The Bordeaux wine marketing machine so often seems to be down for the count but unseemingly it bounces back.

Well when I say that, it’s the Grand Cru Classe levels of Bordeaux which continue to sell well despite the bumpy ride from the GFC and a highly charged market.

That’s in some countries, particularly China and Hong Kong whereas in the US Bordeaux has been dumped on the local market at half cost due to lack of demand. It got so bad that one major wholesaler chose to vacate the Bordeaux category after two decades of participation.

And to save the day some Chateaux held their prices by buying back a raft of recent vintages from their US distributors, and re-directing the stock to East Asia.

The real issue is that enthusiastic buyers paid too much for the 2007 Bordeaux in general, for mediocre wines with too many market intermediaries adding to the “spin”.

And so when the better 2008 came along, in a saturated market the spin merchants ran short of higher prices, though many Chateaux owners had this in mind, though never revealed.

Now there is more hype that 2009 is fantastic with parallels drawn to other great years of decades gone by. Most probably the promoters of the hype are the beneficiaries of such sales because my considered opinion is not to get too carried away.

With a new vintage the real assessments only come out 5 and 10 years on to confirm or deny of holding up or simply being a disappointment.

Despite such levelling debate the Hong Kong auction scene has gone into the stratosphere with pricing for gems such as 1982 Petrus and 1990 Lafite of late, virtually raising the interest in all classed (meaning highly priced Bordeaux wine) into the bargain.

The 2009 primeur campaign (meaning pay for it now and receive the wine in 2012) is hotting up with most of the noise coming from Asia.

Yesterday UK’s Decanter magazine launched its Chinese version of the coverage which will be emailed from its Taiwan-base. http://www.decanter.com/news/296393.html

And my colleague Jeannie Cho Lee MW has been hot on this one, with special treatment visiting Chateaux in advance for 2009 tastings with advice that visitor numbers will run from 600-1200 people per day per property for the primeur week (early April).

Jeannie further advises that Thibault Pontallier, son of Margaux’s winemaker Paul will live in Hong Kong to manage the East Asian sales. Now that’s an endorsement of the drinking future for cabernet in the East.

A March 7 article in the UK Sunday Times tells us what we already know but cannot change while the French winemakers know also and remain sitting on their conservative hands.

As the newspaper reports -”It is not yet understood why, but premature oxidation is making many white burgundy vintages almost undrinkable just when they should be coming into their own.”

“Everywhere else in the world this worrying problem is the subject of internet websites dedicated entirely to it,” said Bernard Burtschy, a highly respected French wine critic. “But there is a real ‘omerta’, or code of honour, on the subject in France.”

Producers are under attack for refusing to replace highly expensive “grand cru” bottles of white burgundy that should have been at their best a decade after being bottled but which instead tasted like sherry.

With the big rise in red burgundy sales in East Asia I’d be very concerned about Burgundian reputations because one bottle in ten is cork tainted and probably another two letting in sufficient air to sherrify or be partly there depending on bottle age.

And once the auctioneer’s hammer falls on DRC Romanee Conti there is no recourse if the wine is foul from cork failure. Top end burgundy is really hot in Hong Kong auctions at present.

I am reminded by the writings of a fellow MW writing about his Greek brands as follows “a recent tasting of Skouras chardonnays and viogniers prove that screw caps rule-keep freshness and direct development down great pathways”.

Meanwhile Jancis Robinson MW reports “Gaia Gaja tells me Italians are very anti screw cap-but our tasting of young German rieslings shows their preservative qualities clearly”.

The terribly affable Ernst Loosen would be keen to hear that now that he totes his rieslings around the world under screw.

And what is more entertaining many Italian wines imported into Australia come under screw. The importers don’t want the problems with cork and re-sellers don’t want the problem with returned bottles complaining about taint. Others from this part of the world come with synthetic closures which do look cheap while the wine is often quite good, but the buyer does not know of the closure until extraction time!

