Wine ChroniclesBordeaux 2020 : Saint Emilion shines bright
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 26 June 2021 For my summary on the vintage, please read what I had published in Club Oenologique. And you can also read my overall Top50+ wines across appellations, after having tasted hundreds of barrel samples of Bordeaux’s latest vintage, 2020. Saint Emilion is a star appellation in 2020. Readers […]
2020 Bordeaux: Médoc, Haut-Médoc and Moulis
Making it worth your while, from barrel By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com As I noted in my initial review of “Top 50+” Bordeaux 2020 barrel samples, the Left Bank features wines that in 2020 can have stricter tannins than usual, but the vintage also includes excellent wines, at various price points and from less celebrated […]
Top 50+ hits: Bordeaux 2020 from barrel
The emotional, the intellectual, the (i)Deals In a vintage that favors Merlot from cold clay and limestone soils By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 26 May 2021 No ads, no fees charged: Here my objective and experienced impressions of 2020 Bordeaux, 18 years in a row assessing Bordeaux from barrel, including visits during the pandemic era. […]
Château Tour Saint Christophe
Beautiful estate, excellent price/quality ratio By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 18 April 2021 I just arrived in Bordeaux, where I will be tasting the 2020 vintage from barrel over the next two weeks with dear friend Jane Anson. Much of the vintage buzz has been rather positive, although too early to pronounce a modern trilogy […]
Weekend White: 2017 dry Bordeaux
Château Tronquoy-Lalande Blanc By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles 20 February 2021 Much is said of 2019, 2018 and 2016 as recent “great” Bordeaux vintages, naturally regarding red wines. However, this world famous region crafts many whites, dry and “sweet”, so it was useful to taste a just-released 2017 dry white from the excellent Saint Estèphe estate […]
New grapes in Bordeaux to fight climate change
Foresight, or an easy way out? by Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 6 February 2021 Late last month it became official: France’s wine appellation authority (INAO) authorized six new grapes for Bordeaux to better adapt to climate change. Two are very well known: Touriga Nacional and Alvarinho. As most readers know, the late ripening Touriga Nacional, […]
Do wine scores miss the point?
by Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 3 February 2021 When I look at how I scored wines about 10 years ago, the scores were more conservative. Many more wines were rated between 88 and 92, and that was just swell. For a while, I never gave any wine 100 points, because perfection can be boring. 99 […]
New dry white from the Médoc meets increasing demand
Brane Cantenac Blanc 2019 By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 2 February 2021 The label contrasts royal blue and white, evoking perhaps the Mediterranean Sea. But this is no Greek dry white, but another from the Médoc, known for its great red wines. Made from vines on 3.2 hectares on siliceous, clay soils, this maiden 2019 […]
Bordeaux 2018: Where does reality in bottle meet hype from barrel?
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 24 January 2021 From barrel, I had characterized 2018 Bordeaux as a vintage for “Hedonists and Intellectuals”. Over the course of the last few months, including several visits to Bordeaux during official lockdowns in France, I tasted 2018s on location, after recent bottling. Some bottles had been sent to me to […]
Right Bank Satellites 2018
Mostly Castillon: some excellent, affordable wines By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 24 January 2021 Many less heralded appellations from the Right Bank with cooler clay and/or limestone soils excelled in 2018. But I did not get to too many of them. We can start with Montagne Saint Emilion and Jean-Claude Berrouet, whose name resonates in the […]