With WineFuture now in the rear-view mirror TLN looks back on the three day industry info-extravaganza aimed at sharing ideas and best practices on how to grow the wine industry in Asia
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Robert Parker’s Magical 20 tasting of Bordeaux wines was the headline event for WineFuture but the big man fortunately brought a large enough spotlight to accommodate a crowd of other prominent wine industry celebrities.
All the big name writers like Jancis Robinson, Steven Spurrier and James Suckling were there along with big winery and chateaux owners, Michel Rolland and Francis Ford Coppola plus a handful of Masters of Wine.
With so many BIG wine personalities on hand milling about in the tasting area - then opining on the stage about wine quality, wine marketing, wine education, the value of social media, Asian food pairings, and how to convince the millennial generation that wine is “sexy” - it felt like a class reunion of old friends at times and like a congregation listening to the gospel at the Church of Wine at others.
Jancis Robinson’s Beyond Bordeaux tasting
As a wine presenter Jancis Robinson is unrivaled in her ability to deliver a witty, factual and anecdotally exciting review of wines – just brilliant really. She manages to talk technically about a wine in such an engaging, easy-going way. Jancis put together an eclectic tasting of excellent wines, both well-known and unknown, to illustrate her point that there is plenty of top-quality choice in the global wine market outside of Bordeaux.
One stand out example in the tasting line-up was a lesser-known Turkish wine, the Kavaklidere Prestige Öküzgözü (Öküzgözü is the grape) that was sandwiched in between two powerhouse wines, the Louis Jadot Gevrey Chambertin Clos Saint-Jacques 1990 and Gaja’s Barbaresco 2008.
Personal wine preferences aside (and fear of pronunciation gaffs) the Öküzgözü had a distinct personality and in terms of quality it was an unusual and pleasant surprise. It’s exciting to taste an indigenous grape wine that can hold it’s own next to an “international variety” and not drink like an unrefined, country bumpkin!
Wine Marketing Panel
The wine marketing panel discussion was highly memorable mainly as it featured a comical, burlesque demonstration of how to get consumer’s attention to your brand.
Chester Osborn of D’Arenberg Winery in Australia felt a bit hot on stage during his presentation on creative labeling and wine naming, so peeled of his clothing one layer at a time until he was down to his D’Arenberg skivvies – yes his speedo-like underwear made of his wine labels.
Shock-value in labels and winemaker presentation no doubt can gain lots of consumer attention – maybe even arrest charges for indecent exposure in some places! - but as I watch Chester I wondered if all wine brands took such an outrageous marketing tack whether consumers would think that the product actually makes a person go insane!
Robert Parker’s Magical 20
The most likely to “move the market” tasting was of course the Robert Parker tasting of Bordeaux wines. Parker selected 20 wines from the 2009 vintage that he believes are on par with First Growth Bordeaux wines and revealed his reasons for selecting them – beyond that they overall tasted really good.
The list might have been more revealing for what it didn’t include, but what it did include allowed tasters a chance to relate to the Parker palatal preference for big, powerful reds full of tannic heft and finesse. As Parker explained, all these wines met his essential criteria for recommending any wine: that the wine delivers both hedonistic and intellectual pleasure.
Go pour a glass now and think about that for a moment…
Aside from being a much heralded vintage, Parker chose to showcase the 2009 vintage because he believes these wines have a wide “window” of time to drink. That is to say, these wines are very approachable and enjoyable now, but they are also capable of ageing very well.
Joking about their youth Parker remarked on how “well-behaved” these children were for the tasting. It was true – they were not unruly “tannic” monsters but rather well-heeled young wines in most cases.
In the marketing discussion one of the panelists was advising wine marketers to identify their wine brand’s “personality” and anchor the marketing messaging on those traits. I had that in the back of my mind as I tasted through young, adolescent Magical 20 wines and found it easy to relate them to high-school personalities and cliques.
The homecoming queen of the 20 tasting for me was Château Pontet Canet, but the popularity contest was very close with lovely runner’s up Château Le Gay and Château La Fleur –Petrus. All three were radiant young beauties that exuded confidence and poise.
The handsome, strapping young captain of the football team had to be Château Lynch Bages – predictable, talented and reliable.
Then there are the drama students – you know, the really quirky, extraverted and bold types that are capable of changing characters on demand? The most likely to win a Wine Emmy were Château Trotanoy, Château Pichon-Lalande and Château Smith Haut-Lafite. All three really evolved in the glass throughout the 2 hour tasting and showed multiple personalities.
The serious, intellectual debate team types were Château Palmer, Château Haut Bailly and Château Pape Clement – all were clearly “thought provoking” wines with really distinctive attributes that could be debated all night long.
No class would be complete without the brooding, goth-types and the last two Château Clos Fourtet and Château Angelus fit that bill. These two were dense, dark, intelligent and deep…and like a true "EMO" they were loaded with yet-to-be-tapped potential.
My only advice on these wines is take your pick - they are all fantastic -but be quick to buy them before the prices get “Parker’d” further out of reach!
Here's the list
1. Château Haut-Bailly 2009
2. Ch. Rauzan-Ségla
3. Ch. Brane-Cantenac
4. Ch. Malescot St. Exupéry
5. Ch. Palmer
6. Ch. Smith Haut Lafitte
7. Ch. Pape Clement
8. Ch. La Fleur-Petrus
9. Ch. La Conseillante
10. Ch. Trotanoy
11. Ch. Le Gay
12. Ch. Leoville Las Cases
13. Ch. Leoville Poyferre
14. Ch. Pichon Lalande
15. Ch. Lynch-Bages
16. Ch. Pichon Baron
17. Ch. Pontet Canet
18. Ch. Cos D'Estournel
19. Ch. Clos Fourtet
20. Ch. Angelus
Contributed by Sarah Mayo, TLN Editor
