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 […]

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Champagne in the time of Corona. Virus, that is.

“Champagne makes you feel like it’s Sunday, and there are better days around the corner.”  – Marlene Dietrich By Panos Kakaviatos  27 April 2020 A similar version of this article appeared in winereviewonline.com  Sorry for the weak title: a play on “Love in the Time of Cholera”, but anyway … 😁 Last month on a […]

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Ode to Dom Ruinart

290 years old and going strong By Panos Kakaviatos at wine-chronicles.com  23 December 2019 Ever since dear wine loving pal Randall McFarlane organized an exciting vertical of Domaine Ruinart – here an older text about that – I discovered just how amazing the wines from this Champagne house can be. After tasting the 1996 for […]

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From 1522 to 2018: Enjoying Philipponnat Champagne

Champagne evening at Mirabelle Restaurant in Washington D.C. By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 9 November 2018 When asked by Heidi Arnold of the famous Heart’s Delight Wine Auction here in Washington D.C. if I wanted to join a special Champagne dinner with Charles Philipponnat, I hesitated to reply for … not even a second. Over […]

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Champagne: harvest news

Confident in its export markets, Champagne growers and houses agree to set the available yield at 10,800 kg/ha. Report from Comité Champagne  25 July 2018 Expecting stable sales in 2018 and a slight growth over the next few years (especially in the export markets, which now account for more than 50% of the total shipments), Champagne […]

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In praise of white Burgundy

Dry white outclasses all else By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com  10 March 2018 Over dinner at the excellent Charlie Palmer Steakhouse in Washington D.C. this past January, which I can only highly recommend, a few wine loving friends put blindfolds on but we would have picked the white blind or not. As with “blind wine […]

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Not really amazing, but worth the detour

Restaurant Review: Au Moulin de la Wantzenau By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 22 February 2018 For the second time in three years (this is, perhaps, too infrequent), I enjoyed a fine meal at Au Moulin in the Wantzenau: about a 15 minute drive outside Strasbourg. It is not a Michelin rated restaurant, but excels in […]

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Valentines Day Pity

Palate shame and pain in a blind tasting By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 14 February 2018 Today is a day of love. I could use some humble pie. A dear friend gathered some people over to his place the other evening for his birthday party and – as he had done two years ago – […]

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Fine wine fireworks

Happen once a year From a magnificent Salon 1996 to a surprisingly great Latour 1967 – in a vertical of the first growth – by way of Yquem 83, we had a fabulous time. By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 31 January 2018 Once again Ken Brown succeeded in organizing a most memorable holiday dinner for […]

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Chinese food and aged Bordeaux?

It works By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com  29 January 2018 I recently met with friends at a Chinese restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland where we enjoyed 1970 Palmer and 1975 Trotanoy among other treasures with Chinese food. “Heresy” you say? The crazy spice and umami intensity often associated with Chinese food obliterates the soft finesse of […]

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