By Charles Lea on 20/10/2021
Asked how the harvest has gone, one négociant replied that he felt that Bordeaux has got away with frost losses much better than some other parts of France, with frosts that were -3C to -4C, the kind that the great Châteaux are able to deal with by using very expensive things like helicopters or candles in the vineyard.
By Charles Lea on 19/05/2021
From Matt Walls, writing in Decanter, comes an article on top-quality and great-value Côte-Rôtie alternatives. As Matt puts it, “When a grape variety is given time to ripen slowly and gradually, it develops its aromas one by one. The grape has time to listen to those aromas, to remember them all, layering them like tints in a watercolour.
By Charles Lea on 09/03/2021
[caption id="attachment_32961" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Steven Spurrier at our Barnes shop for a book signing[/caption] We are very sad to hear the death today of the wine legend Steven Spurrier. Steven’s Paris shop ‘Les Caves de la Madeleine’ was a magnet for wine enthusiasts and has proved an enduring influence on those who worked there – which sometimes feels like a whole generation of the UK wine trade.
By Charles Lea on 16/02/2021
Last year the City Fine Wine Challenge raised over £200,000 for the NSPCC. In the last year charities have had little opportunity to raise funds through events, but the NSPCC has seen demand rise, particularly through Childline, and it needs your help more than ever.
By Charles Lea on 29/01/2021
Organic, late-picked, whole-bunch fermented, classic old-school red Burgundies from one of the great domaines of the Cote de Nuits, based in Vosne Romanée, with vineyards from Pommard to Gevrey Chambertin – and reasonably-priced too!
By Charles Lea on 29/05/2020
Vintage good to outstanding. Timing poor to appalling. Pricing might be interesting We have already expressed our sympathy with the view that the interruption of the primeur tastings in Bordeaux should really have resulted in a radical rethink of the whole en primeur circus, which, in the last ten years, has become a selling opportunity for the Chateaux rather than a buying opportunity for the consumer.
By Charles Lea on 27/05/2020
Château Latour 2012 is released today – for the first time, as this was the first vintage in which Latour was not offered en primeur.
By Charles Lea on 26/05/2020
We’ve already said that the UK trade is not terribly enthusiastic about the prospect of a primeur campaign over this summer, and we are not the only ones. “This horrible virus could have been the excuse that the region needed to kick this outdated and increasingly irrelevant ‘buying opportunity’ into the long grass, once and for all.” (Matthew Jukes)
By Charles Lea on 21/05/2020
I am still reeling from the news of the death last week of Denis Durantou, owner and winemaker of Chateau l'Église Clinet, La Petite Église (its second wine) Cruzelles, Montlandrie, La Chenade and Saintayme. He was only 62. I've been so disengaged (delegation) from the last two Bordeaux primeur campaigns, that I didn't even know he was ill.
By Charles Lea on 12/05/2020
Word has been seeping out that the 2019 vintage in Bordeaux is a good one. Not ‘the vintage of the century’ again, but better than 2018, and continuing the long run of successful vintage that Bordeaux has enjoyed, both in terms of quantity and quality.
By Charles Lea on 20/03/2020
‘a whiff of wet oilskin’, ‘like a pretty child with an upturned nose’ – tasting notes from one of the greats. In the midst of all the current gloom and uncertainty, take a moment to celebrate the long life of Michael Broadbent MW, who died on Wednesday night, timing his exit elegantly as you’d expect. Think about raising a glass in his memory over the weekend.
By Charles Lea on 08/01/2020
The Whites The whites, produced from a welcome large harvest, are good to very good, a vintage which will be welcome in the market as much for the volume as for the quality. The grapes were in perfect condition at the harvest and it was possible to press hard and long.