Okay – clearly we are not talking about Burgundy, but Chris Kissack’s series of articles about the experiments conducted by Château Margaux over the last ten years make for compelling reading.
Great work from Chris, who seems to have exclusivity on this (so far)… Image copyright of (and stolen from) thewinedoctor.com
Remarkably, Pontallier confesses that he can’t see any differences between the biodynamic and the other vines; this is a fascinating statement as it is at odds with what I have heard from many vignerons in the Loire who have converted to biodynamics, who often describe increased vigour, greener leaves and thicker stems. It seems the biodynamic consultant that directs the care of these vines can see clear differences, but he is looking “with religious eyes” says Pontallier.
Probably here was once an opposing view, or perhaps ‘balancing’ would be a better word.
Sounds like this debate about “natural” wines irritates people in about the same way as listening to someone brag about their Prius — it’s not the car that’s the problem, it’s the cloud of “smug” that surrounds it (thank you, South Park).
Hopefully these will be last words from me for a while on this carbuncle on the face of an old friend…
Yes Spectrum did indeed fire out some hastily written words about their amazing quality control, they are even prepared to take into consideration intervention from the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti – or words to that effect. And to such extent that midday on Wednesday they had pulled a dozen lots out of the sale. Bizarrely others which seemed similar, remained in the sale – rightly or wrongly the wines of other producers were never questioned.
Then of-course came the sale itself with multiple lots suddenly withdrawn, including the de Vogüé, apparently at the request of the domaine – it’s unlikely we will get to the bottom what should not have been sold here, but at least there is some optical impression of ‘the right thing’ being done – yet you are still left with the feeling that the whole thing was done in a begrudging way, and without explanation. Let’s be realistic though, whether it was ‘the right thing’, or ‘the wrong thing’, I bet legal-eagles were earning a tasty sum to come up with the chosen strategy. Business is business, and perhaps we cannot now complain that the sale was not ‘legit’, but everyone observing this seems to be left with a certain taste in the mouth, i.e. that if Don Cornwell (in particular), Jancis Robinson etc., had kept quiet, and several people (including myself) hadn’t contacted DRC and C&B (amongst others), everything would have been sold ‘as seen’.
To lighten the atmosphere surrounding this subject (a little) I offer you a selection of the sequential tweets of twitterer @Pigeage, who somehow avoided being kicked out of the sale!
– Oh, and no one here has heard of this Rudy fellow…
– Yikes, just spoke to Kevin of #Spectrum re provenance and got blanked! He’s now talking to security #beenthrownoutofworsepartys
– I’m in the room! Lots of cashed up punters keen to bid. It seems #winebeserkers and JR don’t hold much sway here. #ifonlytheyknew
– Keep that paddle down boy!
– Lots 67-74 withdrawn, no mention of why
– Lot 15 very suspicious mag of La Tache goes for £9,500 on estimate of £12,000 quelle horreur!
– Lot 37 7bt of 1990 RC goes for £47.5k on an estimate of £50k, date labels stamped when should be printed…allegedly…
– Lot 41 1990 RC goes for £10k on £15k est! Oh wait, funny label, dodgy stamp, oops #fakingit
– Lots 62-74 withdrawn on “very good advice”. So no shady DRC Montrachet then. Good advice indeed.
– What’s that, another glass of Champagne? Don’t mind if I do…
– Room emptying rapidly. A rich fart perhaps.
It’s worth pointing out that Corney & Barrow – the UK agents for Domaine de la Romanée-Conti – have taken the unusual step of publishing a press release this evening with regard to the Spectrum Wine Auction that happens tomorrow – you remember, the one with the dodgy label(s) on theoretically blue-chip DRC.
It seems they can do nothing other than register their concern – but have taken the unusual step of fully crediting (and linking) the wineberserkers forum, in particular the critique (analysis) of Don Cornwell that I linked to on Sunday. It seems a shame that many of the (anticipated) Asian buyers might not get this message, though perhaps C&B are hoping to shame the company into retracting lots…
Also, I really have to ask, what are the ‘traditional media’ doing here? Their silence is deafening. Decanter usually lead on ‘news’ but their coverage has been an anodyne afterthought with no critique, indeed I should be critical and say it is actually puffing the dubious denials of the auctioneers. That wineberserkers (you can also read Don Cornwell into that) has been credited in a press release by wine-merchants to the Queen is actually one of the most amazing things I’ve seen in a long time; not amazing that C&B would issue a press release to distance themselves from this, but rather C&B actually crediting and linking to a web-forum in a PR that will overwhelmingly be distributed to ‘old media’ where it will (in large-part) not be read until after the sale (sigh…)
You may remember that it was the Maison Bejot that purchased Maison Thomas-Moillard from the family Thomas. Film-maker Jean-Baptiste Avril has made a very pretty (and not too long!) film to reflect one vintage at Maison Bejot – nice!
It’s the same every year; the orange berries on this tree are completely ignored until we have a severe frost – the frost can be January or it can be like yesterday’s -15°C – then the mistle thrushes appear and devour them all. They patiently wait in the higher trees for their ‘turn’; I counted fourteen (when they stood still for a moment) in the garden yesterday, until Carlo the cat made a poor effort at trying to catch one – to be fair, his charge through 20cm of fluffy snow was never going to be a thing of elegance!
The tree is now stripped bare, it only took one day, but the birds remain, surfing through the snow looking for those berries they dropped – I still don’t give Carlo much chance!
The latter auction catalogue is of interest for two reasons; firstly the unbelievably fabulous bottles and their attendant prices, but secondly because the source of some of these bottles is believed to be the same as those forged Ponsot bottles in the Acker-Merrall auction in 2008. You may note from the previous link that there are open questions about labels and the numbers on the labels of some of these lots. I have a high degree of scepticism as to why the bottles were were consigned from the US to be sold in the UK – is it simply because the UK is generally less litigious(?) [Edit]: And now the smoking gun… I’m sure we are all happy to suspend (dis)belief and agree that Percy Fox would occasionally spell the name of their road incorrectly on the labels they fixed to bottles of Romanée-Conti:
A crop from the auction catalogue, page 98. Here’s a better image from the auction website…
Okay – clearly we are not talking about Burgundy, but Chris Kissack’s series of articles about the experiments conducted by Château Margaux over the last ten years make for compelling reading. 
It’s worth pointing out that Corney & Barrow – the UK agents for Domaine de la Romanée-Conti – have taken the unusual step of publishing a press release this evening with regard to the Spectrum Wine Auction that happens tomorrow – you remember, the one with the 
