I’ve missed out on tasting Château Durfort-Vivens for the past few years during primeurs. I’m very sorry that I have. Durfort-Vivens is now biodynamically farmed and their 2016 looks to be a fantastic wine in the making. The emphasis is on the most beautiful aromatics. The delicacy of the wine on the palate is alluring. Yet this intriguing combination also hides power and scale. It is the best wine I have had recently from this property that has superb terroir adjacent to Château Rauzan Ségla, Château Palmer and Château Margaux. Château Ferrière and Château La Gurgue also looked very good indeed when tasted at the property. They have that beautiful Margaux perfume.

Alfred Tesseron of Chateau Pontet-Canet in Pauillac

I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have had a different agenda. I fear that you might suggest I should rechristen the site ‘wine, hagiography and videotape’ – that’s before you berate me for not posting any videotape yet either – those vast millions of you quietly visiting this site each day! Would I be better writing about the most under-performing estates in Bordeaux rather than the other way round? Say – ‘Five ways to squander great terrior’? That way I could try and answer the question why Chateau Rauzan-Gassies is not a patch on Chateau Rauzan-Ségla, for example. How about a list of the most over-extracted wines in St Emilion – wait a minute I haven’t the space….  How about ‘Slave to labels’ – crus classé to avoid at all costs? This all sounds rather fun, but I’m not yet finished with the hagiographies, though the following property I’m about to describe would have certainly made it onto a list of disappointing estates prior to its purchase by a family of cognac merchants in the mid-seventies.