The Complete Bordeaux

"I do speak from a very privileged position. I’m really lucky that people share the most fantastic bottles with me, so I’ve had the chance, and still have the chance, to taste some of the finest wines in the world. In fact, I wrote recently, that the only people who get to drink first growth Bordeaux are oligarchs, oil sheiks, IT billionaires and wine writers. My choice of The Complete Bordeaux by Stephen Brook is because it is the most up-to-date English language guide, with value judgements, to the region with the most soi-disant fine wines in it, the Bordeaux region. The irony is that, actually, Bordeaux also has some of the best value nowadays. Although the crème de la crème, Bordeaux’s top wines, are completely, ridiculously expensive, the region produces such a range of wines that the bottom layer, the petits chateaux, are some of the best value. You can get some really nice wine for about 10 pounds a bottle. “Although the crème de la crème, Bordeaux’s top wines, are completely, ridiculously expensive, the region produces such a range of wines that the bottom layer, the petits chateaux, are some of the best value. ” This is serious, fine, well-made wine because the techniques that those at the bottom of the ladder use are remarkably similar to those at the top, and yet the prices are very, very different. So it is useful to have a good guide around that region, and Stephen’s, who has been writing about wine for as long as I have, is a very good, dispassionate one. Stephen—and I—are probably somewhere between the two. It is not dry and scientific. I don’t think Stephen is particularly interested in science. It’s got lots of value judgements, and it is a good solid read. It’s not dull, but it’s not airy fairy, ‘This wine reminds me of something poetic.’ I think there’s definitely a place for it, as long as it doesn’t go too far into the realm of fancy and as long as you are convinced to buy it. Sometimes you think that people have run out of something to say. I’m very sceptical of any tasting note that has more than four flavours in it. An American tasting note, in particular, can have up to twenty. As I understand it, physiologists say that’s actually technically impossible, to taste as many flavours as that. Also, you see the same old flavours coming up again and again and again. I don’t think that a long list of flavours is particularly useful for the consumer because we all taste differently, and it must be rather off-putting for the consumer to read 20 different flavours and think, ‘Heck! I can only taste two of those.’ Nor does anyone get up in the morning and say, ‘I just have to get my hands on a bottle that’s got a touch of fenugreek and oolong tea.’ So I’m a bit anti those. Probably, for my tasting notes, the length of them is a good measure of my enthusiasm. Sometimes they are very terse. But, at least, they are honest. They’re just what I think. It will tell you about all the wines that he’s tasted and what he thought of them. It gives you, in a nicely visually presented form, basic facts like the area of the vineyard and what it’s planted with. The book is actually a direct successor to a brilliant book that I used to use as my guide to Bordeaux by my predecessor at the Financial Times , Edmund Penning-Rowsell. He was chairman of the Wine Society and wrote a fantastic book called The Wines of Bordeaux , which was an increasingly thick Penguin paperback. What I loved about Edmund’s style of writing, which I think, perhaps, mine is slightly like, is that he presents a lot of information—a bit like Henry James—and then, suddenly, as long as you’re paying attention, there’s a little wry joke in the middle. Yes, to a certain extent. It doesn’t have room, unfortunately, for every little one, but it would help you with that."