Letters
I’m a self-confessed Bordeaux lover, so eagerly tucked into the cru bourgeois article in your September issue. To me, the category has always been a signpost towards a good claret that mostly doesn’t enter the price bracket of the cru classé brigade. A good buy. Previous classifications left me – and I imagine most of us – ignoring the suffixes that follow the cru bourgeois status and just enjoying the wine. Thank goodness things have been cleared up with the 2020 classification! So... just to clarify: cru bourgeois can be exceptionnel, supérieur or just straightforward cru bourgeois. But won’t include the top cru bourgeois wines (Potensac, for instance) that most of us might recognise – always wise to leave your best players out to let others look good! But hang on, surely price will clarify things so that we can use that as a guide? Oops, they seem to range from £10 to £30+ a bottle. Anyone noticing the familiar muddy waters? I guess most of us will do what we always have with these wines and just read ‘cru bourgeois’ and give it a go as a reliable claret. But then, what was the point of the exercise? My guess is that it’s intended to provide badges and bragging rights among the châteaux, as I can’t see it providing a guiding light for the consumer!
B Dunstan, by email
wines above £20 and to describe them as ‘Weekday wines’ seems to perpetuate the elite image of wine. Just who are you appealing to when you choose to describe these as weekday wines, I wonder?
Gordon Fox, Warwickshire
Editor replies: Readers may notice that, starting with this issue, we have lowered the maximum price of our Weekday Wine recommendations from £25 to £20, and have introduced an additional page of wine recommendations at above £20, called Weekend Wines (see p24). We will continue to try and ensure a good spread of prices under the £20 limit, in Weekday Wines.
Where does the buck stop?
On opening a 2010 vintage Ribera del Duero made by a top producer recently, I realised immediately that it was corked. Initially I thought it had been a gift from a friend, but then remembered that I’d purchased further bottles from one of my regular suppliers, Vinissimus. I have a well-functioning wine fridge where the bottles have lain undisturbed since I bought them in 2015. Given the high profile of the winemaker and wine involved, I decided to make contact to express my dissatisfaction, enclosing the cork and bottle number. Their response was short and not so sweet! They would only refund through their agents and, not knowing how the wine had been kept, would not consider compensation.
Unless I’m mistaken, a corked bottle would be corked no matter how it had been kept. Hardly much customer care on their radar. Of course, on reflection I should have made my first point of contact the agent, in this case Vinissimus. This I eventually did and without hesitation they offered a full refund or replacement, despite the fact that the producer still refused to compensate them. Well done Vinissimus, but why should they carry the cost when it is clear the winemaker is responsible? Neil Bamber, by email