Today, I will be visiting three fine Pessac Leognan properties in part to re-taste the 2009 and to see how things are going for the coming 2010 harvest. Stay tuned for tasting notes and photos!

After a month in Prague where I did a TEFL certification course and tasted little wine – more often one-euro bottles of Pilsner Urquell – I will be heading to Bordeaux to re-taste some 2009s and work on a couple of articles on blogging and wine and on the Boissenot father-and-son winemaking team. Will also [...]

So I am wrapping up a month in Prague to teach English as a foreign language. I have met many interesting people, including a 70-year-old Australian woman who does development work in … North Korea! If this sounds like a gear shift from the wine world, it certainly is. I am about to go to [...]

By Panos Kakaviatos
In two tweets this week, the influential American wine critic Robert Parker said ‘the Bordelais are indeed killing the golden goose’ and ‘the ridiculous and painfully slow release of prices for the 2009s is both stupid and arrogant, moreover… expect sticker shock… dumb and dumber.’
Amidst mounting criticism that Bordeaux 2009 prices [...]

I love Bordeaux. I first visited Bordeaux in 1998 to complete a CIVB tasting class. Two years later, I visited Langon, the heart of the southern Graves region, to participate in the harvest festival for what turned out to be the first of three vintages of the century in less than 10 years. And now, [...]

Yes, they do exist with the few chateaux that have been released so far. Today, 14 June, Calon Segur for €58 per bottle. I really like Chateau Poujeux at $27 per bottle for example. You may even find it for less. That was one of the star Moulis Medoc wines. Now, of course, I recall that [...]

Here is the 11 June article in decanter.com
From what I have been hearing, the Bordelais may be on the verge of making an error with Asia. Already Gruaud Larose and Giscours are at about $60 per bottle. That is very high for both estates. Imagine what wines like Palmer, Cos and Ducru will sell [...]

Now when you see this video and realize we are talking about a wine that could potentially cost $1,000 before it is even in bottle, you may think that this is just absurd. But Château Margaux really reached wonderful heights in 2009. It is easily in my top ten of the vintage, if not top [...]

‘In a good economy we talk about allocations, and in a difficult economy we talk about price,’ said Dave Sokolin of the Sokolin & Co in Bridgehampton, N.Y. ‘My hedge fund friends are not feeling good about that [having paid $700 a bottle for some first growths in 2005]’, said Sokolin. ‘If Latour comes out at $600 a bottle, I think it will sit. At $400, it has an opportunity.’

Just had a nice dinner with the great French wine critic Bernard Burtschy in Paris. We spoke about Bordeaux 2009 en primeur and largely agreed on a lot of things:

we both think that the Left Bank was on average better than the Right bank
he also was not as thrilled with the Graves region as other [...]