Sunday is generally a slow day in Bordeaux. The whole country for that matter. It's a day when many families get together and have lunch from noon till 4 or 5pm. Luckily for us we know a guy who enjoys spending any day in Sauternes, the finest region in the world (in our humble opinion) for sweet wines. Roughly an hour from Bordeaux, we always enjoy going to Sauternes because the place is beautiful, the people are super nice and the wines are great. What more could you want? The towns are a little smaller and the pace is a little slower. It's a great place to spend a day, especially a beautifully sunny, 70 degree spring Sunday.
The man who took us to Sauternes was none other than Bill Blatch (pictured far right), Bordeaux encyclopedia, "sticky" (Sauternes) aficionado, and all around awesome guy. With a full day in Sauternes on the horizon, we power tasted about 40 reds in his office before driving to Sauternes to have lunch. We ate at Le Saprien, a quaint little restaurant with a terrace in the back just a few steps away from the vineyards of Chateau Guiraud. The view of the chateau (pictured in the background), maybe a half mile away, was to die for. The food, and the 1999 Clos Haut Peyraguey we had, was first rate. Life is good. We tell our co-workers and families that we're working hard, but pictures like this don't help our cause! After lunch we took the short drive to Guiraud where we had a tasting of a dozen 2010's. Tasting Sauternes and Barsac barrel samples is often trickier than tasting the reds but it's the best way to get an overview of the vintage. Bill suggested we taste the samples "blind," meaning we wouldn't know which wine was which. It was an interesting exercise and a really fair way to taste. As much as we try to remain impartial, human nature often colors your expectations of a wine -- even before tasting it -- if you know what it is. The bottom line is that the 2010's, generally speaking, seem to be of very good quality. Like their red counterparts, the sweet wines of 2010 are a completely different style than the 2009's. The 2009's are opulent, rich, sweeter, while the 2010's possess a laser-like precision. There's plenty of sweetness and plenty of fruit, but there's also more acidity to create a fantastic balance. We didn't have a concensus favorite, but we all agreed that a few of the winners were Rabaud Promis, Coutet, Domaine de L'Alliance and Lafaurie Peyraguey. Unfortunately while at Guiraud we didn't get to see our friend Xavier Planty. One of the owners of Guiraud, Xavier was away on business. Hopefully we'll see him soon.
We left Guiraud after our tasting and headed to Chateau Coutet in Barsac. We were met by Aline Baly (pictured), the niece of owner Philippe Baly. Having met her at trade tastings in the past, we actually thought she was American. She has lived and gone to school in the US but was born in France. Seriously, her "American accent" is better than most Americans we know. She's a really intelligent, passionate, hard-working woman and we appreciated her taking time out of her weekend to receive us at Coutet. She gave us a nice tour of the property and told us about the history of Coutet that dates back to the 13th century! Wine production began in 1643. Yes, 1643. Many, many years ago Coutet was owned by the Lur-Saluces family (former owners of Yquem) so we heard rumors of an underground tunnel between the two properties. That would be quite a long tunnel as the two properties are about a ten minute drive apart, but it made for an interesting story. We tasted the 2009 and 2010 Coutet, both excellent, and left Aline to enjoy the rest of her Sunday.
Our last stop of the day was at Chateau Nairac. Truth be told we were surprised when Bill said he wanted to take us there. The quality of Nairac has always been good but for some reason we just haven't bought much of it in recent years. I guess that's why Bill took us there, because we came away duly impressed! We were greeted by owner Nicolas Tari-Heeter and his sister Eloise (pictured in the center), who poured for us the 2008, 2009 and 2010 Nairac. Once again the different styles of the vintages was glaring. We couldn't make up our minds as to which was better and which would age better, but we all agreed the wines were very good. As a bonus, Nicolas brought out his 2001, a golden-colored beauty. 2001 was a landmark vintage in Sauternes and this wine did not disappoint. Bonus #2 was when he asked us if we wanted to go into the cellars and taste the different "lots" of the 2009 that are still in barrel. Ummmm, let's see, yes! We tasted from six different barrels and it was a fascinating tasting. Lots ranged from ultra sweet, candied wines to leaner, more fruit-driven wines, and everything in between. Some lots go into barrels that are brand new and some into barrels that are one or even two years old. Barrels come from different cooperages, maybe 5 or 6 in all. Some barrels have a heavier "toast" than others. You get the point. Creating the final blend is a true art form, one that will be completed in the next few months, and we can't wait to try it from bottle. We thank them for their hospitality and congratulate them on their great wines.
As the sun started to set Bill took us to the same restaurant we ate at last year, Claude Darroze. This fantastic restaurant also had an outside patio and we took full advantage. Bill selected two 1978 Sauternes to have with dinner, Raymond Lafon and Coutet. Raymond Lafon was a little darker, denser, with good fruit still, but Coutet was the more popular wine. It was by no means light, but it clearly had less sugar and went perfectly with our appetizers, cheese course, dessert, and even a few of our main courses. We got to decompress after a long day, enjoying Bill's company. Hopefully he didn't mind us picking his brain to steal some of that endless wisdom he has about Bordeaux. He's a real class act and we thank him for a great day! Look for more on the 2010 stickies from Bill in our e-mails of the next few weeks.
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