIAT empire, whose patriarch Giovanni Agnelli died in January this year. The sale of one of the most famous wine producers in the world - worth a reputed EUR 400m (US$430m) - has generated a flurry of rumor and speculation. Newspapers had placed billionaires from Microsoft's Bill Gates to UK landowner the Duke of Westminster, and conglomerates such as AXA Millesimes, in Margaux's head office. During the last 20 years or so, Corinne Mentzelopoulos has teamed fantastically well together with Managing Director Paul Pontallier after Corinne's father André passed over in 1980.(Source: Decanter/Vinum)

JEAN-PIERRE MOUEIX, RIP

We were sorry to hear of the death of Jean-Pierre Moueix, a great advocate for Pomerol and developer of the region. I came across this piece by Edmund Penning-Rowsell in the Oxford Companion to Wine and would like to share it with readers as a tribute to this great man: "Moueix, important family in the bordeaux trade, notably, but by no means exclusively, in Saint Emilion and Pomerol. The Moueix family came from the Corrèze, a severe district in central France, noted for its hard-headed men. Jean Moueix (1882-1957) bought Ch Fonroque in St-Émilion in 1930, and his son Jean-Pierre (b. 1913) joined him that year, with the purpose of selling only the hitherto somewhat neglected wines, nearly all red, produced on the right bank of the Dordogne, from the Cotes de Castillon downstream to Blaye. In 1937 Jean-Pierre formed Établissements Jean-Pierre Moueix on the quay in Libourne, the largest town on the right bank. Increasingly successful in the post-war period, it became from 1970 the major négociant there selling the finer châteaux wines, at a time when the traditional merchants were failing, and now no longer exist in their old form. In 1956 the 70-year-old firm of Duclot in the city of Bordeaux was acquired to deal mainly with the 'left bank' districts (Medoc, Pessac-Leognan Graves, and so on), as well as selling direct to private customers in France. As Bordeaux Millésimes it is prominent in the export trade. From 1968 both were headed by Jean-Pierre's elder son Jean-Francois (b. 1945). Fonroque was inherited by Jean-Antoine Moueix (1908-57), and then by his son Jean-Jacques (b. 1935), a director of the Libourne firm, now retired. 

In 1970 the younger son, Christian (b. 1946), became a director, with special responsibilities, along with the firm's oenologist Jean-Claude Berrouet, for the 17 estates owned or farmed by the firm. In 1982 Christian started a joint venture in Yountville, California, with two daughters of John Daniel, former owner of Inglenook, before buying them out in 1994. From a 50-ha/124-acre vineyard and an architectural landmark winery opened in 1998, a Bordeaux-style wine named Dominus is produced. He now runs the Libourne négociant.

In the 1950s Jean-Pierre Moueix began to acquire châteaux in St-Émilion and Pomerol: Trotanoy (1953), La Fleur-Petrus (1953), Lagrange (1959), La Grave (Trigant de Boisset) (1971) in Pomerol; and Magdeleine (1954) in St-Émilion. In the 1970s and 1980s the firm expanded into Fronsac, acquiring Canon, Canon de Brem, La Croix-Canon, and Canon-Moueix in the superior Canon-Fronsac appellation and La Dauphine in Fronsac.

A number of other properties are farmed on behalf of their owners, including Ch Moulin-du-Cadet in St-Émilion, and Feytit-Clinet, Lafleur-Gazin, and Latour-Pomerol in Pomerol. However, much the most important acquisition was a half-share of Ch Petrus in 1964. Moueix had had the exclusive selling
rights since 1945, and when the owner, Mme Loubat, died in 1961 she left it to her nephew and niece and the former sold his share to M. Moueix. Christian Moueix is experimenting to a limited extent with biodynamic viticulture.

