In which Claudius comes to Bordeaux

[AlexR]

When Mark Dignam, AKA Claudius2, wrote that he was coming to Bordeaux, I thought we must meet. Australian-born, but a long-time resident of Singapore, Mark is a regular contributor to BWE and the only member of our community from outside Europe or North America. He’s definitely not afraid of expressing strong opinions and controversy which has, on occasion, erupted into something tantamount to a cat fight. But let he who is without guilt cast the first stone…

It is always interesting to meet people you’ve only known virtually. One inevitably forms a mental image of what that person looks like and what their personality is. Mark did not correspond at all to my preconceived notion. He is younger than me and actually rather soft-spoken. He is passionate about fine wine and has a great deal of knowledge.

Mark and his Chinese wife Wendy came to my house for lunch on Tuesday, a national holiday (All Saints Day’). There were kind enough to bring a chilled bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne as well as two bottles of fine Australian wines they had lugged all the way from Singapore. Heck, guests like that can come over whenever they want!

We (there were 6 of us altogether) went on to drink one white wine, three reds, and a sticky.

The white, served blind, was a 2016 Pouilly Fuissé “Tournant de Pouilly” from J.A. Ferret. While not at all premoxed, this had a deeper color and an older taste profile than its 6 years would suggest. People struggled to guess the wine’s origin because it was neither a rich oaky wine reminiscent of the Côte de Beaune, nor a chiselled sharp wine like a Chablis. I bought this bottle at the Jadot cellars in Beaune, and believe they must have some sort of distribution agreement with the producer. All in all, the wine was good and I would love to visit the domaine one day. Perhaps I will do so next spring when I intend to spend a week in southern Burgundy, seeing as wines from the Côte d’Or are now terribly expensive.

The next two wines were not served blind.

Yarra Yarra is, or rather was, a very small vineyard in Victoria’s Yarra Valley. Unfortunately, they suffered severe fire damage in 2009 and the winery is making a difficult comeback, having produced little or no wine for years. In any event, Mark knows and loves the 2001 Yarra Yarra. As it turns out, he was more critical of the wine than the rest of us (it had, of course, been trundled around), who found it a delicious meaty sort of Cabernet, but one with low alcohol and not too much oak. The color was decidedly browning, but the wine was very much alive and a treat.

Next up was the 2008 Mount Mary “Quintet”, also from the Yarra Valley. This is a well-known estate, whose wine I’ve enjoyed on several occasions. The bottle we shared was in very good condition and in a very different style from the previous, leaning towards more elegance rather than robustness. It had a penetrating, fresh taste and received a thumbs-up all around.

The last red wine was served blind. Since Figeac was promoted to the loftiest (and loneliest!) category in the most recent Saint-Emilion classification, I decided it would be a good time to revisit an aged version to see if it was up to snuff. The short answer is: yes, it was. The colour showed some bricking, but the core was very deep indeed. The bouquet was classic and somewhat confounding due to the high percentage of Cabernet (35% each of Sauvignon and Franc), which is why most people guessed a Left Bank wine, with one person opting for Pomerol. Everyone found the wine to be excellent, although two people thought the aftertaste could have been more subtle and prolonged. As for myself, I found the wine to be superb and I long to taste it one day up against a Cheval Blanc. The only shortcoming to me was that the nose didn’t quite meet the standard of the memorable palate.

The last wine, 2001 Ch. La Tour Blanche, was also served blind. Everyone correctly guessed Sauternes with several people thinking it might be a Barsac because of the moderate sweetness and minerality on the finish. This wine is in a very good place now and showed rather well. This particular vintage has sentimental value for me because my family and I spent a day picking grapes at La Tour Blanche that year, noted for its heavy botrytisation.

Well, the web of BWE camaraderie has spread once again. I very much enjoyed meeting the Dignams and learning from Mark about life in Singapore, his career in health care administration and, of course, the breadth of his experience with Bordeaux. We inevitably discussed other BWEers and regretted that the most recent BWE Grand Tour to Bordeaux had to be cancelled due to covid.

Best regards,
Alex R.

P.S.: Claudius comes from the name of Mark's cat!

[JimHow]

The sun never sets on BWE.

Long live BWE!

[JoelD]

Always great when BWEers can meet up from other countries. Sounds like a fun tasting.

What was the vintage on the Figeac? I've mistaken the 1990 for a left bank more than once.

[AlexR]

Silly me. I forgot to mention the vintage of the Figeac.

It was a 2000.

AR

[DavidG]

Nice report. Glad to see you got together.

