Wine Chronicles2015 Bordeaux from bottle, part 1: Mostly Médoc wines
Posted on November 12, 2017
Margaux shines brightest
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com
17 November 2017 – revised, with new video intro, below.
How good are Bordeaux 2015 from bottle? Based on two days of tasting top Médoc wines in early November this year, I would say quite good. It does not seem to reach the heights, on a more generalized level, of the 2016 vintage. In some cases – particularly in the northern Médoc – 2014 rivals and sometimes beats 2015.
The golden nugget in 2015?
As we had discovered from barrel tastings, the Margaux appellation’s veritable heights are unmatched by either 2016 or 2014. I pack many of my top Médoc wines at this early stage from bottle (among those tasted) with Margaux AOC wines.
It was a glorious time – and glorious Indian Summer like weather – tasting through scores of wines, often single blind, on Thursday and Friday, 2-3 November, with noted Bordeaux wine critic and wine author Jane Anson and fellow wine writer Yohan Castaing, whose excellent blog https://www.anthocyanes.fr, is worth reading if you can understand French.
Although we tasted most of the classified growths, along with a few Cru Bourgeois level wines, we did not assess Haut Brion, Latour and Mouton Rothschild. But we got to most all 1855 classification wines, beginning with Château Margaux, which in my book gets wine of the vintage among all Médoc wines tasted.
We ended tastings on Friday 3 November at Château Pichon Longueville Baron, where we assessed many Pauillacs blind, including the Baron, which is excellent in 2015.
Overall the Pauillacs were solid to great, lacking the consistency of 2016. Certainly 2014 can give 2015 in Pauillac a run for its money: from GPL to Pichon Comtesse, 2014 is a vintage that offers high quality at more affordable prices. While I enjoyed many Saint Juliens, I felt they were overall solid to great, but not spectacular with the exceptions of LLC and Ducru Beaucaillou. The big surprise was how well the Saint Estephes did. For example an excellent Calon Segur and an even more surprising Cos d’Estournel that tasted far better now from bottle than from barrel. To me at least.
Upon some reflection, here my overall “top ten” from the Médoc’s classified growths. My list is based only on wines from that region, however, from bottle (although I missed Mouton Rothschild and Latour). In at least a part 2 (if not parts 3 and 4 as well), I will assess wines from Graves, the Right Bank and its satellites, Cru Bourgeois, and Sauternes/Barsac, and their respective top tens… Stay tuned 🙂
As per usual, wines in bold I liked in particular. When bold and red, even more. And when underlined, too? Wine nirvana! Read More
16 vintages of Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
Posted on October 24, 2017
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com
24 October 2017
For the third time this year, it was great to welcome a top Bordeaux wine to Washington D.C. After Château Montrose in January and Château Léoville Las Cases in March, this time it was Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, with estate director Nicolas Glumineau.
A triple hat trick in 2017 of super seconds? Why, yes!
We enjoyed a fine meal at Taberna Del Alabardero, accompanied by no less than 16 vintages of Pichon Comtesse, from 1975 to a barrel sample of 2016. All were delivered to MacArthur Beverages ex-château, with the exception of the 2002 vintage, donated – thanks so much Randy McFarlane – by one of our 24 dinner participants. And many thanks to Mark Wessels and the team at MacArthur’s, for covering the not insubstantial cost of importing the wines for the dinner: two bottles each of 14 vintages. Estate director Nicolas Glumineau brought over the two barrel samples of the 2016, which had been bottled and put on his flight.
The restaurant provided a spacious setting in alluring red colors, and with a balcony to boot. The photo from the balcony, above, was taken by blogger James Aaron Nix-Gomez. Thank you, Aaron!
Restaurant service was excellent, as was sommelier Maria Ortiz.
Maria and I opened all the bottles beforehand to check for faulty notes, and it was pretty amazing that none had any cork issues. Some seemed fresher than others among the older vintages – but that is natural. We double decanted almost every vintage (save for the 1975 and 1978) between three and six hours before they were served. Read More
Déjà Vu: Fine cuisine and wine in Athens
Posted on October 7, 2017
Vassilenas Restaurant
7 October 2017
By Panos Kakaviatos for Wine-Chronicles
You know you are in a fine Greek restaurant when the Taramosalata rivals – Heaven Forbid – your Greek mother’s prized recipe.
At Vassilenas Restaurant in Athens, I savored just such a smooth texture, purity of salty roe, accentuated by seamlessly blended lemon. Very thin pita slices maximized the taste bud contact of the Taramosalata, much like the finest crystal wine glass enables the greatest possible palate feel for the wine.
Taramosalata that rivals mom’s
It reminded me vaguely of another wonderful Taramosalata experience that I had enjoyed a few years back, with Konstantinos Lazarakis MW, in Piraeus.
Back then, Konstantinos had organized a tremendously useful blind tasting of many Greek white and red wines: a crash course, if you will, which I will never forget as an exceptional educational experience. We then went to a taverna restaurant in Piraeus called 1920, where the food was so savory and delicious that I have always told people to go there, when in Athens/Piraeus.
Flash forward to this year. Dimitra Arida, communications manager for Vassilenas Restaurant – which recently moved from Piraeus to Athens – invited me to dinner in late September.
Dimitra Arida, communications manager for Vassilenas Restaurant, showing off older times!
Over dinner, Dimitra explained how the establishment had enjoyed a great reputation as a high-end Greek taverna since the early 20th century – drawing in celebrity guests from Winston Churchill to Maria Callas. The reputation was built primarily on the quality of the seafood and fish, but also on the general vision of the Vassilenas family to only use the freshest of ingredients.
Current owner and third generation of the family, Thanasis Vassilenas, recently hired chef Manolis Garnelis, Dimitra explained, for the move to Athens: Manolis had cooked at well-known restaurants such as Aleria and at the Michelin-starred Varoulko, where he stayed for four years. His deep knowledge of fish and seafood earned him a rightful place as chef in the Vassilenas kitchen, since the restaurant moved to Athens in December last year. Read More
Pleasing all senses
Posted on June 25, 2017
Lunch at Le Chapon Fin
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com
25 June 2017
I recently revisited Le Chapon Fin, a legendary restaurant in Bordeaux. A few years back, I had attended a Vinexpo dinner with some fine wines, and loved the food. But during the week of this year’s Vinexpo, I was invited to lunch with a dear friend who works in wine tourism: Diana Verneau, of Secrets de Châteaux in Bordeaux.
Many thanks to Sylvie Cazes of Bordeaux Saveurs for the invitation to lunch.
The overall ambiance is sumptuous, with a unique touch, which I will explain later. The names of some famous former regulars are on medallions in the restaurant, including painter Toulouse-Lautrec and actress Sarah Bernhardt, politicians Georges Clémenceau and Aristide Briand. Read More
Vinexpo 2017 ends, with strong Chinese and US presence
Posted on June 22, 2017
Press Release – 22 June 2017 Read More
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