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French Wine Explorers Wine e-Newsletter
www.wine-tours-france.com - June/July 2003

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This month's wine explorations:

Wine Tasting of the Month: Bordeaux 2002 Vintage Report

We were privileged to taste the 2002 vintage in barrel samples during our May Best of Bordeaux tour. At every chateau we visited, the personnel recounted the difficult year they had, with unusually cold and rainy conditions in the spring that resulted in "coulure": lack of flowering. When the vine does not flower, it does not produce grapes, so the size of the harvest was greatly reduced, especially for the Merlot, which is particularly susceptible to coulure. Luckily, though, the weather was hot and sunny in August and September, so the grapes they did harvest were for the most part quite ripe and in excellent condition. The results for the chateaux were mixed: all had smaller than usual production, but some were able to transform the low yields into very concentrated, rich wines; others were less successful. Chateau St. Martin (4th Growth of Saint Julien) and its sister company Chateau Gloria (Cru Bourgeois) told us that for them, 2002 was the best year in recent memory, surpassing even the mythic 2000 vintage in power and concentration. Chateaux Latour, Mouton Rothschild and Belair also felt that 2002 was an excellent year for them. Just goes to show that there are always some producers that make great wines in "mediocre" or "bad" years, and that one should always take the vintage charts with a grain of salt!

Here are some of our favorites among those we tasted in May:

Chateau Haut Brion 2002, Péssac Léognan: intense, deep ruby color with an amazingly complex nose of licorice, black currant, blond tabacco, with a pleasant vegetal note. Classic Haut Brion elegance, perhaps a bit less powerful than 2000, but still quite concentrated with the smoothest of tannins. Extremely long persistance.

Chateau Canon la Gaffelière, Saint Emilion: dark violet-laced red, with a mentholated nose of red fruit and a touch of leather. Silky texture, still a bit marked by the oak (it had only been in the barrel for a short time, after all!). This one will be easy to drink young, with all its fresh fruit and exuberence.

Chateau Belair, Saint Emilion: my first tasting of Belair, and what an experience! The 2002 is everything you could want in a Saint Emilion - extremely silky and sensuous, beautiful ripe red fruit mixed with spices and violette in an appealing and complex nose, amazing balance with mouth-watering acidity will make this one last a very long time. A very great wine.

Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Pauillac: very typical Mouton - deep violet-red, a big, very concentrated wine, with that famous spicey, black currant nose with floral overtones. Extremely long persistance, a robust wine with very silky tannins and good balance.

By the way, 2003 is shaping up to be a super year in Bordeaux. An unusually hot and dry summer has made the grapes mature unusually early, with the harvest now being set a full 15 days earlier than usual for most chateaux. As long as August and September are hot and sunny, 2003 should be an amazing vintage.

Join us for our Best of Bordeaux or Bordeaux Prestige tours in April, June and September 2004, and be among the first to taste the 2003 vintage!  More information here.

Announcing our 2004 Season of Wine and Culinary Tours

Our 2004 season is shaping up to be our best ever, with a great variety of tours in the major French wine-producing regions. We've also upgraded ALL of our hotels to 4-star luxury class, to offer you the ultimate in comfort and style as you tour with us. There will also be more Michelin starred restaurants included in our tours, so you can experience the absolute best in French gastronomy.

In Bordeaux, we're now offering two different tours: Best of Bordeaux, including several First Growths and many other famous Grand Cru chateaux; and our new Bordeaux Prestige tour, a 5 day blockbuster event, including ALL the First Growths, Cheval Blanc in St. Emilion, and the two most famous chateaux of Pomerol and Sauternes respectively (these illustrious chateaux request that we not announce their names), with luxury accommodations at Chateau Pichon Longueville Baron.

We'll also have two different tours of Burgundy to offer you: Best of Burgundy, 5 days in the Côte d'Or with tastings at leading producers, a great add-on to a trip to Paris or elsewhere in France or Europe; and Burgundy & Champagne, our all-out luxury tour including the best estates of both regions, co-led by Robin Garr of WineLoversPage.com.

