Monday, 22 June 2009 11am to 7pm Château Luchey Halde (Mérignac)
Winemaking and vine growing bloggers from across Europe will step onto the other side of the screen, and for the first time they will meet their readers for a tasting of their wines, in a friendly and passionate atmosphere. “Wine and the Net” tasting The “Wine and the Net” tasting brings together for the first time winemakers with very different backgrounds. French, Italian, Portuguese, German or American, some are recent converts to winemaking, others are from traditional winemaking families; some grow vines organically, others practice conventional agriculture. Most of them know each other only through their blogs. United by a common passion Twenty blogger-winemakers from France, Germany, Italy and Portugal will meet “off” Vinexpo to showcase their blogs and their wines on Monday 22 June 2009 from 11 am to 7 pm, at the Château Luchey Halde in Mérignac. Wine professionals and readers of the blogosphere will get together for a friendly meeting about Wine and the Web. Who are these winemaker bloggers? Winemakers by profession, they share a passion for their work and a willingness to share that passion. They will gather around the idea of “inviting wine lovers, novices and interested people to regularly share the experience and the authenticity of the work of winemakers.” These winemaking bloggers have chosen the occasion of this global showcase to get closer to people who enjoy their wines as much as their writing. Quite naturally all of this is described on a common blog set up for the event: http://blogsetvignerons.over-blog.com for your reservation, please send an email indicating your name and the number of persons to come to: blogsetvignerons@hotmail.fr
The twenty two participating winemaker-bloggers are: – Bruno et Claudie Bilancini – Tirecul la Gravière (Monbazillac) http://tirecul.canalblog.com – Francis Boulard – Champagne Raymond Boulard et Fils (Champagne) www.vigneron-champagne.com – Marc Dalbavie – Domaine de la Voie Blanche (Périgord) www.domaine-voie-blanche.com/blog – Sébastien David – Domaine Sébastien David (Loire) http://patrimoinesd.canalblog.com – Thibault Despagne – Despagne (Bordeaux) http://blog.despagne.fr – Cyril Dubrey (Bordeaux) http://dubrey.blogspot.com – Emmanuelle Dupéré et Laurent Barrera (Provence) www.blogduperebarrera.com – Cyril Geffard, Vincent Guilbaud – Domaine des Pierrettes (Loire) www.domainedespierrettes.fr/blog – David Lelièvre – Domaine Lelièvre (Côtes de Toul) www.vins-lelievre.com/blog – Amy Lilliard – Domaine de la Gramière (Côtes du Rhône) http://lagramiere.typepad.com/francais, www.lagramiere.typepad.com anglais – Samuel Megnan – Domaine Aloha (Fiefs Vendéens) www.domaine-aloha.com – Yvon Minvielle – Château Lagarette (Bordeaux) http://chateaulagarette.blogspot.com – Valérye Mordelet – Les Loges de la Folie (Loire) www.les-loges-de-la-folie.com – Ivo Pagès S’Alqueria – Emporda – Espagne http://vinyaivo.wordpress.com/ – Gianpaolo Paglia (Italie) http://poggioargentiera.com anglais – Isabelle Perraud – Cotes de la Molière (Beaujolais) http://cotes-de-la-moliere.com/mon-blog – Oscar Quevedo (Portugal) http://quevedoportwine.com anglais – Iris Rutz-Rudel – Domaine Lisson (Langedoc) http://lisson.over-blog.com, http://weingut-lisson.over-blog.com allemand – Annie Sauvat – Domaine Sauvat Claude et Annie (Auvergne) www.sauvat-vins.com/weblog -Laureano Serres Montagut http://laureanoserres.wordpress.com/ – Benoît Tarlant – Champagne Tarlant (Champagne) www.champagne-blog.com – Charles Traonouëz – Château Malromé (Bordeaux) http://malrome.over-blog.com Contact: Emmanuelle Dupéré, blogsetvignerons@hotmail.fr 06 21 25 15 99
Access: Château Luchey Halde 17 Avenue du Maréchal Joffre 33 – Mérignac Tram Line A – Stop Arlac Fountain Rocade exit 12 – Direction Bordeaux
Posted by nicollecroft
Posted by nicollecroft
Posted by nicollecroft
2008 the year to change Bordeaux?
May 13, 20092008 is deemed by all to be better than 2007 and 2006 and yet prices are being reduced by half. Why? Because of the financial climate and because of the run of ‘average’ cooler vintages since 2005. That was the vintage of the century with wonderful wines being produced throughout the region, Grand Cru Classe and Petits chateaux alike. The price for 2005 went up, understandably. Prices did not really come down that much for the next two vintages. That is where the problem started. Merchants continued to buy and now with the new reduced 2008 the 2006 and particularly 2007s are unsellable at their high prices. Don’t forget that the 2007 are still sleeping soundly in barrel in the producer’s cellars unaware of their high price tag that no-one feels is worth it. They will be bottled and shipped later this year. Many merchants are looking at a good 2008 price and a re-look at the prices paid for 2007 – buy one get one free idea! Are these conditions that special to change the Bordeaux Market Place? Or have we seen them before in 1997 for example. Is is history repeating itself or will the closed system of the Grand Cru Classe selling only through merchants (take 30%) and firstly through courtiers (take 2%) crack this year?
Negociants in Bordeaux have massive stocks that have not been sold bought at high prices. One merchant told me he had 14 million euro worth of stocks particularly 2006 and 2007. They are having to devalue their inventories and sell whereever possible to release some cash to make purchases of the 2008s!
Smaller chateaux have different problems. The same negociants are taking lower quantities to sell of Cru Bourgeois or other petits chateaux properties. France is not the market is once was and so suddenly producers in their thusands are looking at developing export markets themselves. Urgently. Many without good English, many with thousands of cases of stocks from the vintage of 2000.
Then we have the ‘Parker Effect’ which has just come into play. Many producers had already released prices and not accounted for Parker heralding 2008 as good as 2000 or 2005 in some instances. Here are some of his favorite wines in 2008; Ausone, Cheval Blanc, Cos d’Estournel, Haut Brion, Lafite, Latour, Leoville Barton, Montrose, Margaux, Palmer, Mouton, Pape Clement, Petrus, Troplong Mondot…………Those who had already released prices had their prices soar. Who benefits but the negociant who has not sold or the next in line if they have! Not the producer.
According to Simon Staples of Berry Bros (ww.bbr.com) Parker was the only one to rave about the 2003 vintage and was lukewarm about the 2005 vintage. So perhaps it is not such a good omen for 2008.
We’ll see.