Jean-Pierre Moueix, a man of great probity and courtesy, was a notable collector of art and books, and the château in which he lived beside the river Dordogne on the edge of Libourne was full of the works of such leading modern artists as Picasso and Francis Bacon. "(Source: Oxford Companion to wine)

PETRUS SKIPS 2002 EN PRIMEUR TASTINGS

Christian Moueix said he will not be showing any wines during the April en primeur barrel tastings this year - including the celebrated Château Pétrus. The company said the wines - which include Grand cru Classé Château Magdeleine in St Émilion, Latour a Pomerol, La Fleur Petrus, Trotanoy and Hosanna in Pomerol - were not ready and would not be shown until June. In his case, he said, it was simply because the
wines were only put into barrel in January, later than normally, both because of the late 2002 harvest and of slower than usual malolactic fermentation. "It would be premature to make the exact blends" he said. This year there is a growing consensus in Bordeaux that the traditional en primeur week at the end of March is too early to taste the previous year's crop. Chateau Figeac's director Eric d'Aramon said his wines were ready for showing in April this year but generally he would prefer the tastings to be postponed until June or September. Alain Raynaud of Lascombes - and former head of the Union des Grands Crus - reckons the best system would be to have two tastings, one in the spring and another in September. (Source: Decanter Magazine / Harpers)

 TOP

NEW GRAPE SORTING MACHINE

A new technique for mechanically sorting ripe from unripe and rotten grapes has been pioneered by Philippe Bardet, owner of Châteaux Val d'Or (St Emilion Grand Cru) and Picoron (Cotes de Castillon). The machine, which Bardet has been developing with a friend over the past four years, and which he hopes to patent, works on the principle of densimetry, which is already applied extensively in other agribusiness sectors. Grapes are placed into a bath of their own must. The ripe and rotten sink, while the unripe float.

The ripe are drawn off by a vacuum from the bottom of the tank, while the rotten stick to a rotating drum. The machine might represent a major advance, especially for machine-harvested fruit, and a partial solution to what is still one of the perennial problems facing producers  in marginal climates. (Source Harpers)

SPECULATION BUBBLE BURSTS

The Bordelais are facing tough trading conditions, particularly in the US, according to Patrick Bernard, managing director of Millésima, the Bordeaux-based fine wine merchant. "The market is very difficult. Shares are down, business is down and everyone is looking for maximum value for money. People are only interested in the big brands, such as from the Médoc, and you can forget about vins de garagistes - they are too expensive for their quality. Back in 1997/98, everyone was thinking about the 2000 vintage and getting their allocation," added Bernard. "There was the new technology bubbles, stocks were rising and money was easy. The market is closer to reality now, but the euro has increased 25% against the US dollar, so everyone is expecting another decrease in the market this year," he said. According to other sources, prices may go down another 20% in 2003. That's excellent news to European consumers. (Source:  Harpers)

2002: A "DIFFICULT" VINTAGE OR NOT 

A gloomy sales outlook for 2002 Bordeaux En Primeur and second wines has been given by Christian Seely, Managing Director of AXA Millésimes. Seely argued that some négociants depend too heavily on en primeur sales, which can cause problems in "difficult years, which I fear 2002 may be". But on the other hand, Seely suggested that producers would still be reluctant to lower prices. Describing the 2001 Pichon Longueville Baron (the top AXA château) as "great", he said the 2002 is better still - "an absolutely lovely wine" - produced on low yields levels. "In a situation like that, many producers don 't feel disposed to lower prices. The vintage doesn't deserve to be cut in price." Finally is 2002 a great or a difficult vintage? Rather confusing for the average wine enthusiast. (Source: Harpers)

FRENCH PRODUCER'S ATTITUDE CRITISIZED

Jancis Robinson (see link), the trailblazing columnist and one of the world's most respected wine journalists (and contributor to Winemega.com)
has recently published a ferocious chronicle in The Oxford Companion to Wine. About the French wine producers, she writes: "Tradition, tradition,
tradition and terroir. For all its world domination as a wine producer and the multiplicity of wines it produces, France has a surprisingly strong and
cohesive image. In fact, it is perfectly illustrated by an nth-generation peasant farmer making wine just like his grandfather did, sitting at the end of a dirt track waiting, vainly, for customers to roll up. He will not have tasted much wine other than his own, hardly any outside his region and certainly none made outside France, but he knows, as all Frenchmen do, that New World wine is an entirely technical confection palmed off on undiscriminating Anglo-Saxons, thanks to the dark arts of marketing. No one makes better wine than French wine at its best. But partly because of that, no one is less aware of his place in the world than the typical French wine producer." It is a chance Brits don't produce wine..! (Source: SFGate.com)