Wine ChroniclesNearly perfect in Prague
Posted on October 2, 2015
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com
2 October 2015
This site is about wine chronicles, including things to chronicle around wine. A perfect case in point is Prague. Well, nothing really is perfect, but …
Just walking along the city’s intimate narrow streets enchants anyone with even a minuscule aesthetic sense, never mind the ultra romantic Charles Bridge, or larger streets like Karoliny Svetle, where my hotel – Eurostars Thalia – is located in the historic city’s first district or Praha 1. Read More
Embrace your bad taste
Posted on September 29, 2015
De gustibus (or lack thereof) non est disputandum
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com
30 September 2015
I recently joined a wonderful tour subsidized by Vini del Trentino, or the Wine Consortium for Trentino, with a group of international wine educators and writers who had flown in for three days of tastings and cultural discoveries, the details of which will be the subject of a future blog entry.
We came from Israel, Lithuania, Denmark, the UK, Poland and the US among other countries. We tried many types of wines from Trentino – from the rather recent plantings of Müller-Thurgau in high elevation sites (mixed results, but that’s another story), to mid-slope plantings of (red) Marzemino, which was particularly fine at Cantina D’Isera, where I purchased some bottles.
We all got along rather spiffily until our third and final dinner on Saturday 26 September, at the gorgeous Casa del Vino restaurant. After going through various stages of the meal, the evening disintegrated into discord over a supposedly famous wine called San Leonardo, a Bordeaux blend made in nearby Avio. Read More
Bordeaux 2011 four years on: massive blind tasting, with expectations met and some revelations
Posted on September 20, 2015
20 September 2015
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com
What is it like to taste over 150 tannic wines over a long weekend in Bordeaux?
Given the very comfortable surroundings of Château Bellefont Belcier, where I was housed, the excellent visits (I discovered a fine Saint Emilion, La Croizille, for example on the opening evening for a dinner there) and an engaging group of tasters from all over the world … it was great.
Bijan Jabbari, Bernard Burtschy and myself at the tasting. Photo by Birte Jantzen
Many thanks to friend and French wine critic Bernard Burtschy for his gracious invitation to take part in this marathon blind tasting held from Saturday morning, 5 September until Monday, 7 September. He organized the tasting and calibrated the scores as collected from all the tasters. He is the wine correspondent for Le Figaro and has been writing about wine for many years. Bravo to Bernard for putting this together!
The conditions of the tasting – all blind, with impeccable service from the team at Bellefont Belcier, fine stemware from Riedel, and great weather (sunny but not too hot outside) – were promising. So many thanks go to the staff of the Grand Cercle and to Emmanuel De Saint Salvy and his team from Château Bellefont Belcier. Read More
Burgundy harvest 2015: more challenging for whites
Posted on September 19, 2015
19 September 2015
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com
As Bordeaux readies itself for its harvest later this month and into October, still a while ahead, Burgundy has finished its pickings, which took place mainly between end August and mid September.
Despite hail-hit vineyards in Chablis earlier this month, damage was not extensive (about 2% as my friend Jane Anson reported for decanter.com). During a press conference on 17 September, BIVB president Claude Chevalier also minimized the effect of the hail for Chablis. Also at the press conference, Burgundy expert Jasper Morris, MW, author of the excellent book Inside Burgundy (which is being translated into French), told me that rain towards the end of the harvest actually helped to increase volume – and that damage was indeed limited to parts of the region, albeit to fine vineyards including Blanchots, Montmains, Montée de Tonnerre and parts of the famous Les Clos Grand Cru.
Claude Chevalier and Louis Fabrice Latour at the BIVB press conference on Thursday 17 September
As for the rest of Burgundy, vintners were smiling – from the south to the north – because of sunny weather at and leading up to harvest time.
Reminding vintners of 2005 … Read More
Lovely La Louvière and Couhins Lurton: tastings in red and white
Posted on September 15, 2015
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com
September 15, 2015
Special note: Unless otherwise indicated, all photos published here were taken by the talented Hélène Brun-Puginier, with her authorization. However they cannot be copied from this site and re-used without her authorization.
When I first came to France, back in 1996, I recall enjoying a bottle of Château La Louvière (red) 1990. It was a very tasty wine at about five years of age in bottle. Château La Louvière is a wine I have purchased ever since. Vintages like 1998 and 2001 bring fond memories.
A gorgeous estate (photo by Panos Kakaviatos)
So I was thrilled to be invited to a comprehensive vertical of the estate earlier this month at the château, led by winemaker Vincent Cruege.
The tasting included both reds and whites, as the estate is known for both. I joined two tasters from the UK merchant Berry Bros and Rudd for a vertical spanning four decades of reds and whites, including neighboring estate Château Couhins-Lurton, both owned by legendary winemaker and owner André Lurton. Read More
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