Wine ChroniclesBordeaux 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 […]
White Bordeaux: 2014 vintage
With a focus on Château Smith Haut Lafitte By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 15 September 2020 Top three 2014 whites from this tasting? Domaine de Chevalier, Château Pape Clément and Château Smith Haut Lafitte Last week Decanter Magazine published an article I wrote – subscribers only – about how fine dry white Bordeaux can be, with […]
Ode to France, Les Accabailles and Les Crus Classés de Graves
Tasting dinner of top Pessac-Léognan wines at Château Carbonnieux By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 21 November 2019 A round-trip on the high-speed train TGV traversing France from Strasbourg to Bordeaux and back took less than 6 hours. No stop in Paris. Comfy, first class seat at €170: Convenient, efficient and greener than flying or driving. […]
Graves and Pessac-Léognan 2018 (reds)
Noteworthy vintage By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 26 April 2019 The hotter gravely soils of this famous appellation may have been too … gravelly and hot for the vintage. Here is a case where the question of 2016 is quite relevant. In some cases, I do think that 2016 may be a better vintage than […]
Pessac-Léognan and Graves from bottle 2016
Cannot recall a better Les Carmes Haut Brion red than the 2016. Buy it, today. But many other Graves shined in 2016, including Smith Haut Lafitte, Haut Bailly, Domaine de Chevalier and Malartic Lagravière. Do not hesitate to look at some fine showings from second wines, too, which I had tasted late last year at Château Bouscaut. Cheers!
Graves in red and white #Bdx17
Some very fine reds, some even finer whites By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 18 May 2018 For your mid May weekend reading, my notes on barrel samples – red and white – of Bordeaux’s famous Graves region. They are Left Bank, but to the south of the Médoc. In the Pessac area, it was generally […]
Bordeaux 2015 from bottle, part 3
Better whites than expected from the Graves region By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com UPDATED 30 January 2018 It is always fun to review the wines of the Graves in Bordeaux because they are known just as much for whites as they are (these days) for reds. Furthermore, red Graves – dominated for the most part by […]
Pessac-Léognan (and Graves) pizzaz #Bdx15
And why dry extract matters By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 4 May 2016 Perhaps my overall favorite region in Bordeaux is the Graves region, which includes the since 1987 created Pessac-Léognan appellation that gathers such famous estates of the northern Graves, from Haut Brion and Pape Clement to Haut Bailly and Domaine de Chevalier. It is […]
Haute Couture at Haut Bailly
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 30 June 2015 This is one of a series of articles on some superb lunches and dinners I was lucky enough to attend during the intense Vinexpo week in Bordeaux in June 2015. Keep checking my website for more Vinexpo highlights throughout July 2015! Dinner with Pingus, Le Pin, Bonneau […]
2014 Bordeaux in barrel: smoking Graves
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com MAIN BORDEAUX 2014 BARREL TASTING PAGE 15 May 2015 My faves: Among reds, Haut Brion rather rules the roost, but watch out for an excellent and (hopefully) well-priced Domaine de Chevalier red and the usually fine Haut Bailly. Pape Clement has more linearity than I can ever recall – and that’s […]