Writer Robert Joseph made light of the fact that the French were now discussing a problem which emerged over twenty years ago and has been serially destroying their prized products since then despite the wholesale inaction.

He wrote to me further saying that it was easier to sell a cork-closed Super Tuscan than a screw capped super South Australian shiraz in the US just by virtue of the closure.

I can suggest that the Australians will not back off, but there is only so long that the Europeans can so arrogantly sell their wine wares with an in-built fault.

Australian and New Zealand drinkers have been educated towards the egalitarian use of screw so it has not become a sales impediment.

And to explain the extent of the problem more from the Sunday Times “The wines worst affected include some of the most prestigious in Burgundy, including Meursault and Montrachet. The problem was noticed in the 1995 wines but Steven Tanzer, an American critic, was the first to raise the alarm in public when the 1996 vintage turned out to be similarly blighted. The problem seems to have intensified since. Although producers appear to be in denial, foreign experts have set up a website called “oxidised burgs”.

“It has affected between 9% and 23% of the very top wines of each of the top vintages from 1996 to 2001,” says the website, “and those percentages seem likely to rise with time.”

And if you are not sure about these cork/screw effects go to a good wine course to find out about this situation. This will put you in better possession of your buying power.

Brown Brothers CEO Ross Brown called by to show some new releases of his family’s Patricia range of wines last week.

He was dapper, tanned and relaxed despite the current difficult trading conditions for the industry.

With Browns very much a spearhead in adapting Italian varieties to their vineyard sites, and several mature brand styles now I thought about new wines in the same theme.

Ross said “We have factored in a two degree temperature rise during the ripening season in the future. This means planting hot and warm climate varieties such as Montepulciano, Nero d’Avola and Vermentino in a cooler vineyard like Heathcote and not Milawa or similar”.

Brown Brothers Vermentino 2009 (AUD 17), 13% alcohol is the stereotype wine Browns wish to make to supersede Sauvignon Banc – a fresh wine, selling under AUD 20, other than riesling as an adjunct to seafood in bistro environments. The high acidity in the Heathcote vineyard renders it suitable.

Brown Brothers Prosecco 2009 (AUD 19) is most appealing, made from the Prosecco grape and able to be called so in Australia, although in Europe the Prosecco growers have outlawed its use as a brand in the trade.

Producers outside the region are forced to use the grape name glera, and in one case with the supermarket Marks and Spencer a pink wine named Rosecco has been embargoed, and held from sale.

Browns Prosecco is outstanding – a strong varietal with some crunch, dry aperitivo style, subtle, fruity, nice low acidity and plenty to enjoy. They have taken the level of imported Proseccos to another height, and put some polish on how this grape can be expressed with tidy winemaking.

The company has a great deal of respect for one native grape of Sicily, Nero d’Avola – so much so that they bought some in 2006 as a bulk shipment and bottled in Australia. That wine was trialed at cellar door, selling with distinction and proving extra interest in another Italian varietal.

Brown Brothers Nero d’Avola 2009 (AUD 17) comes out around Easter, a fresh and lively drink worth the taste of mild texture, savoury acidity, short on chewiness and big on currant flavours. It is a food magnet.

I also tasted Montepulciano, the red grape from the warmer Eastern Italian coastal areas as an experimental wine showing much promise as yet another crunchy, Italian varietal with a good attitude. Constellation’s Banrock Station have recently released the same variety.

Browns five Patricia releases this year-the sixth edition-uphold the iconic status of this company which dispenses value all day – but at night when it wants to, displays a set of top shelf wines named Patricia.

Through this year look for Pinot Noir Chardonnay 2005 13% (AUD 45), long time on lees, very classy autolysis but subtle, mineral chardonnay; Shiraz 2006 14.5% (AUD 56), complex fruit, a total opposite to warm regions like Barossa, much tighter tannins, the spice style; Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 14.5% (AUD 56), deliberately held an extra year, mocha, leafy, well down the aging process, having defining tannin which is drying.

