Ep. 2294 Discovering Bordeaux's Left Bank with Bernard Burtschy Part 1 | On the Road with Stevie Kim

So I want to ask you a cheeky question. Out of the first growth, which one is your personal favorite? That is complicate. I know. That is complicate. I am Azashan, and my father in the green garden has fifteen different salads. Oh, really? Yes. Because he don't want eat Lettuce every day. Right. Right. And that is so interesting. And I am so young because I have a lot to taste, but it's too early for me to have an answer at this question. Welcome to another episode of On the Road Edition, hosted by Stevie Kim. Each week, Stevie travels to incredible wine destinations interviewing some of the Italian Weinstein's most interesting personalities. Talk talking about wines, the foods as well as the incredible travel destinations. Hello, everybody. My name is Stevie Kim, and welcome back to tie in wine podcast. We are on a special mission here in Bordeaux. I'd like to call it the Bordeaux Discovery with Bernard Burshey, our wine expert, of course, of Bordeaux, but more importantly, our wine friend. With Kevin Bordeaux. Yes. Thank you so much. What we'd like to do with Bernard is that we have been here the past four days, visiting Bordeaux, with Bernard and his friends because he has been doing this for the past forty years, four zero. And what it is is that after the on prima, which is in April, that's the, of course, the barrel samples. And then in January, what he does is that he goes back to retaste just in the bottles before it goes into the market. Now tell us why you do that. Or not. Two years after the first mild tasting, we say it's a premier tasting, the same wines in bottle. And today, we tasted two thousand twenty two we tasted two thousand two two years ago in April. And now, since three months, four months, six months, they are finally in butter. And we can see if we have the same wine, what? Because In Opimer, it's a sample. Exactly. From the barrel. But now the wine is in bottom, and the winemaker is finished. He spent one year, sixteen months, eighteen months in and we have a lot of surprises. We saw in the creamer tasting that clearly the vintage two thousand twenty two is a green vintage, probably a fabulous vintage. Okay. So don't tell us if it has been confirmed or not. Will tell our audience at the end. Yeah. Of course. But so it is all about there is, of course, the left bank and the right bank. And what we have focused the past four days is absolutely the the left bank. In particular, the Gancrouk Lausset of eighteen fifty five. So tell us why it's called eighteen fifty five. Eighteen fifty five for the exposition on your assault exposition in Paris. Okay? They presented the bottle. And when you present the bottle, they are all the same. And they said, okay. We need to make a classification with first growth, second growth until fifth growth, to explain easier for the consumer, the hierarchy of the wine. And, we began this year by taste the first growth. That, end the first growth, we have always to go to visit each first growth, one after all of the five first growth. Okay. So there are five first growth in the Luffbank. Yes. So we have been to all of them. Can you give us an overview of these five first growth we went to. We started with Latur, Alabama. Yes. Usually in Bordeaux, we blend different grapes. Mostly Cabier on the left bank, mostly Merlo on the right bank. But in Pollak, you have eighty, ninety percent of cabernes oil. That is the kingdom of cabernes oil. And you have three premier cru, three first rows in this same place. Lator, such as was the first one we visited, is always probably the most powerful Cabian. With a great density. The second one is Lafayette Chai. Lafayette Chai is the most arrogant. And that is an an opposite in one hand, the power. In the second one, you have the elegance. The elegance. And you have a third one. And third one is motor oil. And you have the complexity. You have the three points, the powerful, the most elegant, the most complex, and you have three with the same grape, and that is several at least two centuries. Post to three centuries, the classification was made because it was formal in eighteen fifty five, but it began before. And when I taste a wine, I have in my mind, thirty, forty, fifty integers of the same wine. Okay. And when I taste twenty twenty two of Latour, and we had a great chance because you can buy this wine in Primer, but not that tour. And we had the chance, inflatable chance to compare two grid vintages two thousand twenty two. And two thousand sixteen. In two thousand sixteen. And between two thousand sixteen and two thousand twenty two, say, make progress? Because the world is not stopping in eighteen fifty five. Uh-huh. The same winemaker, though. It was the same winemaker, and they're evolving because the world is changing. You have the global warming. The weather is not the same. You need to adapt. Your winemaking. And in twenty twenty two, but it was a bit warmer than twenty sixteen. And to see what will be Latu with ten years and twenty years and thirty years. We have some ideas about that. So with the latour, the most powerful. Yes. La fit, the most elegant? The most elegant. And mutton, is the most complex. And that leaves the other two. Right? Yes. So the before is in Margot. Right. He's more in south, and that is interesting because Margot today, we have eighty ninety percent of Cabernet. But Usually, margot is a smooth one. It's always more supple, easier to drink. Supple. Do you mean smooth? Yes. More smooth. When you begin to taste, you prefer margot. Yes. I would agree with that. Yes. And the fifth It's it's a sauce, but it's not in Medock. It's a sauce of bordeaux. But it was so well known in eighteen fifty five because it was included. It's a classification. It automatically got included. Yes. As the first. It was at first gloves. Okay. But it's not a method. The mix, they're completely different, but, hopefully, you have fifty percent carbs, but fifty percent merlot. Cabs is always more freshness, more density. Merlo is always more And in Gravrolet, you have always we don't know why smokey aromas. In Oberillon, now Oberillon is inside the town, but it was poked two centuries ago too. That is not the car. Because it was always described. It was two centuries ago, the armas, I smoked. Smoky. Yes. That is a feature completely different. All that age very well. We had last night. Of nineteen twenty four. Yeah. Nineteen twenty four. Hundred years old. Crazy. And was fresh alive evolving in the glass. One hour later, it was always here. It's incredible. Yeah. I would have never said it this wine just blind tasting was hundred years old. Yes. So I want to ask you a cheeky question. Out of the first growth, which one is your personal favorite? That is complicate. I know. That is complicate. I am Isaiah. I'm my father, and the green garden has fifteen different salads. Oh, really? Yes. Because he don't want to eat Lettuce every day. Right. Right. And that is so interesting, and I am so young because I have a lot to taste, but it's too early for me to have an answer at this question. Yeah. But you've been tasting Bordeaux for forty plus years. Yes. Out of the twenty twos that you've tasted. Which one do you prefer? I have two best Okay. In one hand, Lafitte. Okay. And the other hand, Latou. And why? Because the Lafayette is most elegant and LaVour, you have this density. You cannot say picasaw, ninety eight points, van gogh, ninety seven. Right. You cannot compare. Yeah. What do you prefer? It's so different, and in tasting both. Okay. So here you go. Coming from one of the most experts of this world about Bordeaux, Bernard Bauci, and this is we're going to close for this session right now, but stay tuned because we will be coming back to go through the various areas of the left bank with Bernard Rishi, Discovery Bordeaux. Stay tuned. Thank you for joining us on another episode of On The Road Edition, hosted by Stevie Kim. Join her again next week for more interesting content on the Italian wine scene. You can also find us at Italian wine podcast dot com or wherever you get your pods. You can check out our YouTube channel, Mama jumbo shrimp, to watch these interviews, and the footage captured at each location. Changing.