Our new and improved Cooking & Wine in Provence program includes luxury accommodations at the exclusive 18th century Chateau de Gignac, wine classes and visits to leading wineries, plus three cooking classes with great local chefs, including 2-star Chef Edouard Loubet of Le Moulin de Lourmarin restaurant. A fabulous week of gastronomic pleasures in beautiful Provence!

In 2004, we're combining the Northern & Southern Rhône Valley into one wonderful tour, including top producers in Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Côte Rôtie, Hermitage and more, and the gala black-tie dinner dance of l'Echansonnerie des Papes, the wine brotherhood of Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Finally, for those who'd like to combine sightseeing in Paris with wine country touring, our Paris, Champagne & Loire Valley tour is the perfect choice for you. You'll enjoy a day in Champagne and two days in the Loire Valley (historic chateaux, a 4-star chateau-hotel and great wines), as well as day trips to Versailles and Giverny and a fabulous wine tasting dinner in Paris.  If you love gardens, we're also offering a Wine, Cuisine and Gardens tour of Paris and Provence, where you can indulge in your gardening passion while enjoying the great wines and cuisine of Provence.

We hope to have the pleasure of touring with you in 2004! For more information, see our schedule or contact us for details.

Wine Tip of the Month - Serving Wine in Hot Weather

Here in Paris, we've been having a very hot summer, with temperatures reaching as much as 100 degrees for days at a time (quite unusual for France). I can tell you that staying cool when the mercury is hitting all-time highs is a challenge for everyone. Keeping your wine cool in hot climates, or during a heat wave, can be just as difficult. If you're not lucky enough to live in 24 hour air conditioned comfort (in Paris, practically no one has an air conditioner), how can you keep your wine at an acceptable serving temperature?

Rosé and white wines should be served chilled. The cold temperature accentuates the acidity in these wines, and allows them to remain lively and refreshing. When it's hot out, the most reliable way to chill your wine is the good old refrigerator. An ice bucket probably will not be as effective, since the ice will melt quickly in the heat and not keep the wine cold enough. Chill the wine in the refrigerator (NOT the freezer, which is too much of a shock for premium wines) for a few hours before serving. Then at the table, keep the wine in either an ice bucket filled with cold water and ice cubes (replacing the ice cubes as they melt) or one of those buckets that holds cooling units you put in the freezer. Serve only a very small amount of wine in the glass at a time - if you serve too much, the wine in your guests' glasses will heat up before they can drink it all, making the last sips rather warm and insipid. Better to serve more frequently with wine that is still cool and refreshing.

Red wines should also be slightly chilled on a hot day before serving. Chill red wines? Certainly! Remember that red wines should NEVER be served at room temperature, and on a hot day, room temperature can be 85 degrees or more, so that rule is particularly applicable!  Anyway, all it'll take is about 5-10 minutes in the glass for the wine to heat up to room temperature, so best to start out with a bottle that's on the cold side. Last night, with temperatures outside (and inside) at over 80 degrees, when friends brought over a Chateau Haut Brion 1994 to serve with dinner, we stored it in our Eurocave until it was time to serve it. Cellar temperature (50-55°F) is just right for a hot day for a red wine, even cooler for lighter-bodied reds. Once the Haut Brion was open, we served small amounts in the glasses, and opted for a double-walled cooler that doesn't chill the wine, but just maintains it (more or less) at the same temperature. Once served, it heated up quickly in the glass to an ideal serving temperature of 60-65°- any more than that, and we would have denatured the wine, making the suave, elegant Haut Brion tannins flabby and unpleasant, and the moderate alcohol content of 12.5% seem like more, which would have disturbed the wine's lovely balance.

I know we speak often about serving temperature in this newsletter, but it's an important part of wine service to master, and it makes all the difference in your enjoyment of wine. Even in the hottest summer, with some good preparation, you can manage to keep yourself and your wines cool and fresh.

