Guy Woodward (decanter.com) writes:
In what might be seen as a reversal of recent trends, two Bordeaux first growths have triumphed in a top-level blind tasting?.
Yesterday in London, premium Chilean producer Errazuriz gathered some of the UK's top palates to recreate its landmark 'Berlin' tasting, pitting its own wines against the top names of Bordeaux, Tuscany and California.
In a line-up of a dozen wines, the judges gave the first two places to Chateau? Margaux 2005 and Chateau Lafite 2005, followed by a 'Super Tuscan'. Errazuriz wines took the next four places, while Opus One, the sole? Californian wine, was placed last of the 12.
Errazuriz president Eduardo Chadwick first conducted the tasting in 2004 in Berlin, when his wines took the top two places. Describing the event as 'a milestone in the history of the Chilean wine industry', Chadwick has since repeated the event in Tokyo, Toronto and Beijing.
The tastings frequently elicit protests from Bordeaux, whose producers complain that taking their wines out of context leads them to underperform.
On this occasion, however, a panel comprising some of the UK's top tasters, including Jancis Robinson MW?, Tim Atkin MW and Oz Clarke, were unanimous in favouring the clarets.
Decanter consultant editor Steven Spurrier, who took part in the inaugural tasting, and has attended several since, observed that this was 'without doubt the most pro-Bordeaux result we've seen'.
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The results in full: