Sunday, February 13, 2011

Consultants

For lunch, we drank:
Bad Girl 2008 served cool. It’s beginning to taste good, with fine bubbles and a nice palate.
Baby Bad Boy 2009 superb fruit, very aromatic, soft, the stress from bottling has been absorbed and this wines is bound to be successful. Merlot and Grenache work well together, especially when our consultant is talented.
Sansonnet 2008 : superb elegance with fine tannins and concentration, a difficult task, it will be one of the wines I will defend this year as I have no doubt that the 2010 will appeal to critics as well as customers.

The role of consultant can be misunderstood, even by people in the trade, broker, dealer, and even owner. The consultant, whatever their role, cannot perform miracles, turning a donkey into a racehorse, do the opposite of what is requested by the owner who pays and is entitled to get what he requests (or hopes).

The consultant I work with is from the Laboratoire Michel Rolland, Jean Philippe Fort. Our Valandraud doesn’t taste like Bellevue de Tayac, Virginie de Valandraud has the power that Bel Air Ouÿ lacks, etc…
In addition to Jean Philippe Fort for our reds in Saint Emilion, I hired Claude Gros for our wines in Lalande de Pomerol and Pomerol, he had been already working on our wines from the Roussillon and his talent has already been used by La Fleur Morange or Le Bouscat. The wines produced, of course, show the different terroir and techniques used.

For our whites, we asked Athanase Fakorellis to help us and both Murielle and I are happy with the result, even if we haven’t yet convinced some journalists. When our clients taste them, they love them and that’s what counts.
To finish with our team of consultants, Paul-Marie Morillon is helping us with the treatment of soils and vineyards, increasingly using eco-friendly treatments, it’s the least we can do for the hypochondriac that I am and our ISO 9001 and 14001 norms!
And that’s not all: I have two attorneys, a notary (lawyer), an accountant, auditor, and even a banker, who work as consultants.

Why all this spiel on consultants?
It’s to point out that even if I “consult” for a property, it is difficult to know what my exact role is, considering that it is different for Fleur Cardinale, Chateau de Carles, Marojallia or Sansonnet or even for the properties of the Fayat family.

Some properties only hire me to present their wines to the media, or to get my opinion on wholesalers, brokers, consultants, knowing that I mainly work with the Laboratoire Rolland, and often with Alain Raynaud, and that I like the work of Toutoundji, Dubourdieu, etc…

Where I “fail” is that if I am hired as consultant, this does not mean that the wines will have 100 points from Parker, Wine Spectator and other media. But maybe this is the fault of the other consultants…

Where I'm not good, is that where I work, I cannot always make concentrated wines (that is supposed to be my trademark), those who think it did not properly taste Valandraud

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