Wine ChroniclesRandy McFarlane’s feast of wine at 1789
Posted on January 4, 2017
Haut Brion, Climens, Dom Ruinart, Dauvissat, Barolo – and so much more
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com
4 January 2017
Leave it to Randy McFarlane to organize such a great event. I have known Randy and his wife Caroline for over 10 years now, and we get together annually on several occasions to drink and eat. Drink great wine, eat great food. Life is too short. Yes indeed.
A gorgeous private room and setting, thanks to Randy McFarlane (right side, third from the front) and wife Caroline (right side, second from the front).
And thanks to Randy, I re-discovered 1789: a traditional American restaurant which takes you back in time, with decor that seems 18th century like indeed. Read More
Bordeaux 1966: 50 years on
Posted on December 9, 2016
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com
9 December 2016
Wine is a drink for civilized discourse, as I found out yet again, close to my 50th birthday, over dinner with friends and family, with a horizontal of mostly 1966 Bordeaux.
Host Olivier Bernard of Domaine de Chevalier has a justified reputation as being savvy, gentlemanly, suave, fun loving and truly passionate about wine. Over dinner, he enjoys serving older wines blind that end in the same number of the current year, and asks dinner guests to make educated guesses.
Olivier Bernard pouring 1966 Bordeaux. But which is which? With – from left to right – Shaun Bishop of JJ Buckley, Konstantina Kakaviatos Zaras (my sister) and Alexandre de Bethmann of Château Olivier
Curious about Qvevri
Posted on December 2, 2016
Understanding Georgian wine
By Taste Georgia’s Sarah May Grunwald
In the very heart of the Caucasus, the Republic of Georgia is a distinctively special country with deep and warranted claims as the actual birthplace of wine. Both archeological and biological evidence confirm this claim. Georgia has the oldest known grape pips ever found and Neolithic pottery, dating back over 9,000 years, that have residue from wine. While the entire Trans-Caucasus area is well established as the most ancient center of wine production, Georgia can declare the longest unbroken tradition of viticulture in the world.
Wine is written literally in the genetic code that distinguishes one as a Georgian.
Even more unique than the Kartvelian language and alphabet – with letters written in the fashion of grape vines – wine is Georgia’s identity. Georgia’s wine and ancient wine vessel known as the qvevri are the direct links that we, as modern wine lovers, have to our Neolithic ancestors. Read More
“Prenatal Bourgogne” 2016: reds seem better than whites
Posted on November 23, 2016
By Panos Kakaviatos for Wine-Chronicles.Com
23 November 2016
Now the that the Hospices de Beaune auction is behind us (you can read my report on that here) – with a very good result overall for important charities – we can talk about some very, very early assessments of the quality of the vintage.
Having visited the domain back in late September, and now having tasted many of the 45 cuvées red and white from barrel, on location at the Hospices de Beaune (with some reassuring comments and opinions from fellow wine loving writers Amanda Regan and Michael Apstein), I suppose it could be safe to say that the reds from this vintage will turn out better overall than the whites.
And you know what? I’ll leave it at that …
Indeed, for some people, tasting 2016 at such an absurdly early stage is “simply useless”. That’s how one prominent wine author put it over lunch in Burgundy, but then again, that person recently wrote an article on … the quality of the wines. LOL! Read More
2015 Gevrey-Chambertins
Posted on November 20, 2016
Solar vintage sumptuousness – and “sumptuous” pricing
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com
20 November 2016
2015 Burgundy is going to be a big winner for lovers of rich and riper styles.
While not exactly like 2009, the wines I tasted at this event often seemed to approach that vintage’s characteristics – and for many readers there is much to cheer about.
The tasting of all kinds of Gevreys (villages, premiers and grands crus) was held on 17 November at Roi Chambertin.
And I agree with the general positive tone! 2015 will be a (very) successful vintage. However, I do worry about some excessively overripe characteristics that I encountered – and not just from the village level, but all the way to the grand cru level. Several tasters felt the same way about it, from Sweden to Croatia, by way of the US. I met wine writer Elke Jung from Sweden, for example, who very much liked the 2015s but also remarked, the next day “It seems that I am in the minority to think in terms of excess ripeness.” No, she was not. But consumer demand will depend on taste, and what one wants from Burgundy.
Although such observations/critiques may amount to more than just a hill of beans, they do not really constitute a mountain, either. Thank goodness for vintages! Read More
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