Featured Producers

One of many Bordeaux buyers' favorite wines is Château Pontet-Canet. Located in the tight-knit Pauillac village, Pontet-Canet has long established itself among the other great wines from its luminous neighbors: Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Mouton Rothschild, Château Latour, Château Pichon Baron, Château Pichon

Among the top Bordeaux chateaux, Mouton Rothschild has a unique tradition.  Every year, it releases a newly commissioned artwork as its label for the vintage.  Part of this traces to the love of art by the owners of this prestigious producer, part of it is attributed to the idea of starting afresh each year with a blank slate (see comparison below: one without the artwork, and one with the newly unveiled label for 2021 vintage).

We chose not to propose James Suckling vs. Wine Spectator, albeit both publish a Top 100 Wine List of the Year. An occasional face-to-face aside, James Suckling and Wine Spectator have a complicated relationship, definitely not characterized as mere competitors.

James Suckling was the wine critic at Wine Spectator for nearly 30 years. He was the mastermind behind the annual Top 100 Wine List, a tradition he started at Wine Spectator and is now continued under the other James: James Molesworth. Nowadays,

- 2022 Léoville Barton

The Second Growth powerhouse

Bordeaux is on the cusp of the release of 2022 vintage.  The 2020 has been bottled.  Tradition dictates the wine critics to review and re-rate the vintage in the bottle.  The ratings came back, a bright star is shining over Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion.

Decanter magazine picked the 2020 Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion

Ranked Number 4 on Wine Spectator's Top 10 List of 2022, Château Talbot landed its well-deserved recognition.  It comes as a no surprise for Bordeaux connoisseurs and collectors.

The 2019 harvest was Jean-Michel Laporte’s second vintage as general manager of Château Talbot. One of the primary changes he has made in the vineyard is removing leaves earlier than before (mid-June instead of July), allowing more maturity and aeration, which protects the grape bunches from disease. Vinification

- 2021 La Conseillante

What makes a perfect wine?

To a large extent, it is up to the climate.  2022 was a hot and dry year in Bordeaux.  Old hands compare it to 2003 as 2003 is remembered as the first vintage with such climate conditions.  Like so much else, these two years were not identical, but they rhymed.

Hot and dry conditions favor wine estates with clay soil, as they can produce wines with a heavy portion of Merlot that thrives on clay.  Gravelly soil, on which Cabernet Sauvignon usually thrives, tends to fare less well in hot and dry conditions.  The vines don't get enough hydration as the soil stays dry during the growing season, and drains water quickly even when occasional precipitation comes, which was rare in 2022 anyway.  As a result, vines in 2022 didn't grow as much as they normally would, yielding berries that are smaller.

Cheval Blanc, the Right Bank heavyweight, has a naturally endowed heavy portion of clay in its soil.  Still, watching

We have carried Château Siran year after year, believing our customers will be won over once they taste this unpretentious but well-made wine.  It took a #1 ranking by a popular magazine to convince the buyers we haven't served before to clean out our cellar.  By popular demand, we have restocked this wine in Bordeaux and will be shipping it into the states next spring.  Pre-order yours now if you are curious what kind of top-ranked Bordeaux $45 can buy.

To the insiders, Château Siran has been a hidden gem for quite some time.  As Bloomberg wine columnist Erin McCoy and Decanter Magazine previously reported, the 1955 vintage of Château Siran was used by convicted wine counterfeiter Rudy Kurniawan as a primary ingredient in the blend to fake old vintages of Château Lafite and Château Margaux.  Even some of the auction house critics were fooled.  Is that reason enough to cellar some Siran 2018 to taste

• Champagne Barons de Rothschild 2010, Champagne, Rated 94 (James Suckling) - It was in 2005 that five members of the Rothschild family, from Châteaux Mouton Rothschild, Clarke and Lafite Rothschild, started a project in Champagne. They purchased an established Champagne house, Maison Prieur in Vertus, and had their first harvest that year. They made their first Blanc de Blancs vintage in 2006 and set up shop in Reims in 2007. Their aim? To make an “exceptional Champagne bearing the hallmark of a great vintage, on a par with the wines produced by the family in its celebrated châteaux.”  Frédéric Mairesse, the family’s representative in Reims, says: “This project is a kind of magical idea from the Rothschild family. It’s the first time that the three branches of the family come together and associate their know-how to give