Here are my best picks for hot-weather wines that are particularly refreshing:

Sancerre rosé La Poussie, or Sancerre whites from Crochet or Pinard
Vouvray petillant (sparkling wine), brut, Domaine de la Fontainerie
Bordeaux blanc sec or Bordeaux Clairet from Chateau Penin
Beaujolais Villages rosé or red (served chilled) from Domaine Croix Charnay

Fun and Interesting Wine e-Newsletters to Subscribe To

Since you receive the French Wine Explorers newsletter, I thought you might be interested to know about two other well-written and informative wine newsletters available to anyone with an interest in wine.

The first is The 30-Second Wine Advisor, the weekly e-newsletter from www.WineLoversPage.com, the Web's oldest, largest and most respected wine web site. Wine journalist Robin Garr covers a broad range of fascinating wine topics each week, from the pro's and con's of using natural corks, to little-known grape varieties, to what wine to serve with your Fourth of July barbecue fare. Robin has a penchant for finding wines that are not only good, but also good values, and he shares his finds selflessly with his readers. Each Advisor contains tasting notes for his latest finds, with a recommendation for dishes to match with each wine reviewed. His good-natured, egalitarian attitude to wine is refreshing, and his stylish, easy-going prose makes for very enjoyable reading. For those who need a daily fix of wine information, the 30-Second Wine Advisor is also available in a daily format. For those particularly interested in cooking and wine/food pairing, try his Weekly Food Letter, featuring an original recipe and food/wine related articles.

Subscribe to the 30-Second Wine Advisor here.

Subscribe to the Weekly Food Letter here.

Natalie MacLean is a Canadian wine journalist and sommelier with a sly sense of humour and a lot of knowledge about wine. Her e-newsletter, "Nat Decants" is funny and stylish, usually highlighting a single subject in an irreverant but informative manner. I liked her article on tips for visiting the wine country so much that I put it up on our web site (with Natalie's permission, of course). This past year, the James Beard Foundation nominated Nat Decants as one of the three best food and wine newsletters in North America! Check it out for yourself by subscribing here.

Upcoming Wine and Food Events in France

Here are some great wine and gastronomy events you may want to attend if your travels take you to France in the coming month or so:

  • 3rd weekend of July: Sigoules Wine Festival, in the Aquitaine region, featuring two days of tastings, music, dancing and merriment. For more information: 05.53.58.40.42.
  • August 3: Wine Festival in the village of Valréas, in the Southern Rhône Valley wine region. For more information: 04.90.35.04.71
  • August 23 & 24: Wine and Cheese tastings in the village of Saint Mariens, near Bourg in the Bordeaux wine region. For more information, contact the Saint Savin Tourist office.
  • September 28-29: "Papilles en fête" at the Chateau of La Roche Guyon (near Paris), with wine and food tastings at the Chateau. For more information: 01.34.79.74.42.

Special Incentives for Group Leaders

Do you have a group of friends or colleagues who share your interest in wine and food? Just get a group of 10 people to take a customized, private wine tour together in 2004, we will offer the tour to you at no cost. For our scheduled tours, just get six other people to sign up for any of our tours, and once again, we will offer a tour to you at no cost. There really is no catch - if you bring in that many clients for us, it's worth it to us to make it worth your while! This offer has been extended to the end of 2003 for our 2004 tours - just contact us for details.

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Contact Us

I'm always available to answer your questions about our wine and culinary programs, our company, and wine in France in general. Don't hesitate to contact me at info@wine-tours-france.com, or toll free at  1-877-261-1500.

Best regards,

Lauriann Greene-Sollin, Sommelier-Conseil
President/Founder

Contact us for more information about our wine and culinary programs:

FRENCH WINE EXPLORERS
info@wine-tours-france.com
www.wine-tours-france.com
Tel:  1-877-261-1500
Fax: 1-253-423-5316

Copyright 2003, French Wine Explorers. Articles © 2003 Lauriann Greene.  All rights reserved.  WST #601 903 728.