Wine ChroniclesBordeaux 2020 : Saint Emilion shines bright
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 26 June 2021 For my summary on the vintage, please read what I had published in Club Oenologique. And you can also read my overall Top50+ wines across appellations, after having tasted hundreds of barrel samples of Bordeaux’s latest vintage, 2020. Saint Emilion is a star appellation in 2020. Readers […]
Top 50+ hits: Bordeaux 2020 from barrel
The emotional, the intellectual, the (i)Deals In a vintage that favors Merlot from cold clay and limestone soils By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 26 May 2021 No ads, no fees charged: Here my objective and experienced impressions of 2020 Bordeaux, 18 years in a row assessing Bordeaux from barrel, including visits during the pandemic era. […]
So Satisfying Saint Emilion 2018
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 24 January 2021 The revolution towards freshness continues. Sure some wines recall the oaky tannic obsession of the mid-2000s. Not long ago, I recall tasting the Grand Cru Classés blind with too many wines, too hard, over extracted and/or finishing on drying oak tannins. Had the 2018 vintage happened 10 […]
Freshness from Saint Emilion: Bordeaux 2017 from barrel
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 7 May 2018 Given its rather large size, Saint Emilion is heterogeneous in quality. 2017 compounded differences from the challenge to remove grapes from frost-affected vines, of which there were plenty. Properties with the most financial means did best to remove under ripe second-generation grapes that may have otherwise wound […]
Saint Emilion 2015: Changing Tides
2015 from bottle shows return to freshness, if not for all estates … By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 11 March 2018 When assessing more 2015 Bordeaux from bottle at the UGCB tasting in New York, I was struck by just how much fresher some Right Bank wines especially tasted: wines that had not too long […]
Saint Emilion Multiplex 2016
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 14 June 2017 Saint Emilion tends to be rather heterogenous in quality in any vintage. Given its size, variations in terroir and in style. Sure, a recent trend towards high alcohol and high extraction of tannin is (thankfully) dissipating. Estates like Pavie Macquin and Larcis Ducasse, for example, are being […]
Welcome Merlot al dente #Bdx15
And other tales from Saint Emilion By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 5 May 2016 OK, the title is a bit misleading. Not everyone picks Merlot earlier in Saint Emilion. The influence of ultra-late picking to please critics, and to get an upgrade (or avoid a downgrade) every 10 years for appellation-sanctioned revisions (often ending up in courts […]
(In spite of) Bordeaux 2014 in barrel: Saint Emilion oak saga continues
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com MAIN BORDEAUX 2014 BARREL TASTING PAGE Some faves? Belair-Monange, Berliquet, Cheval Blanc, Canon, Corbin, Pavie-Macquin and Quinault l’Enclos Irony is a word that comes to mind. Château Quinault L’Enclos counts among 16 estates that had been promoted to grand cru classé in the 2012 classification of Saint Emilion. In contrast to […]
2014 Bordeaux: Hundreds of barrel samples coming
My new educational blog for Total Wine, too By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles On the eve of a week of intense barrel tastings of Bordeaux’s latest vintage, I look forward to what promises to be a classic style in a positive sense. If tasting Chateau Corbin (grand cru classé) and Chateau Canon (premier grand […]
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