I’m a fan of Mount Mary Quintet but have only seen it when friends bring it over from Australia. It’s more Bordeaux-like than most Australian wines I’m familiar with. Checking WineSearcher, looks like Wine Exchange now brings it in.

[jal]

How delightful, Alex and Christine are wonderful hosts.

Alex, here's Burghound's note on Ferret and it's relationship to Jadot:

This historic 18 ha domaine was sold to Maison Louis Jadot in 2008 and is now operating under their auspices even though the Ferret label is still used. In keeping with the long-standing tradition of women winemakers at Ferret, Audrey Braccini was hired to manage the domaine after the Jadot acquisition. She told me that the basic approach that she is using is reasonable yields, absolutely no lees stirring, 35% new wood and an élevage period of 18 months.

[Claudius2]

Alex
Again, many thanks to you and Christine for your wonderful hospitality and it was also fun to meet your two friends who also had very good wine knowledge.

One thing I’ll also remember was the fire at the Hilton Garden Inn and midnight evacuation. Once happened to me in Switzerland but this was more serious.

A few comments about the wines:

Nicolas Feuillatte NV - reasonable but rather simple. A bit overly sweet but had enough yeasty characters and acid to make it pleasant.

2016 Pouilly Fuisse - not sure if this wine was over developed but it did not seem like a 2016. Okay wine but not particularly memorable.

2001 The Yarra Yarra - not sure it travelled well. Seemed more forward than previous bottles and the colour was mahogany at the rim and nose a bit stinky. After carrying this from Aust to Singapore and then to Paris and eventually Bordeaux, I think it was beaten up from travel somewhat but still had some interest on the palate.

2008 Mount Mary Quintet (Bordeaux blend) - in good shape with nice minerality to match the fruit. Low in alcohol and with a long, cool palate. A bit old fashioned compared to modern hi alcohol wines. My fav on the night.

2000 Figeac - very nice wine. Merlot on the nose and with a complex palate showing a lot of savoury, spicy characters. Fuller than the Mount Mary and very drinkable. It seemed to show overt Cab Franc characters to me which threw me off the trail. Very good overall.

The La Tour Blanche was pretty good with some aged characters and good balance. Lacks the complexity of the best Sauternes but fun to drink with dessert.

Alex and Tomas then opened Hine cognac. I do get why some love this drink but it is too spirity for me. Has a fruity character that was nice.

Some of the discussion was about hot vintages (2003, 2022) and alcohol levels so I raised the issue of my frustration with 2003 and the style of wines that taste like they were from the Riverina or Calif Central Valley. I won’t go on as we’ve all had this out on numerous occasions.

Got to San Sebastián today and after Galician Albarino, Muga Prada Enea and some St Emilions, I’m exhausted. The FlixBus trip was rather unpleasant but at least did not catch fire.

Cheers
Mark

PS I was Claudius until 2009 and changed it to Claudius2 in 2009 or 2010 as I could not use the same account in Singapore.

[stefan]

Great that you & Wendy got to visit Alex & Christine, who are great hosts and a lot of fun.

La Tour Blanche or Doisy Vedrines? These are very different. Alex's comments sound more like DV, which really is a Barsac, than LTB, which is noted for richness.

[Nicklasss]

Very nice story, very nice wines.

It is always fun to read about BWEers that are meeting each other for the first time.

J.A. Ferret is an excellent Pouilly-Fuissé producer.

200 Figeac, i remember when we had it blind at a Washington DC convention, and the bottle pour i had was vegetally impacted. But still concentrated and black fruit. Must be better today.

[greatbxfreak]

Mark,

You came all the way from Australia to Bordeaux and you take Flix bus to San Sebastian?? Instead to have pleasant journey with French train??

Why not TGV, you could have ticket both ways for about 40 Euros.

I advise you to book a table for dinner at Ikaitz ) incredible value for money) and visit one of the best places for pintxos, Beti Jai Berria.

[Claudius2]

Stefan
Oops sorry I’ve edited the name. No idea why I said that. Maybe too late in the night.

Izak
We took the TGV from Paris to Bordeaux which only takes 150 mins. You can’t get the fast train from Bdx to SS as the train stops at Hendyne and requires a change of platform to join with Spanish trains.

We are staying with a local friend here who has largely made the choices. We caught up with him in Paris with his NYC girlfriend who is a Chinese opera singer and mainly works in HK. All getting complex.

Cheers
Mark

[greatbxfreak]

Mark,

Correct, but you change platform in Hendaye and take a local train to SS centre. 2.50 Euros and 45 minutes travel.

Still think Flix bus is a wrong choice for saving money.

I stayed in SS both in 2019 and this year. It's a beautiful city and next time I will stay there longer than 2-3 days.

