Editorial

Editorial April 15, 2021

 

As the vaccines give us a glimpse of better days (this summer?), we are very pleased to share with you our new "Spring-Summer 2021" catalog.

Wine, synonymous with conviviality, sharing and pleasure, will accompany us as it should to celebrate these moments of freedom (more or less?) finally found.

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 Bordeaux

The last expected 2018 Bordeaux wines arrived this winter in our cellars:

If 2018 is indeed a great vintage for red Bordeaux, the rich density of flesh and the tannic firmness of these wines (in line with the 2010s) will require patience and length of time before they express themselves at their best. They are already closing and will certainly remain silent until at least 2030-2035 for the greatest vintages.

The 2017, at a better price and with a beautiful aromatic freshness on a soft and velvety profile, are recommended to the impatient ones. Mr. Galloni (Vinous) commented on them after springing 2020, giving them excellent scores, sometimes higher than those of 2015 or 2016, even 2015 and 2016:

This catalog is also the occasion of the return of great vintages in our selections:

  • Rollan de By and Haut-Condissas, two of the most exemplary vintages of the northern Medoc,
  • Duhart-Milon, a Pauillac that is making great progress and whose style is becoming more refined and closer to that of its big brother Lafite-Rothschild,
  • Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarosse, a little jewel at the top of the St-Émilion hillside under the expert guidance of the Thienpont/Derenoncourt tandem.

A final word from Bordeaux to salute the happy initiative of Bordeaux Supérieur L'Isle Fort with its Cuvée Précieuse, the expression of a vineyard (1.9 ha) with a respected ecosystem and preserved biodiversity. Preciousness which is not reflected in the price (15 to 17 € per bottle) but which is indicated by a careful presentation.

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Tasting Offers

As always, we offer four Tasting Offers, to let you discover a new domain, a new wine or a particular success, while enjoying a discounted price:

  • the Blanc de Rollan de By 2019, an exciting white wine with the fatness of a Meursault. Thanks to its climate tempered by the mouth of the Gironde, the northern tip of the Médoc is becoming the best terroir for making great white Bordeaux.
  • the 6 first vintages of Montlandrie from 2011 to 2016, fresh, floral, with crisp and juicy fruit. Few Bordeaux wines are as deserving of the label "vibrant wine" as Montlandrie, the Côtes de Castillon of the late Denis Durantou, who sadly passed away last year.
  • Latour-Martillac rouge 2015, the great classic of Pessac-Léognan, precise, fine and distinguished, in a great vintage. A model!
  • Quintus 2017. If the arrival of Haut-Brion in 2012 in Saint-Emilion had made a lot of noise, it was not until 2017 that the "Haut-Brion" style was fully revealed: fresh and suave, taut and racy, more cabernet franc than merlot, and as Mr. Quarin wrote "It's really very good".

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Vin de France

Until now, Vin de France was the catch-all name for the industrial production of low-end table wines. Over the past decade, we have seen a growing number of talented, often young, producers prefer to break free from the regulatory straitjacket of appellations of origin, give free rein to their imagination and label their wines as Vin de France without constraint:

  • Bordeaux dry white : Le Retout blanc, with its atypical grape variety (Sauvignon gris, Gros Manseng, Mondeuse blanche, Savagnin).
  • Margaux : Closeries des Moussis "Moineaux", rejected for classification as a Margaux PDO for its 2018 vintage (considered atypical?).
  • Loire Valley : Les Argiles et Baudoin, two wines from Domaine Chidaine that are no longer in AOP Vouvray because they are vinified on the other side of the bridge (!), and Domaine Les Poëte which is now downgrading all its wines to "find more time to devote to its vines".
  • Cahors : the Sidérolithe cuvée from Domaine Cosse-Maisonneuve, because it is pure cabernet franc and without malbec on the Quercy hillsides.
  • Corse : the Domaine Abbatucci has long since freed itself from the AOP to be able to use the old native grape varieties that make its reputation. Its 3 greatest white wines are among the novelties of this catalog.

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Finally, you will also find in our selection an original boxed set of Port+Tea proposed by the Niepoort couple (the ideal accompaniment from breakfast to digestif...). Because, as Anthelme Brillat-Savarin rightly said, "tea can perfectly replace wine at breakfast"!