Richard Hook - Sanderstead Manager I was recently lucky enough to be invited to visit the Bollinger Champagne house, an invitation no-one should refuse. The 6 of us met Tim and Chloe, our hosts for the day, in Vauxhall and although it is a 7 hour drive to Champagne it didn’t feel like it, though [...]
Monthly Archives: May 2009
Vineyard tours of Chile
Tuesday 26 May 2009 – 8:56
Graeme Shepherd – New Barnet Manager Nothing short of spectacular. Chile is geographically protected with the Atacama Desert to the north, ice fields in Patagonia to the south squeezed between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean. This varied land provides ideal conditions for wine production. Chile was protected from the dreaded Phylloxera louse that decimated vineyards in the [...]
Chilean Winery Visit.
Friday 22 May 2009 – 11:58
Christine Mitchell – Bearsden Manager. After a mad dash at Madrid Airport to catch our flight to Chile and dealing with missing luggage at Santiago airport, we eventually arrived in one piece at Casa Real, the hotel at Vina Santa Rita to be greeted with a nice cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Casa Real is an old [...]
Bordeaux 2008: Clos du Marquis and Cheval Blanc Released
Thursday 21 May 2009 – 8:48
We are pleased to announce the release of Clos du Marquis and Cheval Blanc within our Bordeaux 2008 En Primeur range. It is not a good idea to suggest to Monsieur Delon that Clos du Marquis is the second wine of famed Second Growth Léoville-Las-Cas, it comes from a distinct terroir and was one of [...]
Severe hail hits Bordeaux
Friday 15 May 2009 – 11:15
An interesting news item on Decanter.com caught my attention this morning, with hailstorms damamging vineyards in St-Emilion and the southern Médoc. As the article points out, it’s too early for this to affect quality, but damage to the vine’s delicate new growth this early in the season could potentially lead to a reduced crop for [...]
Vintage Port 2007 available now
Friday 15 May 2009 – 10:00
Today Majestic is pleased to begin offering 2007 Vintage Ports en primeur. As I mentioned in my earlier post, Vintage Port is a great buy en primeur partly because it is only ‘declared’ in exceptional vintages, and partly because it is the most affordable way to buy wine to cellar for several decades. This also [...]
Bordeaux 2008: Ducru-Beaucaillou
Thursday 14 May 2009 – 11:18
After stating yesterday that this week would see a pause in the campaign during the London International Wine Fair, it appears the Majestic crystal ball has malfunctioned: Ducru-Beaucaillou, one of the wines of the vintage for us and most commentators, has been released. With the same Parker marks as Latour we expect this to be [...]
Bordeaux 2008: Montrose, Eglise Clinet and Branaire-Ducru
Wednesday 13 May 2009 – 10:46
The flood of releases from Bordeaux appears to be drawing down, and we’re on the home straight now as far as the 2008 campaign is confirmed – although there are still a few big names to come. It’s the London International Wine Fair this week, which may result in a hiatus, but we would hope [...]
2007 Vintage Port coming soon
Wednesday 6 May 2009 – 10:42
All the major Port houses have “declared” the 2007 vintage, and we will soon be offering the wines en primeur. Port is an interesting wine to buy this way for several reasons: Only the very best vintages are “declared”; it last happened in 2003 and 2000. Port is the least expensive way to buy a [...]
Bordeaux 2008: Figeac and Pichon-Baron
Wednesday 6 May 2009 – 10:00
We have a couple of exciting new releases today. Pichon-Baron is a wine that almost everyone we’ve spoken to was impressed by, and at £500 per case we expect this to sell. Over in St-Emilion, Figeac is another wine that stood out in our tastings. One further new release today is Yquem, which is only [...]
