October 2017 – Le blog iDealwine

Post author:iDealwine
Post published:30 October 2017

Natural wine, Isabelle Legeron MW

Today "natural" wines are moving things and divide connoisseurs. Yet, these wines have their share of mystery. What is basically a natural wine? Isabelle Legeron’s approach is, in this respect, very interesting. This Master of Wine went in the domains, in the fields to lead the investigation: in the light of her tastings and meetings in the French vineyard and around the world, she reports in this book her journey and provides an independent and convinced perspective. Master of Wine Isabelle Legeron is above all a natural wine lover. That's why she wanted…

Post author:iDealwine
Post published:26 October 2017

Alcohol easing foreign language conversations

Who hasn’t already felt a little more comfortable speaking a foreign language over a drink? It seems that with moderate consumption, science validates this hypothesis. Alcohol helping you to speak a foreign language? This is what Dutch researchers have tried to prove. First of all, don’t worry; we are talking about small quantities of alcohol, of course: this study was conducted with people who had consumed a pint of beer or two glasses of wine. The idea was clearly not to make them drunk, which has rather the opposite effect on your fluency…

Post author:iDealwine
Post published:23 October 2017

Lafite: selling a Chinese wine in 2018?

A few days ago, Decanter revealed unpublished information on the upcoming commercialization of the first Chinese vintage of Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite). This announcement encouraged us to push the investigation a little further... After Chile and Argentina, Domaines Baron de Rothschild (Lafite) conquers China! A country that the group knows well, and for a long time: Christophe Salin, its CEO does not spare his energy to travel the world - especially China – allowing people to discover and taste the wines from Château Lafite, the most prestigious name for Chinese connoisseurs. But…

Post author:iDealwine
Post published:20 October 2017

2015 wine: a reference year for Southern French regions

Continuing our saga on the 2015 vintage, let’s head south, with great successes, especially for Bordeaux Grands Crus.

Post author:iDealwine
Post published:19 October 2017

2017: a historically low harvest

After the superb 2015 and 2016, will the 2017 fall under the curse of the vintages finishing by "7"? If the quality is generally there, the quantities are lacking in certain regions or appellations, with a historically low harvest. Complicated weather conditions On 1st October 2017, the French Department of Agriculture reckoned the harvest was going to be down 18% compared to the five-year average[i]. Wine production is estimated at 36.9 million hectolitres, 19% lower than 2016. The harvest is thus historically low, and even lower than 1991, which also experienced a historic…

Post author:iDealwine
Post published:13 October 2017

2015 wine: great scores for Northern French regions

The long-awaited 2015 wine announced as exceptional, is now bottled, and can be bought. To guide you through your purchases, iDealwine reviews the situation region by region. And we start with the vineyards from the north of the hexagon, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Champagne, Alsace, Jura and Savoie. Red Burgundies at the top Like almost everywhere in France, in 2015, Burgundy benefited from good weather conditions. The tone was set in spring: the vintage will be precocious. Flowering took place early June, announcing grape harvest late August and early September. A year also marked by…

Post author:iDealwine
Post published:12 October 2017

Pomerol star of Bordeaux | Auction report

The appellation Pomerol has attracted the appetite of amateurs during the online auction which ended on 29th August. Let’s discuss this world-famous appellation, and more particularly a cru which is starting to draw attention to it, Château La Fleur Petrus. On the scale of Bordeaux, Pomerol is simply microscopic: it covers 813 hectares which represents barely 0.7% of the vines planted in the region. The fabulous terroir of the appellation, identified in Roman times, was later exploited by the order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knight's Hospitaller. Pomerol was a popular stopover for…

Post author:iDealwine
Post published:12 October 2017

Domaine Leroy: record bids | Auction report

Icon from Côte de Nuits, Domaine Leroy triggers connoisseur’s interest, because of the excellent level of the wines and their rarity; these wines are almost unfindable on the market. The online auction closed on 27th September featured a rare series of grands crus produced by Lalou Bize-Leroy, which inevitably sparked off record bids. The name of Lalou Bize-Leroy and the one of her domain have Grail value in the imagination of wine lovers. As a great figure of the wine world, she enjoys a fine knowledge of Burgundian terroir since she was a…