Duchesse de Pauillac, 2019

This is no way a sense of style over substance, nor a marketing ploy: it is a very, very fine wine, made for one of our Negociant houses in Bordeaux by Château Duhart Milhon. 

As they themselves don't put their name to any official second wine or wines, this is by default their second wine! It is bottled by our friends who have been doing this work sice the late 1700s. It's really very good indeed and full of the classic blackcurrant and pencil, developing leather and cedar aromas that you want to get from a Pauillac, property, but without the price tag you normally get from the big names.

Hand harvested grapes, fermented in steel and then aged for 18 months in French oak barrels. It's pretty much a classic recipe for fine wine - just that here we have a commercial contract that is still in place allowing us to enjoy serious wine at a superb price. 

I think most of us who are interested in Bordeaux may well assume that the Châteaux are highly protective and respectfully competitive of each other's activities, making only the purest expressions of their terroir to offer their long-standing, wine-loving clientele. The reality is slightly more nuanced and with the developing range of second (and third) wines, not to mention collaborative projects, there is an emerging sense that the region and its industry is trying to modernise in its business practices.

This sense of a shift has essentially opened up lower priced access to the top Châteaux: but what that has done, of course, is rarefy the tete de cuvée with increasing prices for those wines. Or the other way round: the premier Châteaux become increasingly expensive and the demand is too high, so they increase supply by releasing second wines, thereby maintaining the prestige of the first wine. 

Clever chaps.

But this trading and refinement is nothing new and in fact brings us back to this specific wine and its name. One of the pioneering business people to champion the actual business of Bordeaux in national and international markets, pushing for higher wine-making practices and the concept of individual Châteaux wines, was the Duchess of Pauillac, in the 19th Century. She was a land owner and had a collection of Châteaux (which wasn't uncommon) but led the quality growth in the region by example.

Our friends have long admired her and decided that they would name their very fine traded Pauillac in her honour.

Gold medal from the Lyon Concours for this vintage. It's really, really good, I'm telling you!