I hope your local friend has prepared some good program for you. Getaria?

[Claudius2]

Izak
Last time we did this trip, we did catch the train and changed as Hendye. We thought the bus may be fine as it is on the motorway most of the time but it was a bit of a pain as it wasted a lot of time winding around narrow roads in Bayonne and Biarritz before working its way to SS.

The bus we got on was very dirty inside as nobody had bothered to clean anything before we got on, it was very stuffy on board and a bit few passengers had hygiene issues and the smell wasn’t something I want to experience again. But realistically that can happen on a train too.

Our friend in SS is a great cook so he’s been cooking monkfish and hake so far which we drank with aGalician Albarino and had the reds with ceps and eggs.

I have drunk too much so far on this trip and will try to detox in the next stop at Bilbao.

Cheers
Mark

[Nicklasss]

By the way, not even a small picture?

[Claudius2]

Yes will try to post later

[greatbxfreak]

The standard of train in France are quite high.

Even TER is nice.

Both times I went to Sebastian were at 1. class and upper deck.

This with no cleaning etc is common issue with Flix.

[AKR]

Nice notes. Thanks for the backstory on the Feret, which has always been a strange outlier at our grocer, but I suppose must make sense given all the basic Jadot that is trafficked there.

[Claudius2]

Guys
Now on ALSA bus which is much better. Does not feel like cattle class but the road to Bilbao is very windy.

[Comte Flaneur]

Nice dinner for Mark and Wendy to meet Alex and Christine. Alex and Christine are the consummate hosts, and I have attended many a memorable dinner in their dining room.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip Mark.

[Blanquito]

My memories of Alex and Christine’s dining room… ‘nuff said.

[AlexR]

Hi,

It must be said that rhe wines in the bottom photo were donated by Ian. And what amazing wines they were! I often feel that Bordeaux wines are opened too old, but here was a 90 Pétrus over 30 years old that was just an adolescent with a brilliant future ahead. And what can I say about comparing it with Le Pin from the same year? A unique experience, for sure.
Thank you Ian!

Alex R.

[Musigny 151]

Excellent notes. I am in the 2000 Figeac is vegetal camp, but then I have had problems with the same vintage with Sociando Mallet and Pichon Lalande.

I think you should have been Claudius in your second iteration.

[Claudius2]

Ian
If you donated those wives, then you are a very generous guest. Coming to Bordeaux, I was initially thinking of bringing the same though I then thought that Alex had probably no need for more so I thought a few wines from Australia would be a change of direction.

In what order were they tasted?

Cheers
Mark

[Claudius2]

Excellent notes. I am in the 2000 Figeac is vegetal camp, but then I have had problems with the same vintage with Sociando Mallet and Pichon Lalande.

I think you should have been Claudius in your second iteration.

I moved to balmy Singapore in 2009, after being a BWE member since inception. When I tried to log in over here, I could not access my account. Maybe the change of domain country blocked me - I’m having similar issues with some sites over here in Spain whilst using a UK SIM card left over from Wendy’s cancelled trip to London.

I just added the “2” thinking that everyone would assume it was the same person. Unfortunately the real Claudius passed away in 2004.
Cheers
Mark

[Musigny 151]

Sorry, didn’t know

[Comte Flaneur]

Ian
If you donated those wives, then you are a very generous guest. Coming to Bordeaux, I was initially thinking of bringing the same though I then thought that Alex had probably no need for more so I thought a few wines from Australia would be a change of direction.

In what order were they tasted?

Cheers
Mark

You could have brought along 51, 61, 71 and 81 Granges Hermitage Mark.

They were served in the order of the picture left to right

[Claudius2]

Ian
Sorry never really been a lover of Grange. It is a flagship Aust wine for sure but I have drunk even the first experimental vintage and it never really sung for me. I occasionally pick up back vintages but less so in Singapore.

Some years ago I did a big Grange vertical hosted by James Halliday where every vintage to date was opened (the first in a handwritten half bottle) and I liked them but for the same price, there are lots of other wines I’d grab first.

I have also found it hard to drink Shiraz based wines in Singapore due to the weather and stopped buying them with few exceptions.

Cheers
Mark

[marcs]

Sounds like a great evening! And the reminder of the 1990 Petrus vs Le Pij so generously donated by Ian is making me drool lol

Where did the 2000 Figeac seem to be on its aging curve? I have a few bottles. I like a vegetal touch as long as there is underlying fruit sweetness. The 2000 Figeac we had at BWE 2000 seemed like it was a bit underfruited, that doesn’t seem like the case here