60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot. Nicely ripe, a solid mouthful of Médoc from an excellent vintage and it shows - significantly more enjoyable than the 2012 Beaumont itself (this is the second wine). Excellent d...(read more)

Chateau Lauriol is the 100% Merlot second wine of perennial over-achiever - Chateau Puygueraud, owned by the Thienpont family. It comes from their vineyards in the Côtes du Francs. Sleek and sophisticated this is r...(read more)

Deep colour, full and succulent, stays fresh and with supple mid-palate weight and a fine, direct Médoc character. Refined, but not lacking spice and vigour, this is another excellent Médoc from the Philipp...(read more)

Chateau La Pervenche is arguably a more romantic name than the translation into English - it is hard to know how seriously people would take Chateau Blue Periwinkle - but this is a super Bordeaux bargain. Although quite...(read more)

The second wine of L’Hêtre, a new wine in the distinctly up-and-coming AP of Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux. Owned by the Thienpont family, organically farmed and situated high on the limestone plateau to the ea...(read more)

This is another great effort from Francois Thienpont. It comes eclusively from a 2 Hectare plot that the family rent on a very long-term basis. The vines were planted in 1958 and that old vine intensity is clear. Althoug...(read more)

Clean and quite zingy, lifted with mouth-watering freshness, some grassy-edged fruit and lashings of pert grapefruit that lead to a neat finish This gorgeous white Bordeaux comes from vineyards made up of gravel and seas...(read more)

The slightly unexciting label disguises a wine with real Saint Estèphe character - the huge 'R' presumably for the owner René. A firm nose of pencil lead and a touch of cigar-box, and a firm fruit that seem...(read more)

From the Nicolas Thienpont family of estates (which includes Pavie Macquin and Larcis Ducasse) the Puygueraud is juicy and intense with ripe fruit exploding on the nose and a generous palate of cassis and black cherry. A...(read more)

Intense black fruit with a touch of bitterness on the palate, and simple spices that prevent this being too one-dimensional

Wow. This is just what you'd hope for from this smart address in the little known Cerons appellation of the Graves. Caroline and Xavier have been working hard to raise the profile of their reds here - and they seem to be...(read more)

Suave and sophisticated, a sense of being well turned-out, dark, in soft tailored cashmere and complete with a rose in the buttonhole. Really well-made, this drinks now but will gain from more time in bottle, much like t...(read more)