Fête de la Fleur at Vinexpo 2013

July 14, 2013

By Panos Kakaviatos

At Château Lagrange in Saint Julien for the La Fête de la Fleur

Tickets were expensive and seating limited, so a million thanks to Barriere Frères for a kind invitation to come to the event. And what a pleasure it was to be at the same table with the company’s director Laurent Ehrmann, whom I have known now for almost 10 years. Here he is, in this short video summing up the magnificent evening.

My table was full of great people. Including an employee at Barrière Frères, who “admitted” that Burgundy makes the very best wines in France!

Howard Cooper, are you reading this?

To pair with the excellent Michelin cuisine of Frederic Simonin, we began with a very fine 2010 De Fieuzal, very refreshing with endearing citron notes. Tasted again in Warsaw, when the UGCB traveled for the first time ever for a group tasting in Poland – see article here – and I liked it just as much from regular bottle format. Still a young puppy, this white – given somewhat absurd Bordeaux pricing in 2010 – represents an excellent price/quality ratio. Buy with confidence.

Then came a hauntingly delicious Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1990, from magnum format bottles no less! The crushed tobacco and particularly lead pencil aromas lead to a rather youthful impression on the mid palate which whose texture was seductive in its nuance, almost akin to courting a lover but not yet winning her. The finish however was just a bit bubble bursting. Why? Well, given the price of this wine, I would have expected a more lingering finish. It was very good, mind you… But, is it really worth so much cash? Perhaps.

An excellent Suduiraut 2001 capped the evening on a high note. What a great vintage and what a great wine. Unctuous without heaviness, this is how Sauternes is, as opposed to the (generally) lighter styled Barsac, which I love in equal measure. But when you want Sauternes, you get it in spades with Suduiraut 2001.

More notes and photos from the dinner HERE.