Wine ChroniclesPessac-Léognan 2018 reds
Hits amidst gravel and heat By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 24 January 2021 2018 was not the ideal vintage for warmer soils, so I would tip my hat more to 2016 as the recent vintage to purchase from Pessac-Léognan. Still, some very good to excellent wines. A few stars and several superb price/quality ratio wines make 2018 […]
White Bordeaux: 2014 vintage
With a focus on Château Smith Haut Lafitte By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 15 September 2020 Top three 2014 whites from this tasting? Domaine de Chevalier, Château Pape Clément and Château Smith Haut Lafitte Last week Decanter Magazine published an article I wrote – subscribers only – about how fine dry white Bordeaux can be, with […]
Graves and Pessac-Léognan 2018 (reds)
Noteworthy vintage By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 26 April 2019 The hotter gravely soils of this famous appellation may have been too … gravelly and hot for the vintage. Here is a case where the question of 2016 is quite relevant. In some cases, I do think that 2016 may be a better vintage than […]
Pessac-Léognan and Graves from bottle 2016
Cannot recall a better Les Carmes Haut Brion red than the 2016. Buy it, today. But many other Graves shined in 2016, including Smith Haut Lafitte, Haut Bailly, Domaine de Chevalier and Malartic Lagravière. Do not hesitate to look at some fine showings from second wines, too, which I had tasted late last year at Château Bouscaut. Cheers!
Graves in red and white #Bdx17
Some very fine reds, some even finer whites By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 18 May 2018 For your mid May weekend reading, my notes on barrel samples – red and white – of Bordeaux’s famous Graves region. They are Left Bank, but to the south of the Médoc. In the Pessac area, it was generally […]
2014 Bordeaux in barrel: smoking Graves
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com MAIN BORDEAUX 2014 BARREL TASTING PAGE 15 May 2015 My faves: Among reds, Haut Brion rather rules the roost, but watch out for an excellent and (hopefully) well-priced Domaine de Chevalier red and the usually fine Haut Bailly. Pape Clement has more linearity than I can ever recall – and that’s […]
25 years of Smith Haut Lafitte: all magnum verticals
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com In late March 2015, just before the start of the barrel tasting week for Bordeaux 2014, I was very lucky to have been invited to a unique all-magnum 25-vintage vertical – in both red (15 vintages) and white (10 vintages) – of the classified growth Château Smith Haut Lafitte. The […]
25 years of wine passion: Florence and Daniel Cathiard at Château Smith Haut Lafitte
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com Château Smith Haut Lafitte, the grand cru classé of Graves – and later Pessac Léognan, when the appellation was created in 1987 – has been run for 25 years as of 2015 by the innovative couple Florence and Daniel Cathiard. I have known the Cathiards since 2002, and long have […]
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