one must read between the lines. “More red fruit than black” connotes a lighter body, and “lively and dynamic” hints still further at a youthful, bright vintage whose maturity will be rapid and difficult to predict.

I’ve been waiting for you.

John Mariani is the first I’ve seen, but there will be many more. Aside from disagreeing with both of his assertions above, it’s true that there’s a whole boat-load of love missing from the 2005 wines now versus the latter half of last year – even more-so than from barrel tasting. What John is missing (I suspect) are those benchmarks. It’s also time though for me to ween myself from opening these bottles. I did, however, find the Voillot Volnay 1er cru to be similar to John’s reflection of the basic villages (maybe I got there too late), mind-you, I re-bought a number of other Voillots.

As a side-note, Bloomberg has become quite an interesting source of articles in the last months…

Maison Albert Bichot’s forecast seems a little glum(?)

I also bring you the curious tale of underwater storage….

Decanter are reporting that the youth of France are forming a disdainful view of their country’s vinous heritage:

‘Certainly the French youth are drinking less than their parents, but overall they still consume more wine than their American counterparts.’

It seems that price hikes, coupled to the efforts of the anti-alcohol lobby are having their effects…