Freshness and delicacy characterised the best wines shown at a tasting of the wines of Slovenia in June in London’s Millbank. A group of thirty or so growers, some already with UK distribution, others seeking it, showed a range of appetising whites and a number of impressive reds that showed good depth and density.

So we have a week to collect ourselves during Vinexpo, Bordeaux’s wine trade fair that runs this week, to assess just where we are with the controversial release prices of the 2010 Bordeaux vintage. If you thought prices for 2009 were a bit heady then so far the prices of some 2010s have been eye-watering. In certain notable cases prices are up 40% year on year and that on top of similar increases last year. You wonder why Bank of England chief Mervyn King is losing sleep about the UK’s paltry 4.5% inflation rate. Small beer Merv, get with it. Bordeaux’s up ten times as much.

I’ve been a fan of Jean-Marc Brocard’s Chablis for some time. It’s usually good value and delivers appetizing, moreish Chablis in a pretty classical style. What’s more increasingly production here is being converted to bio-dynamic methods and long term they are looking for all their vineyards to be tended along those lines. For those with a keen eye, Brocard’s bio-dynamic wines are identified by miniature ladybirds and half-moons on the label as in the bottle of Vaulorent above. I recently had the chance to taste wines from the 2009 vintage which has lovely forward and ripe qualities, probably slightly atypical for Chablis, but nevertheless there is still good balancing acid and wonderful minerality as you would expect. Two 2010’s were also tasted under the less expensive Domaine St Claire label and looked pretty good too.

Zlatan Otok makes some interesting wines on the Croatian island of Hvar. The white Pošip is pretty good and their Plavac Mali, in various guises, ranges from the meaty to the tannic. The Crljmenak [Primitivo] 2008 was also pretty good. I thought that Gracin made an interesting red from the Babić variety. I also had a look through the wines of Korta Katarina in southern Dalmatia – lively whites from the Pošip grape and gamey, forest floor Plavac Mail from Dingac and Postup. These wines are clearly only a fractional snapshot of what is going in Croatia.