These trips tend to quickly slot into a pattern very quickly. The ‘van’ seemed to instantly organise itself into rows by body type, with the lean and tall taking the middle row and the chairman at the helm – the more generously proportioned (myself firmly included) in the back where the snoring may be noticed less.

It was a fairly leisurely start and despite the rain the team were in fine form on the drive up to Libourne for what is one to of the most important tastings of the year.

At Jean-Pierre Moueix we were greeted by the ever charming pair of Christian and Edouard.

To have the room to ourselves and taste in silence is a privilege. We tasted the whole line up in both 2013 and 2014. The 2013’s because we wanted to revisit this difficult vintage – we were very pleasantly surprised, many wines will out perform the low expectation people have and give great pleasure.

The 2014’s were altogether a different scenario combining freshness from lovely acidity, good fruit density and a lovely structure… exciting indeed. Mr Marus, who is not prone to overstatement described Trotanoy as a “legend in the making, mark my words!”

During the tasting Adam firmly placed himself in the short sleeved sweater gang which previously had only included Bryce and Percy… the party was becoming divided.

From the tasting at the offices it was time for lunch at Christian’s wonderful house with Christian, Cherise and Edouard. Some of the stories, unrepeatable for a wide variety of reasons, were brilliant and topics covered were certainly unexpected!

The wines, as ever, were superb: Magdelaine 1989 and Trotanoy 2000 (both from magnum) contrasted each other superbly – maturity against a wine just getting into it’s stride. Both these followed a lovely magnum of Belle Epoque 1989.

The wine trade is all about people and relationships as much as wine itself and this was a special lunch.

Before heading off to see Peter Sisseck at Rocheyron we interviewed Christian and Edouard Moueix, which you can watch below.

Chateau Rocheyron is a St Emilion wine first produced in the 2010 vintage but it is fair to say that Peter is such a perfectionist that he says the wine is only just hitting it’s stride now. Having had both 2010 and 2011 recently I slightly disagree but knowing the man I know where he is coming from.

We tasted the 2014 Fleur de Rocheyron which is from the younger vines and then three different and separate parcels of Rocheyron before moving to the current approximation of the 2014 Rocheyron. There is a real purity coming through in the wine.

With a video to film those of us not involved were dispatched outside and both the Chairman and “Bordeaux Buyer Marus” set about trying to work out how deep the well outside was… ‘fortunately’ without climbing down!

The day had been a long one and the decision was taken to head straight to dinner afterwards. With an hour to be lost overnight this may have been wise – we went rather off-piste at our Corsican restaurant, with aperitifs ranging from Corsican whisky (indifferent) via Corsican beer (rather good) to Scottish Gin (undecided), with Adam having to improvise a shaker from a pint glass and a spoon for the Martinis.

Food followed and Rayne Vigneau sec 2012 was chased by the Corsican red which split the table. From here, via a cigar for one or two, bodies headed for bed… weary but very content…

Wines update:

Day 2:
48 wines sampled (43 tasted and 5 tasted/consumed)

Running total:
87 wines sampled (74 tasted and 13 tasted/consumed)