I’ve spent the last four days in St Emilion and Pomerol. This trip was to guide guests around the region for Arblaster and Clarke's 'Stars of the Right Bank' tour: see their website www.arblasterandclarke.com. When we made the arrangements, I had assumed that harvest would have finished a week or two earlier, and we could take a look at the macerating vats and maybe try a glass or two of turbid, half-finished wine. In the event, we arrived on Tuesday morning at Stefan von Neipperg’s Canon-la Gaffelière almost exactly as the first harvest tractor of the year pulled into the yard, laden with boxes of Merlot grapes. That was on Tuesday October 2nd.

Another fine evening at Franc MayneThe Merlots were being picked all week for most estates we visited in St Emilion (Canon excepted, where picking had already finished); the Cabernet Franc grapes will generally be picked from the 8th. By Thursday 4th, all the Merlots had been picked at Château Le Gay in Pomerol, too, but the Cabernet Francs were still soaking up the last rays of sunshine. Ausone began picking Merlot (report had it – we didn’t visit) on the 4th. I saw Alain Vauthier the previous evening in L’Envers du Décor, and he was looking unruffled. Unruffled enough to share a bottle of Eglise-Clinet with friends, anyway.

Fine harvest weather on October 2ndNo one pretended it was going to be the vintage of the century; no one even pretended that it was going to be a good vintage. Summer was damp and cool, especially August, so if as the old saw has it “August makes the must” (août fait le moût) then don’t expect great things of 07.

And yet... September was fine and warm, and the good weather was holding into October. There was a lot of humidity (nationally 2007 brought France the worst mildew problems for 20 years), but temperatures were still up in the mid-twenties, and the nights were warm enough to sleep with all the windows open. I was surprised to see how good the bunches were looking, with no evident botrytis at any of the estates we visited. I tasted a lot of grapes, and the skins were in good shape, though the grapes themselves weren’t as small, as dark and as sweet as at the end of a great vintage. I only saw sacks of sugar at La Dauphine in Fronsac where the ‘cool clays’ have held ripeness back a little. No one I spoke to said they were using any concentration techniques this year.

By contrast, the revolution in sorting was everywhere evident. Vibrating tables, the ‘mistral’ (a machine to blow inadequate grapes off to oblivion) and the ‘tribaies’ (a machine in which grapes below a certain density get shunted off into the dustbin of ignominy) were all working overtime, along with the eyes and fingers of those condemned to stand and stare at the jiggling black marbles. The quality of the berries which make it through this obstacle course is hugely impressive.

Some then add ‘carboglace’ (frozen CO2 – waterless, obviously) to cold-macerate; crushing is either avoided or done very lightly. ‘Pump’ is a dirty word (unless it’s peristaltic), and there are now more conveyor belts in Bordeaux than escalators on London Underground. Punching down (pigeage) continues its irresistible rise at the expense of pumping over (remontage) or rack-and-return (délestage). It may not be a great vintage, but there will be plenty worth drinking – by dint of this fine end-of-season ripeness combined with fastidious fruit sorting, handling and maceration.

Stefan von NeippergI tasted some great wines from the last few vintages, though technical problems mean that I lost all my notes prior to Thursday lunchtime. (Technical problems? You mean you dropped your notebook into a tribaies? No, not exactly – I use the TastingBuddy system on a palm. I’m very happy with the software – but palms are pants. The battery fell out at Petit Village shortly after the screen had gone dark and refused to re-illuminate, and if the battery falls out of these capricious machines they have a brain haemorrhage, and you have to start again from zero.)

It was great to catch up with Stefan von Neipperg and Stéphane Derenoncourt at Canon-la Gaffelière, albeit briefly; Béatrice Amadieu at Château Canon was as welcoming as always, treating us to a magnum of the warm and rosy 1983 as the climax of a dinner there.

Emmanuelle Fulchy d’Aligny of AngélusI met two of the women I have most wanted to spend a little time with on the right bank, too. First, talented winemaker Emmanuelle Fulchy d’Aligny of Angélus, a property whose wines never cease to enthral me; and later proprietor Hélène Garcin of Clos l’Eglise in Pomerol and Barde-Haut in St Emilion.

It was great to visit Barde-Haut in particular – a dramatically amphitheatrical site just down from Troplong-Mondot and set back from Tertre-Roteboeuf. It’s a site that needs, Hélène said, a lot of tweaking to get right, but with great potential. I’ve recently retasted the `97 (which preceded her mother’s purchase of the property) and our tasting together of the `02, out on the beautiful terrace in honeyed sunshine, suggests she’s right.

Christophe Moreau is obviously relishing his work for Cathérine Péré-Vergé at Le Gay: both`04 and `05 Le Gay are outstanding. It’s early days for Griet Laviale and her husband Hervé at Franc-Mayne, but I did get to taste the `03 vintage of their Pomerol property, Vieux Maillet. Pomerol in `03 is often wildly disappointing (I am about to post an overview of `03 in the ‘Articles’ section of this site, based on a tasting in January ‘07), but Vieux Maillet ‘03 greatly impressed me: it’s fresher and denser than both Trotanoy and La Fleur-Pétrus, for example.

Petit Village `98 was another highlight of this visit. Director Serge Ley is now working with Stéphane Derenoncourt as the newly appointed consultant at Petit Village, so expect a softer and more sensual style before too long at ‘the Figeac of Pomerol’. They have adopted pigeage as of this vintage, and the wines will see more lees contact, too.

Hélène Garcin of Clos l’Eglise

The charming and enthusiastic Jean-Noël Hervé of Moulin Haut Laroque in Fronsac gave us an extensive tasting of the `04 Fronsacs and Canon-Fronsacs: anyone who thinks modern Bordeaux has lost its refreshment should taste these brisk yet deep-flavoured wines. Château La Dauphine under Guillaume Halley is infinitely better than it was in Moueix days, and we all relished the `05 La Dauphine in L’Envers du Décor (though the food was hugely disappointing: the worst of the week).

Jonathan MalthusJonathan Maltus (of Teyssier, Le Dôme, Laforge, Grand Destieux, Les Astéries — and Colonial Estate down in the Barossa), finally, was as brimming with confidence as ever, having just pulled off yet another land purchase close to Angélus. His latest toy, he said, was a ‘turbopigeur’. We didn’t see it in action, but from what he said it seemed to slurp up as well as punch down. I’ll tell you more when I know it.

I love Pomerol and St Emilion: wines, place and people. It’s full of enthusiasm, experiment and new ideas, and it’s more relaxed and informal than the Médoc. I always look forward to getting back. If anyone wants to join me there next year, I will be leading another Right Bank trip for A&C between 17-21 November 2008.