The finale is a delightful Noble Riesling 2006 11.5% (AUD 35) with a string of wine show accomplishments.

And why was Ross Brown so laid back? He had been able to take his first decent holiday in a long time, and the sun tan said he had not spent much of it around the family properties.

The Great New Zealand Pinot Noir Classification 2010 is the work of Brit Matthew Jukes and Brisbane-based writer Tyson Stelzer. This is the third classification, published inside their books Taste Food and Wine 2008, 2009, 2010.

Although the 2010 edition is not yet released the pair announced their 2010 classification on 4 February at Pinot Noir 2010 in Wellington.

There are two critical aspects of this Classification: first it is taken as a rolling average of five consecutive vintages, this year 2009- 2005 to provide a better assessment of “track performance”, and second the basic estate or main brand wine is tasted rather than special selections or single vineyard portions.

On this year’s activities Tyson reports ” We update the classification every year on the basis of new vintage wines released. Over the past year I have completed extensive regional tastings in Central Otago, Marlborough and Martinborough as well as the national tastings in Wellington this month, which alone covered more than 400 New Zealand Pinot Noirs.”

The classification is based on the star system; five through to one. The three five star properties were Ata Rangi (Martinborough NZD 65 for 2008), Felton Road and Mt Difficulty (Central Otago NZ 46 and 44.95 for 2008). Find full results on www.matthewjukes.com

I asked Mount Difficulty’s Matt Dicey what it takes to maintain a five star estate wine: his response was “we would like to think that the consistency of the estate pinot is one of the elements which is clearly extremely important – interesting to note that two of the 5 star wineries come from Bannockburn and perhaps this is a form of recognition for the Bannockburn sub-region being an excellent performer even in very different vintage conditions.” I guess he means his terroir is the most important factor.

Such a classification draws contrast with the Bordeaux AC system where French properties can escape detection of making poor wines while holding their high classifications for decades-tantamount to profiteering really-when so much wine is bought sight unseen through the indent system.

In comparison it has already gone out over the web waves that more Kiwi brands are improving with Craggy Range, Martinborough Vineyard, Pegasus Bay and Rippon moving up from three to four stars. There is no sign of demotion of the major brands as wine quality keeps lifting, probably as the vines keep developing more age.

I asked Blair Hunt from Bald Hills about his level of contentment for his brand’s rating ” We are reasonably pleased with three stars. There is still room for improvement for the very young Bald Hills and with each year of vine age our wines are improving considerably. Quite apart from vine age, we and our viticulturist are constantly seeking ways to improve the balance of the vine and thus the ripeness and intensity of flavour of the fruit at harvest.

Crop management plays a significant role: in 2010 for example, we are going with one bunch per shoot in two of our Pinot blocks. Our Winemaker keeps himself fully informed of technical developments too, and the excellent site we chose initially on which to plant the pinot noir grape continues to serve us well.”

”In short, our object has always been to make better wine each year; a process of continuous improvement. Recent vertical tastings show quite clearly that this is happening. Another comment we would make is that we think these sorts of rankings are far more valuable to the consumer than the wine show results which judge just one wine at a given time in a line-up in which hundreds of wines are tasted. Does the consumer want to know whether a particular wine has won a gold medal or whether a producer makes consistently excellent wines year after year? ”

Rankings such as these show us where we are and urge us to improve even more. They are more importantly, a continuing challenge for us to get to where we might believe our Pinot should be ranked. Three stars is an encouraging start.” Bald Hills rated three stars in 2009, and two stars in 2008.

And as a final aside on Kiwi pinot Tyson says ” The price of New Zealand pinot noir continues to rise, and it is here that Australia is able to play a unique card. New Zealand is not able to land decent pinot on our shores for less than AUD 20, and it is here that Aussie wines are still the best pick on the shelves.”