Wine ChroniclesMouton Rothschild: reaching back 40 years
And some talk of “first growth bias” By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com A wonderful evening at the cozy and elegant French restaurant La Chaumière in Georgetown in Washington D.C. It was great to catch up with wine friends most of whom I hadn’t seen since Covid struck. We chose as theme the venerable First Growth […]
Sauternes and Barsac 2018
Saved by the October (Botrytis) Bell By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 24 January 2021 Readers may recall that a hailstorm reduced yields for some estates to near nothing, if not nothing. Château Guiraud for example had announced that it would only make dry white wine in 2018, because of the devastating hail. As for the […]
Stalwart Sauternes 2018
Challenging vintage, but some nice wines By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 26 April 2019 A horrific hailstorm reduced yields for some estates to near nothing, if not nothing. I recall writing this news story about the harvest in Sauternes and Barsac for Decanter last year: including Château Guiraud’s announcement that it would only make dry […]
#Bdx17 from barrel: Sauternes & Barsac
Residual sugar to the max? By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 23 May 2018 I am not sure about the overall quality of Sauternes and Barsac in 2017. Some critics have oohed and ahhed about the richness of these wines, including the super star Château d’Yquem. But I am a fan of late-harvest Bordeaux that have […]
Splendid Sauternes 2015
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 12 March 2018 Having tasted through some 2015s with Jane Anson, I can only agree with her assessment (and that of Ian d’Agata) in Decanter that in 2015, Sauternes are “some of the highest scorers, along with Pomerol and St-Emilion.” Ian adds: “It’s an outstanding vintage, with many fleshy, rich […]
Chinese food and aged Bordeaux?
It works By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 29 January 2018 I recently met with friends at a Chinese restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland where we enjoyed 1970 Palmer and 1975 Trotanoy among other treasures with Chinese food. “Heresy” you say? The crazy spice and umami intensity often associated with Chinese food obliterates the soft finesse of […]
Sauternes satisfaction #Bdx15
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 11 May 2015 Thanks to Christie’s consultant, harvest expert and Sauternes promoter Bill Blatch and his fellow Bordeaux Gold partner Steve Webb, I kicked off en primeur week assessing barrel samples from Sauternes and Barsac. Afterwards, we enjoyed a great barbecue that started off with fresh raw oysters. Oysters and Sauternes go together – as counterintuitive […]
“Sweet” is too simple: Appreciating late harvest wines
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 9 July 2015 “Sweet” wine? Some people shrug. Many who dislike “sweet” wines base their judgment on supermarket shelf stuff, the kind of wine that is merely sticky (and/or sweet), without vivaciousness from balancing acidity and/or intriguingly complex flavors and aromas from botrytis-derived spice. Yet some of the world’s greatest wines are “sweet”. Most readers […]
Bordeaux 2014 in barrel: successful Sauternes
By Panos Kakaviatos for Wine-Chronicles.Com 25 May 2015 MAIN BORDEAUX 2014 BARREL TASTING PAGE Faves? I loved Suduiraut most as an upper level Sauternes that is fairly expensive, among some other well-known brands. Yquem as superb, but that was expected. The good news for sticky lovers: some lesser known wines did very well in 2014, based on […]
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