Were the 2007 Bordeaux really that bad? part 2

I suppose the only way to tell if a year is good or bad is to sample the wines and to tell if they are improving is to keep on trying them. The only problem with this is if the wine is not great but is improving over the years and you are testing it annually by the time it comes to perfection you might not have many bottles left.

One benefit of belonging to a wine club is that they will occasionally host a night where you might get the opportunity to try something special, or at least something you would not normally get to try.

Such was the situation with the 2007 Bordeaux where 10 bottles were lined up for blind tasting with only the names available to us, and oh what a list of names.

Regrettably all of the 2007 Bordeaux were definitely not up to the standards of earlier years as all were a little weak in both length and in flavor. All were high in tannins and a number of them quite sharp in taste leaving an almost metallic taste in the mouth.

The better known names definitely came out on top although there were a couple of surprises. What was very apparent when collating the scores was that there was a polarization of opinion on a number of the wines with some people marking the wines very high with others marking the same wines very low.

The results to some are the all important thing for a wine tasting night although personally I find it the experience and hope of getting to sample some great wines. Not this time but maybe next time

For those that want to know the results of the blind tasting were as follows

1st Chateau Angelus, St Emilion 2007 Premier Grand Cru Classe
2nd Chateau L'Evangile, Pomerol 2007
3rd Chateau Cos D' Estournel, St Estephe 2007 Premier Grand Cru Classe
4th Chateau Brane Cantenac, Margaux, 2005 2eme Grand Cru Classe
5th Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, Pauillac 2007, 2eme Grand Cru Classe
6th Gerard Betrand Cigalus Rouge, Langeudoc Roussillon 2008
7th Chateau D' Armailhac, Pauillac 2007 5eme Grand Cru Classic
8th Chateau Pichon Longueville Baron, Pauillac 2007 2eme Grand Cru Classic
9th Chateau Lynch Bages Grand Cru Classe, Pauillac 2007, 5eme Grand Cru Classe
10th Chateau L' Evangile Pomerol 2007

Next month's wine tasting is followed by a dinner with the wines from the tasting matched to food so it will be interesting to see how the wine changes when served with food.

Were the 2007 Bordeaux really that bad? part 1

After a run of very good years the conditions for the 2007 vintage were not ideal resulting in the initial reports on the quality of wine not being good.

Up until 1999 a good bottle of Bordeaux would cost you around £10 but it all went wrong, from a consumers viewpoint, on the turn of the century.

A number of very smart marketers in the Bordeaux region saw the benefits that the Millennium year could bring and made a concerted effort to place Bordeaux wines as being THE drink to have for the New Year if you were a serious wine drinker rather than champagne that everyone would be drinking.

This was couple by excellent growing conditions and near perfect ripening conditions resulting in an excellent vintage.

What many people do not know is that you do not buy wine from the Chateau or grower but rather from a "negociant" who buy the wines on speculation, almost like buying futures, and then hope that the wine is an excellent one when it is ready for drinking 2 years later, although many Bordeaux are much better left for longer periods.

In order to be able to bid for the following year's crop a negociant must buy a certain amount of product in the current year.

The early marketing of the Millennium crop meant that prices rose steeply in 2000 and the perfect year in 2003 meant that the prices rose considerably, in some instances doubling the previous year's highs.

Because of the tight restrictions on watering and cropping, unlike in Australia and other New World regions, Bordeaux wines often bounce between excellent years and bad years with average ones in between. The first decade of the century however bucked this and in 2005 had another near perfect year producing another excellent vintage, the second in 2 years.

This created a lot of excitement in the industry and coupled with strong economic situation around the world resulted in prices spiraling upwards.

2006 was an OK year but retained the excitement from 2006 and once again prices rose sharply but it was in 2007 that the bubble burst in terms of quality but not the prices as the negociants were desperate to retain their bidding rights to the 2008 crop so many in the industry felt that the prices paid were excessive given the expected quality of the wines.

2008 was an OK year but 2009 once again was a good year and has set new benchmarks in terms of pricing - a bottle of 2009 Lafite Rothschild was selling for 1600 Euros per bottle with negociants. Wine speculators are expecting to make bumper profits on this which could mean that bottles will be reaching the market for over 2,000 Euros a bottle putting it far beyond the affordability for the normal wine drinker, and quite a few of the not so normal wine drinkers.

Story of Rice

It is the most important food stuff in the world and the basic staple of possible half of the world's population. There are thousands of different varieties and nearly as many different ways of cooking it - I am of course referring to RICE

What has always been uncertain is just where and when man first decided to cultivate it. It has long been agreed that there are 2 sub-species of rice with one being predominant in China with the other in India but until very recently it has been thought that the domestication of rice occurred in a number of different locations over thousands of years

In a recent study in the Philippines broke down the genome to its most basic levels to determine just where it came from and it would appear that all rice is the same at this lowest of levels.

This means that it all comes from a single source and that has been determined as being from China with the first domestication taking place about 8,000 years ago and then transported to India about 4,000 years ago

Some burnt rice remnants were found in South Korea a few years ago and carbon dating seems to place these back over 15,000 years ago but there is still a lot of controversy over these findings and accuracy of the data

There are fundamental differences in length, consistency and taste between the 2 sub species which could be explained by accidental cross fertilization with local wild rice in India but they are still cooked and prepared in the same way, most of the time anyway

Everyone has their preference as to which rice is the best but personally I think it depends on what you are eating. On the whole I think that the longer Jasmine rice is better as an accompaniment to curries and dry cooked or tandoori chicken whilst the shorter rice goes better with the Chinese style stir fry dishes.

Another particular favorite and something I had not had before is sticky rice which is very popular in Thailand and is part of one of the regional dishes served with grilled chicken and som tum, a very spicy green papaya salad.

In the east, rice becomes a main ingredient in kitchen, on traditional dish in Costa Rican cuisine. A combination of rice and beans called 'Gallo Pinto', serve with vary of 'mariscos', fresh seafood, direct from Costa Rica coast.

In the west rice is seen as something to be had when dining out at the local Chinese or Indian restaurants but for many people it is the only source of sustenance that they enjoy, and not every day either.