After the IWC today, I headed over to Lord’s for a Bordeaux tasting put on by Bibendum Wine. I love the way Bibendum treat their private customers like adults: for the last few years they have persuaded the Bordeaux producers to send cask samples and representatives over to let customers taste the new vintage for themselves, rather than forcing them to rely on critics.

So as well as some interesting back vintages, they had a whole bunch of the much talked about 2009s to taste. I managed to get round 27 of them, before it became quite crowded and my palate started to tire (I’d already tasted quite a lot of wines at the IWC). Here are my favourites. [Bear in mind these are cask samples, hence scores, out of 100, are given as a range.]

Château Pontet Canet 2009 Pauillac
Beautifully dense and taut with backward dark fruits, good tannins and some minerality. Lovely stuff. 94–96

Château Pichon-Longueville Baron 2009 Pauillac
Dense, focused and structured with lovely fruit. Concentrated with some new oak showing, as well as lovely structure. Serious effort. 93–95

Château Figeac 2009 St Emilion
Lovely focused blackcurrant nose with nice chalky edge. Dense, structured palate with lovely finish. Savoury and quite serious. 93–95

Château Petit Village 2009 Pomerol
Beautifully seductive with lovely sweet ripe fruit supported by incredibly soft but dense tannins. A forward, ripe wine but it’s in balance. Very impressive. 93–95

Château Angelus 2009 St Emilion
Very supple and bright with lovely density of precise, vibrant dark fruits backed up by firm yet smooth tannins. Great balance. 93–95

see the rest of my notes here.

Pictured (top): Christian Seely being Flipped by Jancis.