Thousands of wine festivals take place around the world every year, making it tough for collectors to decide which ones are worth a visit. To make matters worse, some wine events change dramatically over the years. For example, the St. Vincent festival in Burgundy was once a locals-only mecca of wine, open only to true…
During a recent survey of producers from the Cote d’Or wine region, Jancis Robinson said, “I think our general impression of the Cote d’Or, the heartland of Burgundy, is that it is one of the world’s most traditional wine regions and hardly changes at all.” What she found during her tour surprised her; multiple…
Change doesn’t come easily to French wine culture, as we have seen with wine enthusiasts lamenting the sale of wine land to foreign buyers in Bordeaux. The country’s reputation for fine wine has given it an esteemed reputation, and any minor change can elicit worry among its winemakers. The EU recently passed a regulation…
When today’s sommeliers taste wines, they can often immediately pick out the unique flavors and bouquets associated with bottles from Champagne and Bordeaux. That’s partly because, in the late 1800s, French land became cheap and plentiful, allowing winemakers to purchase entire regions of their own, and to grow the grapes to the same high standards.…
French Merlot is in crisis. As climate change impacts weather on a global scale, this grape is experiencing some of the hottest summers on record in France, and it is largely destroying the crop across terroirs. Drought-like conditions can help wines develop bold flavors through rain-starved, concentrated juice, but there is a limit to…
An old man I once spoke to in the beautiful, ancient village of Margaux told me that the Greek owner of Chateau Margaux, André Mentzelopoulos, had been captivated by the Ionic columns of the building at the Chateau because they reminded him of his homeland. Whatever the cause of his fascination, the Greek entrepreneur…
Collecting Bordeaux will complete your fine wine portfolio; the classic wines make an excellent investment. In the world of wine, some things never change. The critics’ collective opinion of the best Bordeaux wines, which was established over 150 years ago, remains largely unchanged today. In 1855, during an international exhibition in Paris, the best Bordeaux…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: Domaine de la Romanee Conti Domaine Leroy Domaine Armand Rousseau Jacques-Frederic Mugnier Domaine Comte Georges de Vogue Bouchard Pere & Fils The French countryside has that je ne sais quoi. The romanticism of Flaubert novels and Eric Rohmer films is still very much alive in the sunny meadows, flowery gardens, rolling hills,…