May 2016. A grouping of leading Bordeaux châteaux got together in London recently, each showing four recent vintages – 2012, ’13, ’14, and ’15 – of their grand vin. A most illuminating exercise: every sample showed how each of the châteaux responded to the complex, and unique, set of problems and opportunities presented by each vintage. Here are my impressions from four of the properties […].
Posts Tagged ‘thomas jefferson’
Four Quartets : Four Vintages of Four Top Clarets
Posted by Frank Ward on May 27, 2016
Posted in Bordeaux, Bordeaux, Tasting notes | Tagged: Bordeaux, Château Canon, Château Léoville Poyferré, Château Pontet Canet, Château Rauzan Ségla, thomas jefferson | Leave a Comment »
Wine & Health
Posted by Frank Ward on December 15, 2014
December 2014. When President John F. Kennedy once received a whole party of Nobel prize-winners in the Oval Office he told them that their presence represented the biggest concentration of human intellect in that building since President Thomas Jefferson had sat there alone during his own presidency, 1801-1809. Jefferson certainly was an exceptional man: lawyer, statesman, architect, oenophile, scholar, and all-round man of the enlightenment. [….]
Posted in Oenophilia | Tagged: alcoholism, Duncan Selbie, health and wine, John F. Kennedy, spirits, Sweden, thomas jefferson | 1 Comment »
PRE-PHYLLOXERA PUZZLE : An 1870 Overture
Posted by Frank Ward on June 10, 2013
June 2013. It was one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever faced at a blind tasting. True, I’d been given one piece of vital information just before sampling the wine, namely the vintage: 1870. A wine that was 143 years’ old. But that wasn’t much help. I’d never sampled a wine of quite that age before and didn’t really know what to look for. In addition, no clue had been given as to the region, or even country of origin (though one could be pretty sure it was French, our host being a great fan of that ucontry’s wines). fresh tasting notes on fabled wines, 3 great vintages of musigny vieilles vignes
Posted in Bordeaux, Mature wines, Tasting notes | Tagged: 1870, chanel, colin matthews, David Matthews, Ian Maxwell Campbell, john kolasa, madame de rohan, margaux, michael broadbent, nathaniel johnston, nicolas faith, prephylloxera, professor peynaud, rausan margaux, rauzan ségla, Shakespear, the great vintage wine book, thierry manoncourt, thomas jefferson | Leave a Comment »



