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 Lalande, Château Lynch Bages.

For comparison shoppers, here is a price analysis of 4 recent vintages 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020:

Note: *Per Wine-Searcher data

2020: "The 2020 Pontet-Canet is a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot, aging in 50% new French oak barriques, 35% concrete amphorae and 15% in one-year-old barrels. Harvest began on the 14th September for the Merlot, and the final lot of Cabernet Sauvignon was harvested on 30th September.

Opaque

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).

The label of the 2021 vintage of Château Mouton Rothschild features the artwork by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota. She follows in the footsteps of Joan Miró, Andy Warhol and David Hockney in being invited to design the label for the latest vintage of Château Mouton Rothschild.

The owners of Château Mouton Rothschild, Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, Camille Sereys de Rothschild and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, gave the commission to the Japanese artist, recognizing her talent in creating site-specific installations and sculptures that are so tactile and

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, Mr. Suckling has more of a following among Asian buyers as he is based out of Hong Kong and conducts his frequent wine-tasting educational seminars in that city. Still, when he put Château Figeac 2020 as #4 on his Top 100 list of 2023, we thought it was worth mentioning to our American clients.

James thus reviewed Château Figeac 2020: "A mesmerizing nose here with flowers such as violets and red roses, then shows cherries and currants with some mineral

- 2022 Léoville Barton

The Second Growth powerhouse in St Julien, Château Léoville Barton, released its 2022 vintage today.  It has been called "one of the stars of the Médoc" by the William Kelley at the Wine Advocate.

Neal Martin, of Vinous, thinks "the 2022 Léoville Barton is a total model of classicism, even in this warm, dry year... This is classic as classic gets. Not interested in making the richest or showiest wines, nor interested in jacking up prices as high as they can be."  We can't think of better compliments than what he said.  This is a wine we love, year in, year out.

You can watch Madame Lilian Barton presenting her 2022 vintage in a video:

"One of the stars of the Médoc and a wine likely to equal or surpass its 2019 and 2016 counterparts, the 2022 Léoville Barton unwinds in the glass with deep aromas of cassis, pencil shavings, spices and tobacco leaf, followed by a medium to full-bodied, deep and layered palate that's vibrant,

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 as the #1 Wine of the 2020 vintage (giving it a perfect score of 100 points), an honor Les Carmes Haut-Brion shares with the 2020 Château Mouton Rothschild, the venerable First Growth heavyweight of Pauillac.  Let that sink in, the wine produced from a parcel that was once carved out of Château Haut-Brion is now recognized as a top choice, on equal footing with another First Growth.  That is neither pre-ordained, nor by accident.

Long-term readers of our newsletter would not be surprised by this latest recognition.  We have been sharing our enthusiasm for Les Carmes Haut-Brion for years.  A true story from one of our customers tells it

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 adjustments include more pump-overs at the very beginning and fewer at the end, as well as earlier extraction, which he feels avoids dryness and astringency. Lastly, he increased the proportion of new oak slightly, from 50 percent to 60 percent, giving the wine a richer, more sumptuous feel without an overly oaky flavor.

"Well-built and rather refined for the vintage, with a deep well of red and black currant paste and plum reduction flavors supported by

- 2021 La Conseillante

As one of the best Pomerol wines sought after by collectors, La Conseillante is a consistent top performer throughout the ebbs and flows of Bordeaux.  In a great year, it is superb.  In an average year, its consistency is stunning: dense, succulent, and seductive.

2021 presented challenges the team at La Conseillante was well-prepared for.  After all, this vintage marked the 150th anniversary of the ownership under the Nicolas family.  Throughout the year, the team worked consistently in the vineyard and the cellars, making decisions to craft a wine that demonstrated their deep roots and attachment to their terroir.  Through severe selection that led to a 20% decrease in the volume produced, the winemaker delivered another remarkable result in what was an uneven year.

To commemorate the vintage, each bottle is engraved with the markings of "150e Anniversaire".

"Flavoursome, sculpted, successful, this is rippling with

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 the grape grow in the hot and dry conditions

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 it again in 10, 20, or 30 years?

"Medium to deep garnet-purple

• 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 birth to a co-owned wine house. To gather them all, there was only one obvious and natural choice: