I am no longer angry

It has been a few days since we received this letter concerning our 2017 white. It is from a tasting by Quali-Bordeaux, the organisation in charge of tasting wines released to the market. It is clear that they did not like our wine, to say the least. For our part, we are very proud of this cuvée, because it is ripe, richly textured, and shows lovely ageing potential. But we must admit that this wine does not taste like a thiol-driven Sauvignon Bordeaux. In short, it does not smell of tropical fruit or citrus... We agree with the fifth taster: the wine showed reduction. That is normal; we chose neither to fine nor to filter this wine. It was bottled on its lees, and these lees continue to work, leading to reductive aromas. Any taster will tell you that reduction is not a serious issue. The wine is simply not ready to be tasted yet. And we had no choice other than having our wine tasted by Quali-Bordeaux after bottling. As for appealing, the re-tasting would take place in a few weeks and the verdict would inevitably be the same: reduced wine. I shall pass over the comments from the other tasters describing our wine as ‘stagnant’ or ‘putrid’. Unless the intention is to be insulting, I see no point in using such terms, which have no place in tasting vocabulary, especially to describe a wine that is merely reduced. So, what can we do with this wine now? We called to understand. We are allowed to sell it as Graves wine; we have simply lost 3 points on a penalty-point system that starts with 12. Oh, by the way, one of them noted SO2. Yet we used volcanic sulphur, 69 mg total with 15 free. This seems reasonable to us. We would have liked to use less, but the pH of 3.5 did not allow us to go any lower. So, what do we do for the future? We intend to increase the number of cuvées, particularly single-plot ones. This means multiplying the chances of receiving this type of unfavourable opinion. Logically, we would therefore have to limit ourselves to 2 or 3 cuvées and filter our wines to eliminate any risk of reduction. The other solution would be to opt for Vin de France for all our cuvées with character, and be satisfied with putting Graves only on filtered wines crafted to be enjoyed young and fruit-forward. We were far from imagining that right from the very first vintage, we would face such a dilemma. In any case, we will be delighted to have you taste this ‘putrid’ wine, and we can assure you that you will thoroughly enjoy it!