Wine Blog Info

Wine Menu

Chateaux
Chateau d'Yquem Sauternes, PDF Print E-mail
Friday, 07 March 2008 11:53
 

 

CHATEAU D'YQUEM - Sauternes, Bordeaux France.

1st Growth Classified
More than four centuries of history are summed up in the words "Chateau d'Yquem Lur Saluces" round on every bottle of Yquem.

Wine lovers from around the world who come to visit the estate often ask about the secret of this great wine?
My initial, slightly provocative reply is that there can be no answer, that the truth is shrouded in mystery,
and what are dealing with one of nature's enigmas. However, there are several logical explanations to offer.
One of them is undoubtedly the winemaking passion shared by the family who owned the château for twelve generations.
Another is the unique terroir and carefully matched premium grape varieties.
Furthermore, Chateau d'Yquem time-honoured vineyard management and winemaking practices have an important role to play.Last, but not least, there is the amazing alchenty brought about by Botrytis cinerea, the remarkable fungus that, here in Sauternes
and here alone, paradoxically transforms decay into gold. Above and beyond these reasons, Chateau d'Yquem must actually
be smelled, tasted and appreciated to understand its magic. In doing so, one realises that this wine is and will always remain
a msystery. Perhaps this is the bes way of summing up the spirit of d'Yquem.
Count Alexandre de Lur Saluces (November 2002)

Chateau d'Yquem is difficult to miss. Surrounded on all sides by sloping vineyards, it stands proudly atop the highest
point in the Sauternes region. A complex structure dating from several periods, the chateau is made up of round towers
with loopholes, square towers, crenellated walls, tec. Constructed in the 15th century and completed in the 16th and 17th centuries,
its style is halfway between the simple, rural architecture of the era and that of an impressive medieval castel.

The chateau is build around a large square courtyard, with south-east and north-west gates and a well covered
with dimbing roses in the centre. Constructed in the early 19th century, the cellar is located to the east of the chateau.
The estate covers a total of 188 hectares, including 113 under wine. The rest consists of meadows and pine forest.Yquem is fermented in oak barrels (100% new) and is ageing to mature for up to 36 months. Intensely opulent when young,
Yquem develops an extraordinary complexity and exotic richness when fully mature, with the best vintages lasting for over 50 years.
Château d'Yquem is classified as a 1er Cru Classé supérieur.
Chateau d'Yquem can only be understood within the framework of time.
Life seems to pass very slowly at Yquem, reflecting the chateau's history and traditions handed down from
generation to generation over more that four centuries.

Times helps keep track of the meticulous work in the vineyard and gives rhythm to long, late harvests.
It seems endless during the wine's fermentation and barrel ageing stages,and takes on an air of mystery
in the half-light of the cellars as the wine is slowly transformed.

At every moment in its life, d'Yquem is above all an affair of time and therefor patience.

Chateau d'Yquem has a very long life span: twenty, fifty, a hundred years or more.
Last Updated on Monday, 10 March 2008 17:20
 
Chateau Margaux Margaux PDF Print E-mail
User Rating: / 1
PoorBest 
Friday, 07 March 2008 11:18

 

The vineyard of Château Margaux is one of four wines to achieve First Growth status in the 1855 Bordeaux Classification because of its high price. According to Forbes.com, a bottle of Château Margaux 1787 holds the record as the most expensive bottle of wine ever broken, insured at $225,000. Chateau Margaux usually consists of approximately 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 5% Petit verdot and Cabernet Franc grapes. It is one of the most expensive wines in the world.

The château lies in the commune of Margaux in the Médoc region in the département of Gironde. The vineyard is planted in gravelly terrain on the left bank of the Garonne estuary. It is in the Margaux Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée.

History...

The estate has been occupied since at least the 12th century, but it was only with the arrival of the Lestonnac family in the 16th century that wine production became of particular importance, and in the 1570s Pierre de Lestonnac cleared many of the grain fields to make way for grapes. By 1700 the estate covered its present area of 265 hectares, and the 78 hectares devoted to vines has remained essentially unchanged since then.

As with most of Médoc's châteaux, the 18th century saw the wine develop from a pale watery drink that faded within only a few years, to the dark, complex liquid that has been stored in cellars ever since. At Château Margaux this transformation was largely due to a manager named Berlon, who revolutionised techniques of wine-making by introducing novel ideas such as forbidding harvesting in the early morning to avoid dew-covered grapes, and acknowledging for the first time the importance of soil quality.

By the 19th century, the estate's wine was well known. Thomas Jefferson placing it number one in his personal classification. The 1855 classification ordered by Napoleon III confirmed its status.

The estate's château itself was completely rebuilt in 1810 when Bertrand Douat, marquis de la Colonilla, commissioned one of Bordeaux' foremost architects, Guy-Louis Combes,[1] to create a building worthy of the wines that were made on the site. The result was Combes' masterpiece, a four-square palace with a columned portico in neo-Palladian style that has been called the "Versailles of the Médoc", familiar from its appearance on the Château Margaux label. It sits in its own park, at the end of a cobbled drive.

