Newsletter 4,       July - August, Vintage 2007

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Read about:

v The Bordeaux Wine Experience and
Best of Wine Tourism

v 2008 Wine Tour Schedule online!
And a special offer

v Bordeaux vintages 2006 and 2007

v Our Wine Experience during Vinexpo 2007

v We asked for your help: the results

v Last spots available for the Harvest Tour.
Book them before they are gone!  

v Bordeaux
Wine Trivia Quiz

As seen in the brochure: Best of Wine Tourism,
Great Wine Capitals 2007

Dear wine lover,
June and July were active months in Bordeaux. The international wine show Vinexpo with all the party's dinners and tastings, the verdict on the Bordeaux 2006 vintage and so much more.
And we, The Bordeaux Wine Experience, are very proud to be entred into the "Best of Wine Tourism" 2007 brochure.

The Commanderie du Bontemps making its "grand entree"
at "La fête de la Fleur" at Chateau Smith Haut Lafite

Vinexpo, the world's most important wine exhibition for professionals from the wine trade, last June, was a great success. As we are your eyes, ears and palates in Bordeaux we attended many events and we will be writing about these events in this and in some following newsletters.
In this edition it is the dinner at Mouton Rothschild we will tell you about. Like I said, you can read more about other events we attended in the next Newsletters.

You are used to me following the current vintage and commenting on the most recent one: 2006. Of course I will keep following the 2007 vintage for you.

Naturally I'd like to report back to you about our Newsletter New Subscriber and WineBlog actions. They were a great success, so please continue to support us.

Of course I have another wine trivia question for you and I'll give you the correct answer for last month's question.

I hope you'll enjoy reading this Newsletter and I hope hearing from you soon.

Don’t drink anything I wouldn't drink!

Have an excellent summer!

Ronald Rens, M. Sc., Wine Master
President

 


Ronald and Margaret ready to participate in the
"Dîner Millésimes de Collection" (Dinner with collectors vintages)
at Saint Emilion Grand Cru First Growth Beau-Séjour Bécot during Vinexpo 2007

The Bordeaux Wine Experience and Best of Wine Tourism
We are very proud to to inform you that we have obtained yet another accreditation, and a very important one as well.
Last month The Bordeaux Wine Experience has been entred into the brochre Best of Wine Tourism, Great Wine Capitals Bordeaux.
I will use the same words here I used in March when we were recognized by the Bordeaux Tourist office: "We see this selection as recognition for all the effort we have put in creating remarkable wine experiences for so many people over the years. The most satisfying aspect of this you can see at our guest comments page". For us these comments remain the most important results of our efforts. But of course we were delighted to be Selected by Best of Wine Tourism.

2008 Wine Tour Schedule online! And a special offer
We received many questions about our 2008 tour schedule. Understandably many of you are planning far a head.
We proudly present the following Tours and dates for 2008:

§         The Grand Tour of Bordeaux
(May 26 - May 31, 2008 and
September 1 - September 6, 2008

§         The Bordeaux Grand Cru Tour
(June 9 - June 14, 2008 and June 23 - June 28, 2008 and July 7 - July 12, 2008)

§         The Bordeaux Harvest Tour
(September 22– September 27, 2008)

These Tours are 6 days, 5 nights. Special offer: If you book now (in 2007), we will give you the 2007 prices for the 2008 tours. (Click here for the Itineraries). Newsletter readers are the first to be informed. These tours have just recently been put online on our website.
People that join our tours are wine lovers and wine drinkers and usually this is their first trip to the Bordeaux region. They want lo learn about wine and wine tasting, and what better place to start than in Bordeaux, the world’s most famous wine region. I am convinced you will grow to love our region as we do if you join us on one of our tours.

Remember we want to keep things personal. That's why we only organize tours for small groups and tailor made trips. A small group from our perspective means a maximum of ten people. That’s just you and four other couples! All tours start with a two guest minimum.
Click here for more information on our Bordeaux Wine Tours.

Bordeaux vintages 2006 and 2007
The vintage 2006 varies from mediocre to excellent. For me the proof of the possibilities for quality of the vintage is Mouton Rothschild 2006. I know I am prejudiced because it is my favorite wine and I have been collecting Mouton for over 20 years, but in all honesty Mouton Rothschild 2006 is a monument. It is the only First Growth to obtain a Parker rating of 96-100.
Leading French magazine Le Figaro has recently said that Bordeaux 2006 vintage could be as 'sublime' as the great 1982 vintage. Le Figaro magazine advises its readers to invest in the 2006 vintage. The article's headline was: "Bank on the 2006 primeurs". In 1982, "few people banked on the vintage", the article says, and "for collectors, it's a strong bet that 2006 will follow this tendency. In 10 years, this vintage will be recognized as sublime". We'll see what happens...

