Wine Chronicles25 vintages of Château Haut-Bailly from magnum
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles 9 March 2024 You know a Bordeaux producer is worthy when their second wine at nearly 20 years old is selected among the top in a blind tasting that included three Ridge Monte Bellos (1996, 2004, 2007), two Château Pontet Canets (2001, 2010), Château Brane Cantenac 1986, Château Beychevelle 1964, […]
A focus on Léoville Poyferré – and more – in Boston
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 30 January 2024 Many thanks to Marc Bouffard aka Englishmans Claret – a must-follow on Instagram for anyone who appreciates fine wine – for a wonderful dinner and lunch at Boston’s Somerset Club, featuring the wines of the family of Sara Lecompte Cuvelier, who own the storied second growth in […]
2020 Bordeaux: bottled classic
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 21 October 2023 TASTING NOTES CLICK HERE Dear Readers, It has been a while, but after buying a new apartment with renovation work, prioritizing articles in magazines for which I am paid, and work from my day job at the Council of Europe, I took a hiatus from this website. […]
Mouton Rothschild: reaching back 40 years
And some talk of “first growth bias” By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com A wonderful evening at the cozy and elegant French restaurant La Chaumière in Georgetown in Washington D.C. It was great to catch up with wine friends most of whom I hadn’t seen since Covid struck. We chose as theme the venerable First Growth […]
Nearly 40 vintages of Château Pichon Longueville Baron
In honor of Jean-René Matignon By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 14 October 2022 I recall the disappointment in Jean-René Matignon’s face as rain started falling towards the end of the 2006 harvest. “This could have been as good as 2005,” he said regretfully. Some 16 years later, tasting the 2006 at Château Pichon Longueville Baron […]
Saint Emilion rankings 2022: Is Grand Cru Classé accurately reflected?
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 29 September 2022 Following up on my text on the latest ranking of Saint Emilion wines – as published in Club Oenologique earlier this month – I focus on the total of 71 Grand Cru Classés, which is just shy of record from the 1969 classification of 72 wines so […]
Dry, small and challenging: 2022 Bordeaux should be (far) better than 2021
7 September 2022 By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com Dear Readers, Sorry for such a long absence. Because this site is free, I don’t update that often. I get paid to write for Decanter and other publications. But here some Bordeaux 2022 perspectives, as I arrived the day before yesterday: First off, the grapes are very […]
Bordeaux 2021 from barrel : the reds
Bordeaux faces stalling futures campaign By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 27 May 2022 One of the last red barrel samples I tasted from Bordeaux’s 2021 vintage this year was on location at Château Gruaud Larose, in late May 2022, where CEO Nicolas Sinoquet explained how much hard work was needed to craft the best possible […]
Bordeaux 2021 from barrel: the whites
Make Acidity Great Again By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com Updated 27 May with the reds A quick reference to tasting notes below. I had published my reflections on the white wines of Bordeaux on 13 May, which I think shine most in 2021. The reds are now online on a new page: HERE. With thanks […]
Perfect Champagne Day in Reims
By Panos Kakaviatos 27 March 2022 UNESCO World Heritage sites include two in Reims: the Notre Dame cathedral, inscribed together with the Palace of Tau and the Saint Remi Abbey in 1991, and “Champagne Hillsides, Houses and Cellars” in 2015. A majestic example of Gothic architecture, the 13th century Reims Notre Dame impresses with stained-glass […]
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