March 6, 2011
With some 1,350 hectares under vine, Margaux is the largest of four famous Medoc appellations in Bordeaux – including Pauillac, Saint Julien and Saint Estephe. AND: Most critics have also called it the most underperforming. Tasting Notes Pauillac has long featured Lafite-Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild and Latour, plus Pichon Baron, Pichon Comtesse, Lynch-Bages and Grand Puy […]
January 24, 2011
Tasted in mid January 2011, Chateau Figeac 2000 is youthul, promising and delicious! Complete tasting notes HERE. Over dinner many tasters enjoyed the Figeac 2000 along with the 1998 and 1982 Figeac…
January 2, 2011
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 […]
September 19, 2010
UPDATED! Three winemakers dinners in three top German restaurants in Berlin, Frankfurt and Baden Baden are scheduled on 11, 12 and 13 November, where I will co-host with the Châteaux representatives. Gildas d’Ollone, general director of the famous Pichon Comtesse estate in Pauillac and Jean-Bernard Grenié, co-owner of the famous St Emilion estate, Château Angélus, […]
September 5, 2010
Figeac (2003, 2001, 2000) / Raymond Lafon (2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2001) / Kirwan (2009, 2008, 2007, 2001) / Branaire Ducru (2009, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2001, 1998) Visit to Chateau Figeac in St Emilion My early September 2010 Bordeaux tour continues in early September with a morning visit to Chateau Figeac, one of my […]
September 4, 2010
I read with great interest the New York Times of August 24, where wine writer Eric Asimov praises small winemakers in Bordeaux and contrasts them with the big chateaux, ‘a world of brand-name products sold like luxury goods,’ he wrote. It was refreshing to read about smaller winemakers, more modest, who make ‘natural’ wines, with […]
September 2, 2010
Chateau Haut Bailly For over 10 years now, I have been visiting Bordeaux at least twice a year, and I have come to like certain wines more than others. One of my favorites in the appellation of Pessac-Leognan, located in the southern Leognan part, is Haut Bailly. Chateau director Veronique Sanders and winemaking director Gabriel […]
April 18, 2010
Langoa and Léoville Barton vertical dinner at ProWein in Düsseldorf, held at Wine Live bistro and wine bar on 22 March 2010 with Lilian Barton, co-owner Once again, I take stock of and give thanks for the existence of Château Langoa Barton – and the vineyards of the more famous Chateau Léoville Barton. The actual […]
April 17, 2010
17 vintages of Château Gruaud Larose spanning almost a century, from 1918 to 2009…
March 17, 2010
Identified as a Third Growth in the 1855 Médoc Classification, Château Palmer in Margaux has long surpassed its official status, and is counted among the very top echelon of Bordeaux estates. Its 120 acres of deep gravely stone, ideally situated near the Gironde River, create an excellent microclimate for plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and […]