The vintage 2007
Of course it is very early in the race, but so far the vintage 2007 definitely needs some sun.. April has been unusually hot but we have had heavy rains throughout May, June and July. Some days it is very damp and the next days could have been very hot, the ideal weather conditions for mildew, a fungal parasite which starts in the leaves. The mildew can move through the saps to the grapes. To prevent that from happening the chateaux have to really work their vineyards. It is the opposite of a vintage like 2005 in which it was nature doing most of the work.
The vintage 2007 is going to be a "winemakers vintage". We already know 2007 will not be a large crop, however for the quality it is not too late yet.
Yesterday I spoke with Arnaud de la Filolie, owner of Grand Cru Classé Chateau Laniote in Saint Emilion. He told me that he had been very busy and that this year he had do a lot more work this year than in the last few vintages.
Arnaud told me if the weather in the rest of July, August and September will be good we are still looking forward to a to good vintage, possible even an excellent vintage 2007...The beautiful sunny weather of the last few days tend to give me the same optimism for the new vintage 2007.
We'll keep you posted.

Our Wine Experience during Vinexpo 2007
Vinexpo is the world leading wine event that represents the highpoint in the wine and spirits business calendar. 50,433 is the total number of professional visitors who attended Vinexpo 2007, up 3.1% compared to Vinexpo 2005.
Everybody who is anybody in the wine world shows up in Bordeaux. So we did some celebrity spotting for you! More pictures will be in our next Newsletter.

Our personal Highlights
Our personal highlights during Vinexpo were of course the dinner at Mouton Rothschild, the "Dîner Millésimes de Collection"at Beau-Séjour Bécot and the Fête de la Fleur at Smith Haut Lafite.

In June we were invited to the Vinexpo gala dinner, held in honour of the international press at chateau Mouton Rothschild. This dinner was organized by The Conseil des Grands Crus Classés en 1855.
On a warm June evening we were met by Baroness Philippine de Rothschild herself and her family for an unforgettable evening. Amuses bouches were served outside in the gardens of the Chateau together with a large selection of Classified Growths from Sauternes and Barsac.
The dining room for this occasion was constructed in the vineyards of Mouton. Beautifully decorated with pink flowers and thousands of candles it looked like something out of a fairy tale. In the company of the French minister of Agriculture and a large number of owners of the Classified Growths we enjoyed a delicious menu of ravioli of wild mushrooms and the famous lamb of Pauillac. These courses were accompanied by famous wines such as Lafite Rothschild 1990 and 1985, Chateau Latour 1990 and 1971 and Chateau Margaux 1999 and 1989. The wines were announced by drum rolls produced on barrel drums by professional musicians.
The cheese was served next to a Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1961! Big drum roll! This wine was simply delicious, still very powerful and young to taste. The aftertaste was extremely long. 1961 is considered one of the best vintages of the 20th century.
The 1961 Mouton has a Parker rating of 98.
The Farandole of Assorted Desserts was accompanied by in impressive Yquem 1998. The evening ended with an astonishing firework display.
It was truly a very memorable wine experience.

Next time: our experience at the "Dîner Millésimes de Collection"at Beau-Séjour Bécot and the Fête de la Fleur at Smith Haut Lafite.

The beautiful tables at Mouton Rothschild

I asked for your help: the results for this Newsletter
Last time I asked your support for our Newsletter, a free service to thousands of people from all over the world with an interest in Bordeaux and its wines. We want to get more subscribers and we have set a very ambitious target of a 1000 new subscribers for 2007. When we asked for your help we had 295 new subscribers.
Currently we are at 640 new subscribers for 2007, so we are getting there. We do need another 360 to reach my goal, so please help us reach the 1000 and subscribe your friends, family members and colleagues to the Newsletter. You can subscribe with the button here or from any page of our website.
Thank you very much for your support!

We asked for your help: the results for TheBordeauxWineBlog
In my April Newsletter I asked you to vote for TheBordeauxWineBlog.com. Wine blogs are being rated on a site called LocalWineEvents. When I asked for your support we were at place 39 in the top 100. Thanks to your help we are now at place 33. But I would love to be in the top 20, so I still need a lot of votes. With your help I want to get up a few steps on the ladder. Please vote for TheBordeauxWineBlog and click here or on the banner. Actually you can vote once very 24 hours, so if it is not too much to ask...

Again, thanks for your help!

The last spots on our Bordeaux Harvest Tour
You can still tour with us in 2007, but you'll have to hurry. For September 24 - September 29 we have scheduled the unique Bordeaux Harvest Wine Tour. This new tour is our only tour with spots left for 2007. The full itinerary is online on our website.
We are very excited to have confirmed the unique harvest visits for First Growths Chateau Latour, Mouton Rothschild and Haut Brion!
This tour is really without equal as everything in and around Bordeaux just buzzes with action and anticipation. This tour includes a dinner at the Relais & Chateaux Restaurant Hauterive Saint James with its unique view on Bordeaux.

