Wine ChroniclesCrus Bourgeois return to classification
And (many) tasting notes from 2015 in bottle By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 14 January 2018 One of the great, if short-lived, periods in the modern era for the Cru Bourgeois wines of Bordeaux was a 2003 ministerial order that approved the first official classification of the Crus Bourgeois du Médoc, which recognized 247 châteaus […]
20 years of Château La Conseillante
A great vertical, a great Pomerol 10 January 2018 By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com Driving west past Château Cheval Blanc at the edge of Saint Emilion, you come across a series of superb Pomerol estates with prime vineyard real estate: Vieux Château Certan, Evangile, Petrus and La Conseillante, among others. They count among the very […]
2015 Bordeaux from bottle, part 1: Mostly Médoc wines
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 […]
16 vintages of Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
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 […]
Pleasing all senses
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 […]
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 […]
Pomerol power in 2016
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine chronicles.com 30 May 2017 Last year’s Pomerol Panache is followed by more serious tannin this year. Whatever the case, Pomerol now has a run of three excellent vintages in a row. With some exceptions, 2016 is the most powerful among the three – more Pauillac than Pomerol. 2014 showcases brightness, and 2015 more […]
Environmentally friendly: new Bordeaux initiative
Press release – 23 May Lussac Saint-Emilion, Puisseguin Saint-Emilion, Saint-Emilion and Saint-Emilion Grand Cru winegrowers commit to an “environmentally friendly” approach At their Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 16th May 2017, the winegrowers of the Saint-Emilion Wine Council voted in favour of adopting environmentally friendly cultivation practices that will soon be added to the requirements […]
St Emilion 2000, 15 years on
15 years in bottle: How do the “big boys” compare? By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 2 May 2017 Since January this year, I had wanted to organize a blind tasting of Saint Emilion 2000, to compare the top classified growths against “lesser” pedigrees. It would be a follow up to a blind tasting that I […]
The revenge of Saint Estèphe
Bordeaux 2016 barrel tasting notes By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 29 April 2017 Most readers have read the positive feedback from the barrel samples of Bordeaux 2016, including from me. Yes, there is hype, as usual, and some prices are high (such as for Cos d’Estournel, one merchant told me), but I do believe that […]
Recent Comments