I really like the wines selected for evaluation and the points awarded by the Bordeaux Wine Experience to these 2010 First Growth Bordeaux Wine

2010 First Growths: my verdict

Chateau Lafite Rothschild

Ronald and Decanter Magazine’s Steven Spurrier (R) agree while tasting First Growth Lafite Rothschild: “How can one not give 20 points to a wine like this!”

Carruades de Lafite (18 points) 
A intense purple color. A fresh interesting nose with crisp red fruit. An elegant wine with a great length and a good complexity.

Chateau Duhart Milon (18.5 points)
Complex nose with loads of fresh red fruit. In the mouth an excellent complexity with layers of fruit. Good balance and acidity and strong elegant tannins. Great length.

Chateau Lafite Rothschild (20 points) 
A deep, dark concentrated color and a complex nose with some hints of herbs and violets. Impressive velvety tannins are very much present without being dominating. This wine has an incredible length. WOW Lafite did it again!

I hope you’ll enjoy reading this issue and I would love to get your feedback. (Ronald@BXWINEX.com).

Don’t drink anything I wouldn’t drink!

Cheers from Bordeaux,

Ronald Rens, M. Sc., Wine Master
Wine writer and President
The Bordeaux Wine Experience

What is a Journey?

What is a journey? Will you respond like Webster’s dictionary-“an act of going from one place to another”..? Usually a familiar word creates a familiar response yet I posit that journey can be defined more broadly.

I did travel from one place to another, drive a specific route, walk along a pathway, and tour a city. Yet, this word intrigues me because I define journey in different ways.

Three Types of Journeys

The first type of journey is purposeful planning coupled with progressive actions to achieve a specific end result-a college degree, new career, specific skill development.

The second type of journey is a forced unwilling path-relocation, job loss, cancer diagnosis, a death in the family.

The third type of journey is the unrecognized one from familiar daily events- a child learning to walk, to read or accumulating knowledge from a routine hobby-gardening, cooking, teaching.

Journey Defines Life Events

So journey to me defines many life events and happenings in my life. I want to stay and observe them carefully. Failure on my part to not notice a journey means I will miss it.

I find many journeys within the whole concept of wine even beginning with that parcel of land in front of my living room window. Every aspect from growing the grape varietals to harvesting, from wine making and to bottle production has a journey intimately connected to produce the final wine. It is hard to decide which journey is more critical.

I plan to take you along many wine journeys in the coming months. The fascination I have with journeys is what I learn about myself along the way.