The Bordeaux Harvest Tour
(Last four spots available,
just two couples!)
This unique tour (6 days, 5 nights), which will include a pickers lunch at a Classified Growth Chateau, will take place from September 24 – September 29, 2007. You will even be invited to pick some of the holy grapes yourselves!
Just five couples on our tours. That’s just you and four other couples.

Harvest at First Growth Château Haut Brion

This Harvest Tour is really unique as chateaux that normally close for visitors during harvest, allow us to have a look behing the scenes. For more information on the Bordeaux Harvest Tour, please click here

Wine trivia quiz
My question this time is not on the wine but on the bottle. We are all used to buying our wine in a bottle that was bottled at the chateau (Mise en bouteille au Chateau). This hasn't always been so. In the old days the chateaux would ship their wines in barrels and the wine trader would age and bottle the wines locally.
My question for this month is about the chateau bottling:
Which Bordeaux property started bottling at the chateau and in what year?
Let me know before August 10 what you think at: Ronald@BXWINEX.com.
Among Newsletter readers to come up with the right answer we will draw five that will receive the famous Bordeaux Wine Experience wine accessory gift.
The correct answer will be on our website as of august 27 on our Newsletter archive.

Last month's question
Last month I asked you to recognize a bottle. Which wine was decorated with this image and in which vintage?
Somebody answered: "it is Ronald's face after tasting a great First Growth from an excellent vintage". Although I tend to smile like that, after tasting great wines, it was not the right answer. The right answer is: the 1999 Lafite Rothschild. Click here to see what the picture represents and why it was put there in the first place.

Forward to a Friend
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. Like always I would like to ask you to forward it to a friend, family member or colleague who loves wine. Help us to get our target of a 1000 new subscribers this year!
And please remember to vote for TheBordeauxWineBlog .
Thanks very much for your help!

We hope to see you soon with us here in France!

Cheers from Bordeaux,

Ronald and Margaret Rens

Visit our website:

Bordeaux Wine Tours

www.BXWINEX.com

2008 Wine Tour Schedule
(Just five couples per tour!)

We proudly present the following Tours and dates for 2008:
(Now open for booking)

The Grand Tour of
Bordeaux 1
May 26 - May 31, 2008

The Grand Tour of
Bordeaux 2 
Sept 1 - Sept 6, 2008

The Bordeaux Grand Cru Tour 1
June 9 - June 14, 2008

The Bordeaux Grand Cru Tour 2
June 23 - June 28, 2008

The Bordeaux Grand Cru Tour 3
July 7 - July 12, 2008

The Bordeaux Harvest Tour
Sept 22– Sept 27, 2008

These Bordeaux Wine Tours are 6 days, 5 nights.
 

Avoid disappointment and reserve your place today!
(Click here!)

2007 Wine Tour Schedule
(Only five couples per tour!)

We proudly present the following Tours and dates for 2007:

The Bordeaux Harvest Tour
September 24 – 29,  2007
(Last four spots available, just two couples)

Avoid disappointment and reserve your place today!
(Click here!)

Still available in 2007:
Two day, one night private wine tour packages
(to Médoc or Saint Emilion)
(Click here!)

and

Three day, two nights private wine tour packages
(to Médoc or Saint Emilion)
(Click here!)

All other tours for 2007 are sold out!

The Bordeaux Wine Experience Gift Vouchers
An original gift idea is a Bordeaux Wine Experience Gift Voucher.

These gift vouchers can be used for:

• Wine Day Tours,
• Paris Wine Tours,
• Full week wine tours.

You tell us what you would like to offer and we will prepare a beautiful invitation card that will serve as gift voucher for the tour you would like to offer.

These invitation cards are much appreciated and are considered an original and elegant gift.

Click here for more information.

Bordeaux:
Self catering accommodation at Chateau Coulon Laurensac
(Accommodation only available outside wine tour periods)

Chateau Chateau Coulon Laurensac is situated less than 10 minutes from the Bordeaux city center and offers two deluxe self catering gîtes for two persons and one self catering gîte for four persons.

Click here for more information.

The Bordeaux Wine Experience
Chateau Coulon Laurensac
1, chemin de Meydieu
33360 Latresne (BORDEAUX), France

Tel: +33 (0)556 20 64 12
Fax: +33(0)556 21 79 44

Email : info@BXWINEX.com
Web : www.BXWINEX.com
www.TheBordeauxWineBlog.com

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Copyright © 2007 by The Bordeaux Wine Experience. All rights reserved. The content, design and graphical elements of this newsletter are copyrighted. Please ask the permission of the author before copying or using this material.
The Bordeaux Wine Experience is a Dutch company specializing in wine and culinary tours in the Bordeaux region for an English speaking international clientele.