Featured Wines - January 2020

Château Bellevue Claribes’ 2017 Prestige Bordeaux Supérieur from 100% Merlot vines averaging 40 years of age could easily be mistaken for a Saint Émilion Grand Cru. This should come as no surprise given Château Bellevue Claribes’ terroir, low yielding old vines, and the fact that Entre-Deux-Mers sits just across the Dordogne River from Saint Émilion. Dark and deep in color and perfumed with the savory scents of blackberry, cassis and aromatic...

The 2018 Château Ducasse Graves Blanc is unequivocally the finest young white Graves we have tasted from this property, underscoring the ultimate quality one can expect from consummate winemakers in the much heralded 2018 vintage throughout Bordeaux. This youthful white Graves displays a brilliant crystalline color with a flash of green along with a delightful bouquet born of an enticing mélange of melon, floral, and fruit aromas. Dry, yet...

A Gold Medal recipient at the 2018 Brussels Concours Mondiale, the 2017 Château de Segure Vieilles Vignes Fitou is a tour de force for the Caves de Tauch. This firmly structured wine contains great color and an intense bouquet of red and black fruits, and garrigue from the heavenly scented Mediterranean herbs such thyme, juniper, rosemary, and lavender that cover the hillsides and forests of southern France. Add a deft touch of vanilla from...

The scion of the second smallest vintage in Italy since the 1940s, the aromatic 2017 Masciarelli Villa Gemma Bianco Colline Teatine makes a strong case for the excellent but shy-bearing Pecorino grape. The wine exhibits a brilliant straw yellow color and delivers a fresh and intriguing aromatic profile of golden apple, pear, and floral scents brushed with a subtle minerality. In the mouth, this Villa Gemma Bianco offers a soft, round texture...

The 2016 Château Beauregard-Ducasse Albert Duran Graves provides ample evidence as to the quality and age worthiness of the much heralded 2016 Bordeaux vintage and why Graves remains a favorite among Bordeaux connoisseurs. In keeping with the vintage’s great strength of character, the 2016 Château Beauregard-Ducasse Albert Duran offers intensity of flavor as well as a bright energetic core that will allow it to age gracefully for more than a...

Chappellet’s 2015 Signature Carneros Chardonnay serves as Chappellet’s special reserve bottling, and it brings everything a Chardonnay lover could ask for in a wine and more. This is classic old-school Chardonnay. It delights the nose with savory scents of acacia, freshly picked apples and forsythia infused with delectable hints of brioche, caramel, vanilla, and spices. Elegant, yet complex and layered, the silky smooth 2015 Chappellet Signature...

“Can you top this” seems to be Raspail-Ay’s mantra, as this superb property continues to set the bar ever higher. Just when we thought they had reached their pinnacle in 2015, the recently released 2016 Raspail-Ay Gigondas provides ample evidence to question that assumption, garnering 95 points from Decanter, 95 points from Vinous, and 94 points from Wine Advocate. The 2016 Domaine Raspail-Ay Gigondas not only captures the greatness of the...