Clive Coates

[Chasse-Spleen]

This will probably sound funny, as I if I ran in and said, "I've discovered something amazing - this wine called Chateauneuf des Papes!" But, I had never really read anything by Clive Coates before. In any event, I was reading this great wine magazine that my friend Paul gave me, called Quarterly Review of Wines. Coates writes for them and he wrote a great article on a the Gros clan in Vosne-Romanee, focusing on Michel Gros. The article is fantastic in a historical sense, but also, in analysing one of the M. Gros wines, the 1er cru Clos de Reas, Coates gives a perfect snapshot of all the basic (and still alive) vintage characteristics going back over 20 years. It's awesome! And it's also on his website:

http://www.clive-coates.com/tastings/la ... os-de-reas

I'm sure it will be interesting for any Burgundy Devil to read. His projected drinking windows are one of the most fascinating aspects.

-Chasse

[rjsussex]

Yes he's something of a national treasure (in exile!), our Uncle Clive as many call him in the UK. I met him many times when he hosted Les Amis du Vin tastings decades ago and he was quite a snazzy salesman on those occasions, though once coming out with the most offensively sexist remark I've ever heard in public (about Las Cases 66) which of course I couldn't possibly repeat here.

Richard

[Chasse-Spleen]

Send me a PM!

[AKR]

I picked up a few of his books on Bdx on Amazon and am chewing my way through them.

They actually are pretty good reading, lots of estate history, and discussion of soil and climates.

For many estates he has details on whether the crop is hand harvested or machine picked.

Although I doubt my tastes line up like his, his books on Bdx should definitely be in the library of any BWE

[Michael-P]

Coates has a palette closest to mine than any other major critic and I have used his wonderful and fat book on Bordeaux to help guide my cellar filling. The only problem is, as far as I am aware, he hasn't done Bordeaux, or a book about Bordeaux, in years, so I use others to wind my way through the newer vintages. I'll bet he's a colorful guy!