President XV 2008

I travelled down to Narbonne from Bordeaux late last night in order to be up and ready for today’s early bottling of 2008 President XV in the small village of Sallèles d’Aude, just north of Narbonne.

The aromas of the ‘garrigue’ which is a word used to describe the wild scrubland of the Pyrenees foothills, have been perfectly preserved in the 2008 XV. The aromas of rosemary, thyme, lavender and fennel that make up the ‘garrigue’ transports you straight to the wild Roussillon!

Once the bottling is under way I am back in the car and hurtling back towards Toulouse to pick up JMS from the airport. For once JMS is on time and ready and waiting on the roundabout of the airport entrance, he hopped straight in almost if I had never stopped! And we were off to Bordeaux to check the bottling of the 2009 Laithwaite Sauvignon. The afternoon was a tour around the Cotes du Castillon appellation revisiting, tasting checking our wines which are almost ready to bring to the Chai.

After another busy day and feeling like I should have written the Johnny Cash song ‘All I do is drive, drive, drive’ we finally sat down to dinner and what better than a little food and wine matching to finish a great day! Tonight I prepared spicy whole red mullet to go with the bold and fragrant 2008 XV - an interesting match that worked very well indeed!

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