By Jack Chapman on 24/04/2024
A tiny part of the wine market as a whole (as explored in Charles Lea's blog here), grower Champagne has a disproportionate share of characterful, remarkable wines, thanks to the passionate vignerons behind the wines. We're shining a spotlight on our portfolio of grower champagnes this year, each month highlighting a different producer - this month: Nicolas Maillart.
By Jack Chapman on 05/09/2023
Day 1 Have you ever flown from Heathrow to Buenos Aires with 30 wine merchants? It’s an experience I would recommend, although the lounge at Terminal 5 and British Airways might still be reeling from the drinks tab we managed to knock up.
By Jack Chapman on 01/09/2023
I have been fortunate enough this year to visit America twice – once North, once South, to visit some of the most iconic wineries both have to offer. A hardship undertaken in order to bring the most up to date insights on the so called ‘September Series’.
By Jack Chapman on 17/08/2023
Sometimes, my friends like to talk about football. We’re sat in the pub, at a restaurant or at a party – usually when there are a few blokes who don’t know each other especially well - and it’s one of the first conversations to crop up.
By Jack Chapman on 25/04/2023
And we’re off, scouting Châteaux for the best of Bordeaux 2022. Our head of Private Clients, Jack Chapman is sending us his notes and impressions, giving us a verbal tour of some of the finest wines of Bordeaux’s right bank, and the team’s take on the mystifying 2022 vintage.
By Jack Chapman on 14/04/2023
I am going out on a limb with this blog entry, to say that you probably don’t need me to tell you that Lafite, Mouton, Margaux and Haut-Brion will probably be exceptional in the 2022 releases. It is, by now, far from a secret that we’ve got an outstanding vintage on our hands.
By Jack Chapman on 28/11/2022
It’s interesting, the little avenues that life takes you down. I’ve been at Lea & Sandeman for nearly three years now, and I’ve enjoyed each one more than the last, but, despite working exceptionally hard at the ‘research’ part of the job, I still haven’t tasted every wine we have.
By Jack Chapman on 11/05/2022
I feel like these blogs have become something of a confession of late, so here’s another one. As much as, when we visit Bordeaux, I’m acting in a professional capacity (something many of you will know I’m just about capable of…) to taste, evaluate and communicate a vintage to you, I’m also secretly really just figuring out what I want to buy.
By Jack Chapman on 11/05/2022
Great old, grand old Pauillac. The most revered appellation in the Médoc felt more like it had gone back in time than perhaps any other area. The wines were generally very lean and precise – Merlot, again, suffered a fair bit up here and, with the wines usually Cabernet focussed anyway, it meant that these high percentages were pushed even higher.
By Jack Chapman on 09/05/2022
I have a soft spot for Margaux. I thought it was worth prefacing everything you’re going to read with this – The feelings I have for Margaux are along the lines of the ones I have for great Burgundy.
By Jack Chapman on 09/05/2022
Our tour de Saint-Julien started on a lovely sunny morning, with both of us slightly the worse for wear from the night before, having briefly gone our separate ways (David for a dinner at Château Lafite, myself for a far more oikish, if exceptionally fun do in Bordeaux Town Hall).
By Jack Chapman on 08/05/2022
Pessac-Leognan is a slightly peculiar place. You start in the city – Carmes Haut Brion, it’s fair to say, is quite literally an ‘urban winery’, such is its proximity to the hustle and bustle of Bordeaux. Slowly you start to drift out, Haut-Brion & La Mission, two absolutely stunning Châteaux, appear almost out of nowhere, cutting through the tower blocks and urban sprawl.