JJ Buckley Fine Wines Blog

This is our first day of tasting. There are three of us providing tasting notes: Mike Supple, Matt John, and myself.

We arrived in Bordeaux at 5:15 p.m. and went straight to our hotel, the Burdigala. Not sure why this hotel came recommended, but quite frankly, it’s nothing more than an upscale Motel 6.

After Jon’s 45 minute nap turned into 4 hours, we still had 6 hours before our monumental dinner at l’Amis Louis. So we decided to head out, grab a snack and explore the town.

This morning I arrived in Paris where I’ll spend one night before catching the train to Bordeaux. The Air France flight was great, as I decided to splurge (using miles of course) and fly in business class. The French crew was terrific and served up one heck of meal:

The 2005 vintage is already getting a lot of hype. Many are comparing it to the 1982 and 2000 vintages. Critic Robert Parker will formally review the vintage in the April 2005 edition of The Wine Advocate, but he has already posted his initial impressions online: