How is Bordeaux 2010? Darn good, across the board. Far too expensive for most mere mortals on the high end (and the higher end), but you can find excellent price/quality ratios from the low to mid range, which is where my wallet is situated… I tasted the wines at Germany’s largest internatiponal wine fair ProWein […]

Well, finally. Finally, Bordeaux 2010 futures prices are out and they are expensive. The vintage was very fine, and if you are new to the game or are sufficiently loaded, then buy away: you will be rewarded with some great wines. HERE MY COMPREHENSIVE NOTES and VIDEOS. But for the rest of us, the Bordeaux […]

So the prices on Bordeaux 2010 are coming out and they are for the most part predictably expensive… although one can find mid range wines of excellent quality for more modest prices. Like a bee drawn to honey, I of course tasted many wines I cannot afford, starting with Chateau Ausone, a rare Saint Emilion […]

2010 = 1986/1996/2005? 2009 = 1982/1990/1989? Such are the broad brush parallels drawn by some in Bordeaux, but who knows? I have had a few days to think about Bordeaux 2010, and I admit to feeling overwhelmed by yet another vintage where some critics bestow so many near 100 point scores for… barrel samples. From […]

Just finished tasting a series of wines at two dinners in Germany. Leoville Poyferre, Clos Fourtet, Poujeaux, Le Crock. We also tasted 2010 barrel samples. Clos Fourtet clocked in at 15% alcohol! Just as it had done in 2009. But at least the acidity is a bit higher in 2010. Co-owner Matthieu Cuvelier thinks the […]

Check out my feature article on Philippe, a great winemaker and a real wine and food lover. And two related videos: Philippe Dhalluin on the 2010 harvest, albeit just before pickings… A unique – and blind – tasting of some great wines for which he is responsible including Opus One, Mouton Rothschild of course, Almaviva […]

Note: a version of this article appeared in the 5 November issue of Harpers Wine & Spirit By Panos Kakaviatos After having sampled freshly fermenting wines from Medoc clients, Christophe Coupez of the Centre Œnologique de Pauillac used words like ‘black, aromatic and rich’ in a report dated 28 October. ‘They get richness from the […]

Blind tastings can be so darn, well, humbling. Now, it is not every day that I taste Mouton Rothschild. In fact, for the past five or six years, I have tasted it perhaps once or twice a year, usually en primeur. On occasion with friends who crack open an older bottle, but that is rare. […]

Just came back from a visit to Bordeaux, where top enologists reported arid conditions in July and August, with heat stress in some cases blocking maturity of the grapes. Rain was needed, they said. Well, rain came – from 6-8 September. Will 2010 mirror 2009 with rain coming at just the right time? No rush […]

Chateau Sociando Mallet / Chateau Palmer / Chateau Pontet Canet / Chateau Lynch Bages / Chateau Leoville Barton / Chateau Leoville Poyferre / Chateau Pichon Comtesse de Lalande / Chateau Brane Cantenac Visit to Sociando Mallet / Monday 6 September This was only the second time I have been to Sociando Mallet. The last time […]