Skip to content

Wine Wine Wine

“Collection of wine news and wine-related feeds”

Tag Archives: Bordeaux

February 17, 2010 Sotheby’s to auction giant bottle of Bordeaux

Image from Englewood Wine Merchants

Sotheby’s will auction off a melchior of Château Cheval Blanc 2006 on Feb. 17 in London. The melchior sized bottle, which is 18 litres in volume is expected to fetch up to £4,800.

h/t Luxuo

Tags: , , , , , ,

January 30, 2010 10 rules for investing in wine

Rule #1:  Buy the best Bordeaux (the First Growths, the Super Seconds and the top St Emilions and Pomerols) from the best vintages.

Tim Atkins completes the set in this 2008 article for The Observer.

Tags: , , , , ,

January 28, 2010 Tasting Cos

Cos D’Estournel. The name says it all. I’ve tasted Cos once. It was before I really knew or appreciated what I was drinking. Gastroenophile knows and appreciates.

…for my taste, the best contemporary Cos was the ’96–and at £720 a case half the price of the ’03. Forgive the superlatives, but the rim reminded me of the crimson glow that awakens you when you are flying over the Outback of Australia. The flavour is full throttle, with cedar, a touch of spice and, I am afraid, dried blood. This will effortlessly last two decades at least.

And he got to drink a ’28

The ’28, though, was a profound experience. It actually improved with time in the glass, and when I poured the last few drops from the bottle a few hours later, it was even more harmonious. It was slightly prickly but still had sweet fruit and a gentle aftertaste

One day soon I will again taste Cos.

Tags: , , , , ,

January 17, 2010 Bordeaux: One in six in the wine trade

“Bordeaux has 10,000 wine producers, 53 co-operatives, 130 brokers and 400 négociants.  It is estimated that one person in six of the Gironde’s working population is involved in the trade.  Not all wine producers own châteaux, of which there are approximately 5,000 across all the regions of Bordeaux.”

This from Berry Bros. Their site includes lots of great information on the wine industry as well as some great wines.

Tags: , ,

December 31, 2009 Walpole used the Royal Navy to smuggle wine

“Hedonism and Claret”,  from The Economist <link>. It’s a good read.

When Britain made peace with France in 1713, claret became more accessible and the wine trade flourished. Claret was pricey but rich Londoners, who were also by then big spenders on theatres, spas and music produced by fashionable immigrants, such as Handel, consumed conspicuous quantities. Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s first prime minister, used navy ships to smuggle his favourite wines from France. The most expensive one he bought was old burgundy, but that—as now—was available only in tiny quantities. So he relied largely on claret, buying four hogsheads of 24 dozen bottles of Margaux and one hogshead of Lafite every three months. In a single year his wine bill amounted to over £1,200 (£100,000 today).

Tags: , , , , , ,

May 7, 2009 Jancis & Simon on Bordeaux 2008

Don’t worry about Mr Parker.  Listen to Jancis Robinson and Simon Staples, Berry Bros, review 2008 Bordeaux here <link>. They’ll tell you all you need to know.

“Who would have thought that after months of continuous bad weather and set-backs in the vineyards, and weeks of speculation about the quality of the wines, that we would actually come away with anything better than mediocre praise for these specimens?  But there’s no denying that many of the wines surpassed our expectations (though it must be said that many didn’t).”

Tags: , , , , ,

February 14, 2009 Top Bordeaux

cos_estournel

One jury’s view on on the top 100 selected from more than 350 wines priced $US8 to $US35. The tasting was in December 2008 and the jury tasted all entries grouped by price in a blind panel. The full list is here <link>. There are tastings for trade and journos in March.

The picture is the Cos chateau. It doesn’t appear in the list; probably outside the price list.

Tags: , , ,

September 1, 2008 Map of Bordeaux

I like wine. I like maps. So maps of wine regions are a perfect combination for me. This one isn’t one of those classic maps (the little airplane is a bit of a giveaway) but it is a very good one. <link>

Updated: Here’s another. No airport on this one.

Tags: , , , ,