Pairing wine with lamb
Our top tips for those of you celebrating Easter with a traditional lamb dinner this weekend.
The fabulous destiny of Château Lafite Rothschild
You don't need to be a wine buff to know that Château Lafite has quite the reputation. Once the tipple of choice of Louis XIV, this illustrious cru now welcomes in a new tandem to take over the reins in 2018. We take a look at the history of this prestigious domain... Where it all began The Lafite seigneury (in Gascony "la hite" means “mound”) dates back to the 13th century and hails originally from the north-west of Pauillac. Here the estate produced wheat and wine across their 110 hectares in Milon, Loubeyres, Anseillan and Pauillac. During…
Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande: a first-class second cru
"A First-Class Second Cru"... it's hard to improve on Wine Spectator magazine's description of Château Pichon Lalande! The estate, which is now in the hands of the Rouzaud family (Roederer group), has benefited from the efforts of a succession of owners whose passionate efforts have gradually elevated it to "super second" status. Consistency and reputation: it takes a woman's touch The estate can trace its origins back to 1694. In 1850, following the death of the Baron de Pichon Longueville, his Pauillac estate was split between his two children. His daughter, Virginie de…
Château Latour goes completely organic
Other estates have already done it. After Fonroque, Pontet-Canet and also Smith-Haut-Lafitte, it’s now Château Latour’s turn to announce its complete conversion to organic farming methods. This is headlining news in Bordeaux and it confirms that organic production is gradually making inroads. You may remember that back in 2015 Château Latour, an 1855 classification Premier Grand Cru, announced its intention to completely switch over to organic farming methods. François Pinault, who owns this iconic Pauillac estate, can pride himself on being the first among the Grands Crus to embark upon this adventure…
Credit: Pontet-Canet
Biodynamic, organic, sustainable?
An introduction to sustainability Impossible to miss, this yearly “grande messe” of the En Primeur, where about 5,000 wine trade and press gather talking, gossiping, swirling, spitting, bashing or praising the new releases. For my second year of this tasting, I was glad to discover a better vintage than 2013. Part of the iDealwine team of four visiting this year, we tasted hundreds of extremely (often too) young juices full of tannins and anthocyanins, all the way from the left to the right bank. We finished our two-day visit with obviously black teeth,…