In the 1970s, after a series of low-quality vintages, the owners of the estate since 1950 were forced to sell Château Margaux. The successful buyer was French grocery and finance group Félix Potin, headed by Greek André Mentzelopoulos. Mentzelopoulos transformed the vineyard through well-chosen investment in the wine-making process and by his death in 1980 Château Margaux was back among the region's finest wines. At the beginning of the 1990s, an exchange of shares was negotiated with the Agnelli family but the management remained in the hands of Mentzelopoulos' daughter Corinne Mentzelopoulos. In 2003, Corinne Mentzelopoulos bought back the majority stake and became the sole shareholder of Château Margaux.

Source :wikipedia
Last Updated on Monday, 10 March 2008 15:02
 
Chateau Latour Pauillac PDF Print E-mail
User Rating: / 1
PoorBest 
Friday, 07 March 2008 11:05

 

Latour is a first growth 1855 or “Premier Cru Classé en 1855”.

 

The name Château Latour evokes a glorious tower built on the banks of the Gironde, overlooking the water and the vines.

Created about 1680, the vineyard of Château Latour is one of the oldest in the Medoc.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Château Latour started to be highly recognized around the world, thanks to the English aristocracy and other wealthy groups of consumers in northern Europe. And that was how Thomas Jefferson, Ambassador of the United States in France, and future President, discovered this Bordeaux wine

The reputation of Château Latour consolidated during the 19th century. It was confirmed in 1855, when the government of Napoléon III decided to classify the estates of the Médoc and the Graves for the International Exhibition in Paris : Château Latour was classified as First Growth.

In July 1993, Mr PINAULT brought Château Latour back into French hands after 30 years of British ownership.

For information, the grapes are mostly Cabernet-Sauvignon (78%), and Merlot Noir (17%), the others 5% split between Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

This first growth 1855 has an intense crimson colour; its complex liquorice bouquet is quite closed-in. It is obviously a wine of substance, powerful and generous with ripe tannin insuring that the grapes were at their peak when picked.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 March 2008 15:08
 
Chateau Lafite Rothschild Pauillac PDF Print E-mail
Friday, 07 March 2008 10:49

Don’t forget Château Lafite Rothschild was one of first growths or “Premier Cru Classé” classified in 1855.

The first known reference to Lafite dates to 1234. There were probably already vineyards on the property at the time when the Ségur family organised the vineyard in the 17th century, and Lafite began to earn its reputation as a great winemaking estate.

From the early 18th century, Lafite found its market in London. The London Gazette described the Lafite wine and its counterparts as “New French clarets”.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Lafite’s wine became “The King’s Wine”at the French Court and in 1755, Maréchal de Richelieu, Governor of Guyenne, told the King that he had “found the Fountain of Youth? … Château Lafite wines make invigorating cordials: they are as delicious”

On the eve of the French revolution, Lafite was at the height of its winemaking legacy, as witnessed in the exceptional authorship of Thomas Jefferson, future President of the United States.

After being the property of different owners, the château was acquired by Baron James de Rothschild in 1868. Nowadays, Château Lafite Rothschild always belongs to Rothschild family.

In the seventies, Baron Eric de Rothschild overtook the management of the estate and made strides forward through research for excellence and the gradual addition of a new technical team.

it must be noted that the blend is constituted in a majority of Cabernet-Sauvignon (70%), one quarter of Merlot and we find any traces of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

Its colour is intense, it’s a deep red, colour. Its bouquet reveals great elegance and spicy aromas. This 1er Grand Cru Classé starts out very powerful and full-bodied. Extremely long after taste it ends with delicious silky tannin.
Last Updated on Monday, 10 March 2008 15:02
 
Chateau Haut-Brion Pessac-Leognan Bordeaux PDF Print E-mail
Friday, 07 March 2008 10:19

 

 

Château Haut-Brion is one of the closest chateau to Bordeaux in the Pessac-Léognan appellation. During the 17th century, this wine had a huge success in London. Château Haut-Brion was classified as a first growth of the Gironde in 1855. It is the only first growth or “Premier Cru Classé” of the Graves area.

Financiers and sponsors, the Dillon Family restored to Château Haut-Brion its well-founded prestige. The Dillons brought back the tradition and pride of family ownership historically attached to Haut-Brion. Introducing select advances in technology to the vineyards, they have opened the door for continuation of the great tradition of Haut-Brion into the Twenty-first century.

The winemaking at Haut-Brion is managed by the articulate and handsome Jean Delmas( one of the world’s most gifted administrators), who fervently believes in a hot, short fermentation. As Bordeaux wines go. Haut Brion es kept a long time (up to 30 months) in new oak barrels. It is among the last châteaux to bottle its wine.

“The wines made at haut-Brion continue to be rated the finest of the Graves region. -….-  The smoky, mineral, cigar box, sweet black current character of this wine increasingly appeals to me” wrote Robert Parker in his Bordeaux Guide 1961-1997.

The blend for red wine is made by 45% Cabernet-Sauvignon, 37% Merlot noir and 18% Cabernet franc.
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 March 2008 17:22
 
More Articles...
«StartPrev123456NextEnd»

Page 5 of 6
Banner