Editorial

Éditorial April 15, 2025

Spring Summer 2025

Dear Madam, Dear Sir,

While the Americans are organizing their planetary racket - and the economic chaos that goes with it - we are delighted to present you with this “Spring-Summer 2025” selection, filled with wines synonymous with moments of pleasure and conviviality, on the way to becoming essential goods in these times.

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Bordeaux 2022

We've just received the Bordeaux 2022s into our cellars, a vintage for which our enthusiasm is undiminished, and which we compare to a modern clone of 1982.

To the 92 red Bordeaux 2022s already present last autumn, we're adding 18 new vintages:

Graves: Domaine de Chevalier,
Médoc: Du Retout, Malescot-St-Exupéry, Pavillon Rouge, Ducru-Beaucaillou, Les Griffons de Pichon-Baron, Grand Puy-Lacoste, Pichon-Baron, Pagodes de Cos, Haut-Marbuzet, Cos Labory,
Right Bank: Gravette de Certan, Clinet, La Conseillante, L'Église-Clinet, Coutet, Rocheyron and Canon-La Gaffelière.

Tastings of the Bordeaux 2022 after bottling are starting to appear, all hailing the excellence and grandeur of this vintage. The comments are dithyrambic:

Bernard Burtschy (Les Échos) "Everything about the 2022 Bordeaux vintage is good: the red wines are sumptuous, the dry whites very full, the sweet wines of great class. And they can be enjoyed at all stages, young, at their peak, or even very old. What more could you ask for?"

Antonio Galloni (vinous.com) "The 2022 reds have a sense of balance and proportion all their own. The best wines are irresistible. They are young, rich and heady, with considerable fatness, textural intensity and abundant freshness. The best 2022s are truly spectacular."

Neal Martin (vinous.com) "In 2022 Bordeaux pulled a marvellous vintage out of its sleeve, where the peaks touched the sky. 2022 saw the birth of legendary wines and unbeatable value for money, as long as it's not a speculative label."

Jean-Marc Quarin (quarin.com) "Good old wines are only as good as their youth. The Bordeaux 2022 reds are aromatic, perfumed and dense on the palate. What's more, their tannic structure avoids astringency. It's erased. A real treat! It's hard to beat the quality and pleasure of this wine!"

The hallmark of great vintages is a superior level of quality across all appellations and the entire range, including second (and even third) wines. 2022 is no exception, offering incredible value for money. Here, for example, is the list of 2022 Bordeaux offered at less than €50 a bottle and rated at least 92/100 by Vinous (Galloni-Martin average):

- 96/100: Haut-Bages Libéral (€47.50)

- 94/100: Malartic-Lagravière (€47.50), Les Griffons de Pichon-Baron (€45.00), Lafon-Rochet (€48.50)

- 93/100: Montlandrie (€24.00), Gloria (€44.00), Clos de l'Oratoire (€39.00), Petit Gravet Aîné (€42.50)

- 92/100: La Chenade (€22.00), Haut-Carles (€25.00), Haut-Bailly II (€42.50), Latour-Martillac (€36.00), Larrivet Haut-Brion (€37.50), Potensac (€28.50), Pédesclaux (€47.00), Haut-Marbuzet (€44.00), Fonroque (€45.00)

In our opinion, 2022 is the best opportunity today if you wish to complete your cellar with great Bordeaux wines, rich and seductive, to be enjoyed in the short, medium and longer term.

To convince you of this, we invite you to taste some second wines or crus bourgeois 2022 at table, they are absolutely delicious.

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New domains

Among other novelties, we are delighted to welcome this season for the first time in our selection :

Organic Champagnes from Benoît Lahaye, a true Champagne artist who, on his vineyard of just 5 ha in Bouzy, produces cuvées (4 whites and a rosé) of brilliant precision and fullness.

Albus, the white wine that Stéphane Dief (Clos Manou) dreamed of making, convinced that the temperate climate of the northern tip of the Médoc was ideal for producing a long-lasting dry white wine.

Petite Lily and Asphodèle, organic 100% Semillon cuvées produced on the terroir of Château Climens in Barsac, two dry white wines that are full-bodied, ample and expressive to perfection.

Miracle, the organic Haut-Médoc from domaine Uchida, because if the Médoc has its communal appellations, its grands crus classés, its famous terraces... it also has its Japanese winemaker (Osamu Uchida) who combines Bordeaux oenological know-how with Japanese perfectionism.

Château Coutet in Saint-Émilion, a unique family estate (14th generation), a 13-hectare vineyard between Angélus, Grand-Mayne and the two Beauséjour estates, producing fine, fleshy, deep wines without being massive. Certainly Saint-Émilion's most natural (organic) and authentic cru.

This season also sees the return of wines from Dirk van der Niepoort (Douro and Dao in Portugal) and Peter Sisseck (Ribera del Duero in Spain), two of the most famous and talented winemakers on the Iberian Peninsula.

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Tasting Offers

You'll find our traditional 4 Tasting Offers, a dry white wine and three reds this season:

Albus 2023, the first vintage of the new white wine from Stéphane Dief, owner-viticulturist-winemaker of Clos Manou, on a 1.85-hectare plot at the northern tip of the Médoc. At €160 for 6 bottles (instead of €192).

Domaine Pommier Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2022 organic, with its classic Burgundian bouquet of red fruits (redcurrant, raspberry...) on a full, unctuous body (2022 is a solar vintage), a sapid, gourmand... and irresistible red burgundy. At 130 € for 6 bottles (instead of 156 €).

Château Lagrange 2021, the Saint-Julien grand cru classé which, for 40 years, has demonstrated extreme consistency vintage after vintage. Again in 2021, gratified with an excellent 94/100 by Antonio Galloni “Lagrange 2021 is proving magnificent [after bottling]. Sweet, succulent and charming, it is deliciously seductive”. At €240 for 6 bottles (instead of €270).

Dominio de Pingus Flor de Pingus 2022. Like Pingus, whose second wine it is, Flor has managed to retain all its trademark aromatic freshness and fine, velvety tannins in 2022, even though the vintage broke records for heat and sunshine in Ribera del Duero, as in the whole of Spain. Well done to Peter Sisseck and his team! A rare wine at €600 for 6 bottles (instead of €720).

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At Château Coutet, we discovered that in addition to excellent Saint-Émilions, Adrien David-Beaulieu also produces, under the aegis of a Japanese Master, premium,

Organic and local soy sauces, the antithesis of insipid and overly salty industrial concoctions. On the last page, we invite you to discover two soy sauces, one black and one white, which, through their sweetness, intensity and complexity, bring all dishes (meat, fish, broths, marinades, raw vegetables...) into aromatic universes as original as they are rich in umami.