Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

AlexR

Hi, I have noticed that some of the most famous Port houses bottle a flagship vintage Port as well as a single vineyard vintage Port. Examples of the latter: Dow’s Quinta do Bomfin Graham’s Quinta dos Malvedos Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas The price differential is quite significant between the “stra...

AlexR

Izak, I do not doubt your experience with that wine, but I was speaking about the category as a whole. It is only normal that red Loire wines should be lighter in body since they are located 300 km north of Bordeaux. It's colder. I agree that light-bodied does not equate with weak. Yours truly, Alex...

AlexR

Hi, China’s rise is due to a strong belief in their version of manifest destiny. Americans of my generation grew up believing their country was the best, number one in many, many ways – and that this would remain so. Despite political differences, Americans pulled pretty much in the same direction. ...

AlexR

Yes, there is indeed a crisis, but not for *all* French wines.

Rosé wines are doing exceedingly well and despite a brief blip, Chamapgne is going great guns. Burgundy is in huge demand.

The category that is losing out most is red wine which, of course, is over 80% of what Bordeaux produces.

Alex R.

AlexR

Dear Izak,

You are mistaken there. I lived in Saumur for rwo years and sold such wines, which I have enjoyed on countless occasions.

All the best,
Alex

AlexR

Château le Grand Verdus is a well-reputed centuries-old estate located in Sadirac, equidistant from Bordeaux and Libourne. This large vineyard (120 hectares) produces wines sold under the Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur appellations. The château makes a range of wines including an unsulfured red, an...

AlexR

Wow, that's one of the finest Italian wines. I hope it was worthy of its reputation.
This BWEer (yours truly) is in the Douro Valley.
The world of wine is winderful, ain't it?

Alex R.

AlexR

If only understanding and appreciating fine wine weren't so damned complicated! Second wines are a good illustration of this. Some consumers want "only the best" and shun them alogether, perhaps making an exception with regard to the first growths. Others are afraid of getting burnt, of en...

AlexR

The French say "Comparaison n'est pas raison". But... When I think about ageing wine, I think about US presidents. US presidents? Well, if it's a choice between a John F. Kennedy or a Joe Biden, I'll take the former. The young guy full of spirit and punch, as opposed to the old guy who has...

AlexR

:cry: It amuses me to think that a 2008 could be called young ;-). It's all a matter of perspective. And, yes, I know that Barolos need age, sometimes lots and lots of it. That's somewhat of a handicap commercially, and in the same way that there was a turn towards "modern" Bordeaux, winem...

AlexR

Alexandre de Lur Saluces was a great man, and he will have died in the same year as Jean-Michel Cazes, another giant. The count was an ambassador not just for Yquem and Fargues, but also all of Sauternes. He was a true gentleman, and it is only because of undue pressue and manipulation that Yquem es...

AlexR

Hi, Peppercorn's book actually dates from 1981, but an updated edition was later published. It's a good book, with the classic shortcoming of focusing on the great growths. There are few errors, just one that makes me smile: he refers to Place de la Bourse in Bordeaux as Place Royale - which it hasn...

AlexR

My wife and i shared a bottle of 2009 La Croix Boissée on Friday. Thankfully, it did not display the bretty notes I have found in Baudry in the past, as in many Chinons. The wine was very evolved with marked pencil shaving aromas. It was fully resolved, in fact, past its prime from my point of view....

AlexR

I quite like Rioja and wonder why I don’t drink it more often. OK, some of them are seriously overoaked, but if you take a little time and effort, you can find some wonderful wines, and the prices hurt a lot less than for fine French wines… I’ve been to Rioja a couple of times and believed I had mor...

AlexR

Two comments here. All of us are tempted to judge the market by what we see around us, i.e. where we live. But, the market for Bordeaux is well and truly international. This means that generalizations on a global scale are difficult to make, as tempting as this may be. Older better vintages for less...

AlexR

The same sort of article could have been written years ago because it is not exactly new that better, older vintages have been availabe at a lower peice than en primeur. Yet still the system continues.. Its bubblebursting collapse has long been predicted but has never materialized. I'm not really de...

AlexR

Hi Jacques, Thanks for the travelogue. You were in the real heartland of France, where it is said that the purest French is spoken. I lived in a town called Doué La Fontaine near Saumur for a year and a half. In fact, my family and I lived here: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_du_Pont-de-...

AlexR

I wonder why Duhart Milon has such a low profile. It's not a small estate by any means (76 hectares). it's true, I've personally never had one that made me vibrate. When you taste at Lafite, the put Duhart Milno *before* Les Carruades, therefore considering it either less good, or lighter, or all of...

