Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The end of the cork ?

Yesterday, at 11:30am, I received 4 Koreans at Valandraud, 2 of them speaking pretty good French. Receiving Koreans will be more frequent for us as this country is becoming a priority. Every year, I set targets for my sales team and Korea has already largely passed its objectives.

During the meal, my Korean guests were somewhat “French”: gourmand, smiling, happy. One of them wanted to drink Valandraud 1995 and told us that it was its 9th bottle. It was the best I drank so far. It is always the same story, each bottle has its own life and cork…
Before, we drank samples of Blanc de Valandraud N° 2 2007 and Virginie de Valandraud 2005, still much too young. We ended with a bottle of Les 3 Marie 2005 which will most likely become in a few years, one of the best wines produced in the South of France. This extraordinary varietal that is Grenache is, in this vintage, showing great aromas and special flavors of black cherries with a hint of chocolate: a delight, with a touch of wood, still a bit too present, but which will disappear with time.
This wine was not heavy even though it is rich; its acidity and freshness are clearly present despite coming from the South.

In the afternoon, I worked on the ads for the special edition of Revue du Vin de France on the “Foire aux Vins”. I had dinner with a Don Quichotte fighting corks. He wants (and seems to succeed) to develop an airtight glass cork for our bottles.
All he needs is 20 million Euros of investment.
Too bad I don’t have them!

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