From 16 to 21 November 2009, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, will host a series of exclusive events together with Primum Familiae Vini.

Gala dinners will take place
- at Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong (16 November 2009)
- at Shangri-La Hotel, Tokyo (18 November 2009)
- and at Pudong Shangri-La, Shanghai (20 November 2009).

Trade and press events (by invitation only) will also be taking place at all above venues.
 
At gala dinners, a member of each family will present the family estate and one of its flagship wines that are hard to acquire in the marketplace, paired with specially designed menus.

In each city, the gala dinners will be moderated by longtime PFV friend Serena Sutcliffe M.W. head of Sotheby's Wine Department.

Guests will have the opportunity to celebrate their passion for fine food and wine through intimate and personal conversation with 11 families who are the historic owners of some of the world’s very greatest vineyards.

The PFV members in attendance will be Alessia Antinori (Marchesi Antinori), Baroness Philippine de Rothschild (Château Mouton Rothschild), Laurent Drouhin (Maison Joseph Drouhin), Egon Müller (Egon Müller Scharzhof), Etienne Hugel (Hugel et Fils), Hubert de Billy (Champagne Pol Roger), Marc Perrin and Pierre Perrin (Perrin et Fils), Paul Symington (Graham's, Warre's and Dow's Port), Juan-Maria Torres (Torres), Sebastiano Rosa (Tenuta San Guido) and Pablo Alvarez (Vega Sicilia).

A Primum Familiae Vini collection case, containing one bottle of each member's flagship wine, will be auctioned under the hammer of Serena Sutcliffe M.W. at the gala dinners for the benefit of a local charity.

More details here.

Despite a cold and snowy winter, spring in 2009 was mild with no frost after February.  It was also a fairly dry season with little Mistral. The summer was hot and dry, but was very consistent and the temperatures went up progressively throughout June and July and ended with a peak the last 2 weeks of August with temperatures as high as 40°C.  It was not as hot as 2003 as temperatures cooled down at night and July was generally cooler.  We had rain on 6 July and then no rain fall till the middle of September.

Due to the high temperatures in August, the ripening of the grapes was accelerated, not because of the phenolic maturity but because of dehydration. Therefore we decided to wait and not harvest the reds too early and hope for further maturity. 

We started to harvest the whites on the 24th of August throughout the different Perrin Estates. The whites have good fruit and acidity and will be well balanced. We had perfect weather conditions for harvest with maximum temperatures running between between 20°C and 30°C during the whole month of September.

We started the red harvest with Syrah on 31st August and continued with the Grenache on 8th September.  The phenolic maturity had just turned by then and the Grenache has a nice colour, good maturity and great fruit.  2009 is a very good vintage for Grenache.

On September 16th we had just over 60mm of rain which we were all waiting for. The vines were suffering from hydrous stress and after that date the ripeness started moving fast.  We had harvest about half of the Grenache across the different estates but still remained to be started it in Coudoulet and Beaucastel.  We waited till the the following week to resume harvest after a couple of days of Mistral.  The end of the harvest went very fast. We finished the Grenache and started the Mourvèdre on 24 September.  The rain did a lot to the Mourvèdre and we are very happy with the results.

We finished harvest in Vinsobres on September 30th which is 300m high so needed a bit more time to ripen.

We are very happy with the 2009 harvest. The grapes were healthy with great fruit and good extraction and the first tastings show that we shall be making some great wine with soft tannins and great structure. Despite the hot temperatures we managed to maintain a good acidity thanks to the cooler temperatures at night.  You could compare this vintage to 2005 and 2007.