Let the games commence...

After promising a bit of background and the odd story about some of the wines we are hoping to feature during this Bordeaux sales campaign, it is with some pleasure that one of the first wines to be released is Chateau Beaumont. I say pleasure because this wine is a great example of the strengths of the vintage - exactly the reason we are excited about Bordeaux 2005. Ripe round fruit, good balance, delicious freshness…and a very reasonable price tag at only £75 per dozen in bond. That's under £9 delivered…pretty good I’d say.

The Mansard-style chateau on the property was built in 1854 by the Bonnin brothers. Then it starts to get really interesting! In 1860, the Comte de Gennes, the great uncle of Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Nobel Prize-winner for Physics in 1991, bought the property. He sold it in 1872 to Jean-Victor Herran, Minister for Honduras. Parisian industrialist Joseph Germain succeeded him in 1890 and sunk plenty of investment in, really raising the status of the Chateau. From 1920 to 1986, the estate passed successively from the Della Grazia company of Milan to Lieutenant Colonel Ignacio Andrade, to the former Venezuelan senator Dionisio Ramon Bolivar Carvajal and then to Bernard Soulas, who entirely redeveloped the vineyard and restored the chateau. These days the Societe Grands Millesimes de France are in the driving seat and a very good job they seem to be doing too.

The cepage is usually around 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot and they have 114 hectares under vine. The Chateau (above) is a pretty splendid-looking place as you can see. Perfect for some duck gizzard salad with a spot of lunchtime claret on the lawns. Anyone...?

Have a look at our website for all of the team’s other tasting notes.