AlexR

Brown is beautiful estate surrounded by suburbs. It is named after the same Scottish wine merchant, Jean Lewis Brown, who had Cantenac Brown in Margaux. Actually, I prefer Brown blanc to Brown rouge (the colors are confusing, aren't they?). The latter is kind of modern in style in my opinion. I have...

AlexR

Hi, Friends were visiting from New Zealand (Jenny is a winemaker and Charles sells French wine barrels), so my wife and I planned a special dinner. The menu consisted of crab salad, grilled duck breast with potates fried with cèpes, cheeses, and apricot tart. There were 9 of us at table. We started ...

AlexR

Izak,

I seet that you are not happy with my blog.

Sorry about that.

I would never criticize yours publicly.

Best regards,
Alex

AlexR

Good to see you enjoyed the Meyney. I went there with Izak Litwar a couple of months ago. We tasted Meyney alongside the great growth Pauillac, Château Grand Puy Ducasse, also owned by the same bank, the Crédit Agricole. Meyney was clearly the better wine. I have enjoyed many bottles of Meyney over ...

AlexR

If I were to live in another country, it would.be Italy.

AR

AlexR

Bourgogne for me too! The Burgundians are trying to push for use of the word "Bourgogne" in English rather than "Burgundy". For instance, the new Cité des Climats et Vins de Bourgogne, spread out over 3 sites (Beaune, Chablis, and Mâcon) only uses Bourgogne in their English texts...

AlexR

I prefer my system, you prefer yours.
Is it really surprising?
Maybe that's because I'm an apeman.

https://youtu.be/aRHqs8SffDo

The fact is that very few people wade through reams of tasting notes anyway. It's totally stultifying. Still, it is a wondeful challenge to put them together.

Alex

AlexR

Izak, My notes are always more toned down than most people's. For instance, on *my* 20 point scale, 12 is good, 14 is very good and I rarely go above 17/18. We are bound to have diverging opinions. As for Lafie, I was actually being charitable. I found it tremendously elegant, of course, but lacking...

AlexR

Hi, I went tasting the new vintage with Izak Litwar. I was not in any race against the clock to put my notes on line as my blog is pretty much a hobby, and I don't seek to influence people's buying strategy. So, rather late in the game by professional standards, I have started posting my impressions...

AlexR

Yes, a great man and the antithesis of the snobbish chateau owner. Jean-Michel was a public relations genius and an excellent ambassador for the Médoc.
He will be sorely missed.

Alex R.

AlexR

Izak,

One of the high points of my life was drinking 1953 Château Margaux during a lunch at the château.

Mind you, 1961 Margaux from magnum at the château with fellow BWEers wasn't too shabby either.

Alex

AlexR

Hi guys, Many thanks for your birthday wishes. Jim, I showed your poem around to friends and family and we all loved it. What a great idea! What input did you put into ChatGPT for them to come up with it? I invited 35 people over to dinner to celebrate my birthday, which entailed a lot of work. But ...

AlexR

Where is your sense of patriotism?

))))))))))))

Seriously, though, the notion of value for money is so imoportant.
So why does Bordeaux have the reputation of being expensive?

It's the eternal confusion between the tip of the pyramid and the other 95%.

Alex R.

AlexR

I'm pretty much with Ed on this. *Of course* I see the downside (fake news, difficulty in knowing if you're convervsing with a computer or a human being, etc.). However, I see it more as a springboard to better things. Will be need to be more discerning and sceptical about what we read? Undoubtedly,...

AlexR

Patrick,

The $64,000 question is: in another 35-40 years, when the wines are into "full tertiary" and they are 70 years old, what will they have retained of their fruit and vitality?

Alex

AlexR

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your notes, which are overall pretty positive.

It is interesting to plot price against ratings. Wines such as Carbonnieux, La Tour Figeac and Gazin come out rather well.

All the best,
Alex

AlexR

I have one bottle of this wine.
You make me want to open it soon.

AR

AlexR

I wish you a wonderful celebration.

AR

AlexR

I'm an old guy.
I''ve been hearing about the pointlessness of buying en primeur for décades.
But still the circus continues.

AR

AlexR

Hi,

I find Saint-Pierre is a good value wine with a fruity, more upfront style, rather than "modern".

I bought serveral bottles of the 2009 thinking that it would be fine after 10 years, but it still needs time.

Alex R.

AlexR

... and prices are going north...

https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2023/ ... -in-price/

AR

AlexR

When my wife and I first came to Bordeaux in (gulp) 1978 after a couple of years in the Napa Valley, I can remember being impressed with the perfumed elegance of Bordeaux wines, but disappointed with their lack of body and what I’ll call oomph. It didn’t take long, however, before I came to prefer t...

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