Deceased Dominican monks of St. Émilion must have been spinning like tops in their reliquaries when their former monastery in this medieval village was taken over for the closing banquet of the Concours Mondial last night. Vows of poverty and sins of gluttony were clearly suspended for the night as the great and good of the wine world held a party to bring down the curtain on this year’s wine competition.

Above, Hubert de Bouard de Laforest of Château Angelus, receives a set of Tin Tin books from the Mondial organizers for supplying the best wine of the evening: Château Angélus 1996 which was a real Parker pleaser. It narrowly pipped the excellent Troplong Mondot ’98 and was way better than the Cheval Blanc ’97 which was too thin to win while the Château de la Rivière Fronsac 2001 was way too barnyardy for me.

SA connections flew thick and fast at dinner. Hubert is partner with Lowell Jooste (of Klein Constantia fame) in Anwilka, a Helderberg Bordeaux blend while Alain Moueix was in fine form, asking whether Ingwe, his Somerset West brand, was too difficult to pronounce. Given some of the tongue twisters on the table, like Eloïna David de Château Haut Bonneau and Cuvée Louisa Lecoester from Puisseguin Saint-Emilion, I said “not at all.”