Joe Breen samples fine wines from a Bordeaux estate with an Irish name
Thierry Gardinier's face breaks into a broad smile, the smile of someone who knows a secret and can't wait to reveal all. I have just asked him if the reports of an epic 2005 vintage in Bordeaux are correct. "Certainly it looks very good. Even three months ago the wine tasted wonderful."
Gardinier might be expected to say that. As the man responsible for the very fine St Estephe cru bourgeois exceptionnel, Chateau Phelan-Segur, and its very respectable second wine, Chateau Frank Phelan, he is unlikely to dampen the hype that will invariably lead to price speculation.
Gardinier was in Dublin recently to speak at a dinner held by the Wine Geese Society, an organisation set up to celebrate Ireland's connection to wine-making around the world. Chateau Phelan-Segur was founded by Tipperary man Bernard Phelan in the early 19th century. He had travelled to marry the daughter of a well-known wine merchant Daniel Guestier and obviously got the hang of the business from his father-in-law. He bought two estates in St Estephe joining them together to form Phelan-Segur.
Phelan was one of the many Irish who found fame and fortune in the French fine-wine world and gave their names to such illustrious properties as Lynch-Bages and Chateau Kierwan. "He was a genius," Gardinier said of the first owner of this famous property. Phelan not only developed the property, he also built the chateau that, according to Gardinier, is one of the finest buildings in the northern Medoc. Phelan's son, Frank, was no fool either; he was mayor of St Estephe for 30 years and is celebrated in the naming of the second wine.
Phelan-Segur's wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (60 per cent), Merlot (30 per cent) and Cabernet Franc (10 per cent). The grapes are fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats, and the wine is then matured in oak barriques for 15 months. It usually requires at least five to seven years in the bottle before it is at its best, and the best vintages can continue improving for up to 15 years. The vineyard is bordered by the acclaimed duo of Chateau Montrose and Chateau Colon-Segur.
Xavier Gardinier, Thierry's father who is still hale and hearty at 75, bought the estate in the mid-1980s after the family had disposed of their controlling interest in the well-known Champagne firm Pommery. "The two transactions were not linked," Thierry Gardinier says. And today the Gardinier family still has extensive interests in the Champagne region, including a Michelin-starred restaurant. The family also owns another Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris and among its many other interests are more than 4,000 hectares of oranges in Florida, an estate that is managed by one of Thierry's two brothers.
Against such a background, Gardinier could be expected to carry some of that elitism and arrogance for which Bordeaux is renowned, but in conversation he is a friendly and grounded man - informed, interested and aware. He is acutely conscious, for instance, of Bordeaux's reputation for price hikes, particularly in good years, but in defence says that he must follow the market. He remembers one year when he didn't increase his prices because he felt it wasn't justified. But other chateaux did. The following year he did increase his price but the fact that this was his first price hike in two years was ignored - there was no virtue in his restraint.
He is also frank about the problems in the French wine industry which have led to huge surpluses. "Personally I'm a liberal. I don't think this situation can be solved by a government or whatever." He believes it is down to each individual winemaker to market their wines better, while he has little time or sympathy for poor quality wine.
The plight of the southern winemakers is mirrored even in Bordeaux where some of the petit chateaux are also experiencing problems selling their wine. As owner of a chateau that has no such problem, he has some advice for his Bordeaux brothers: hit the road Jacques. "Producing wine, even good wine, in recent years is not enough - you have to sell it . . . We have the knowledge of making good wine in Bordeaux. The problem is that we don't know how to market it."
This conversation has been oiled by a tasting of the Frank Phelan 2000 (€21.99 from McCabes, Blackrock; Wineonline.ie; Mannings Emporium, Ballylickey, Co Cork; McCambridges, Galway) and the Phelan Segur 1998 (€39.99 from Searsons, Monkstown, Co Dublin; Berry Brothers & Rudd, Dublin 2; Lynchs, Cork; Joyces, Knocnakarra, Galway; and most Fine Wine Shops). The first is intense and elegant with good berry fruit. But it is a mere pathfinder for the 1998, which has all the depth, concentration and length you would expect of a top-class St Estephe wine and is drinking really well now.
The Gardiniers have done well in their time at the helm of this historic chateau.
UNDER THE TUSCAN SKY
Irish distributors Febvre and Company Limited and renowned Italian winemakers Castello Banfi have linked up with the Marie Keating Foundation to organise a fund-raising walk in Tuscany. More than 50 people will join Today FM DJ Tony Fenton on the walk. The foundation provides data on breast cancer and other cancers. The walk takes place next May - a 100km (62.5 miles) guided journey over eight days through rolling hillsides, olive groves and forests. Details from the Marie Keating Foundation: 01-6246314.