Wine (6L)

This was the breakthrough vintage for this fabulous terroir that had been under-exploited for so many years. A collaboration between Nicolas Thienpont and Stephane Derenoncourt this medium to full-bodied pure blend of 80% Merlot... Read More

Though having tasted the Haut-Brion 1982 on numerous occasions it is still a divine Pessac-Léognan to cherish. Here at The Glasshouse restaurant it has that lovely warm gravel on a summer's day bouquet brown autumn leaves... Read More

This continues to be one of the immortal wines and one of the greatest young Bordeaux wines of the last half-century. Consistently prodigious and almost a sure bet to top the scoring card of any blind tasting of this vintage as... Read More

It is fun to go back and forth between the 1995 and 1996 two superb vintages for Haut-Brion. The 1995 seems to have sweeter tannin and a bit more fat and seamlessness when compared to the more structured and muscular 1996. Certainly... Read More

A monumental wine this historic La Mission-Haut-Brion was the last vintage made by the descendants of the Woltner family who had owned this estate for decades prior to selling it to their neighbors the Dillon family (the American... Read More

Always somewhat atypical (which I suspect will be the case with the more modern day 2003) the 1982 Latour has been the most opulent flamboyant and precocious of the northern Medocs especially the St.-Juliens Pauillacs and St.-Estephes.... Read More

A blend of 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot with just under 14% natural alcohol the 2009 Latour is basically a clone of the super 2003 only more structured and potentially more massive and long lived. An elixir of momentous... Read More

I have had perfect bottles of this cuvee but perplexingly the bottles from my cellar tend to be broodingly backward and require plenty of coaxing. This huge wine is in many ways just as massive as Leoville Barton but it possesses... Read More

Tasted blind at the 2012 Southwold tasting the 2012 Château Margaux has a taut linear pencil lead-infused bouquet with pure blackberry and boysenberry scents an undercurrent of tobacco that surfaces after five minutes in the... Read More

After stumbling over some wines I thought were high class Bordeaux I nailed this wine in one of the blind tastings for this article. In most tastings where a great Bordeaux is inserted with California Cabernets the Bordeaux comes... Read More

A restrained style this offers a focused beam of red and black currant fruit lined with warm stone tobacco and savory accents and allied to a long iron spine. Marries density and freshness through the finish. A wine of precision... Read More

The main reason the 2009 Lafite Rothschild did not receive a perfect score is because the wine has closed down slightly but it is unquestionably another profound Lafite their greatest wine since the amazing 2003. Among the most... Read More

Millenium Edition

This wine is more tightly knit more tannic but every bit the blockbuster concentrated effort that its younger sibling the 1990 is. It seems to need more coaxing from the glass but the color is virtually identical a dense ruby/purple... Read More

Deep garnet-purple in color the 2017 Petrus comes galloping out of the glass with bold expressive notions of Black Forest cake blueberry preserves and Christmas pudding with nuances of molten chocolate Chinese five spice candied... Read More