2022 Bordeaux En Primeur: Rule #1 - Don't Start with Conclusions

This year, we started our visits with the infamous Bill Blatch, a fount of knowledge who tasted us on Sauternes, but is as well-versed in Bordeaux as anybody you’d meet. When asked about the vintage for sweet wines, his answer was very refreshing and grounding. Instead of reaching for superlatives and quotables, he produced a series of charts that showed the weather conditions in the region for every single day. We asked for conclusions. Instead, he gave us information, paired it perfectly with the wines, and set us down our own paths.

The Fresh and Feisty 2020 Bordeauxs at UGC in San Francisco

On January 27, K&L hosted the Union des Grands Crus of Bordeaux tasting in San Francisco at City View Metreon, whereover 80 châteaux send winemakers, owners, and representatives to pour their current releases and discuss the vintage. We’ve had the honor of being the Bay Area host since the 2005 vintage, and our 15th event brought us the 2020s.

Make 2023 the Year of Bordeaux!

Today's Newsletter rings in 2023 with our first and best love—Bordeaux. As our team gears up for their annual trip this spring, we're highlighting some of our top performers and personal favorites that came our way in 2022 and looking ahead to what the coming year will bring from the world's most famous wine region.

The UGC Is Back!

Last week, we were honored to host the Union des Grands Crus tasting of the 2019 Bordeaux vintage at the Metreon in San Francisco. We have been hosting this event since 2005, when our co-owner and Bordeaux evangelist Clyde Beffa Jr helped lobby to have two tastings in California, with K&L covering SF and Wally’s covering LA. Last Wednesday, after a two-year pause for the pandemic—as well as a reschedule this year for same—Bordeaux producers and enthusiasts alike came together, finally, to revel in the 2019 vintage.

Bordeaux Newsletter: Modern-Classic Collectibles, Staff Favorites, and Everyday Stars

Today's Newsletter spans the length and breadth of the world's greatest wine region (and the foundation of K&L's business) with a stellar run of hand-picked favorites from our intrepid Bordeaux team, followed by recaps of the back-to-back outstanding 2019 and 2020 vintages.

A Big Difference: What’s the Price?

A few years back, I mused about the lingering question that Clyde would often ask of châteaux representatives, sometimes up front, sometimes after a sip—“so…what’s the price?” It is a good question, something that is perhaps more apropos than ever. But it feels more poignant now for a much different reason. My last trip with Clyde would have been back in 2019, when it looked like “up” was the only direction for a 2018 vintage that provided a lot of upside, but existed in a world that seems so far away from today. Now inflation, a pandemic, and supply chain issues put an immense amount of pressure on every part of the equation, and no one knows where prices will go.

Lynch-Bages 2020: First Year in New Cellar

On the last day of our trip to Bordeaux, while Clyde was nursing a sore leg, Trey and I met up with Jean-Charles Cazes, fourth generation of the Cazes family, to tour their new cellar. With a new cellar and a ton of momentum in the market, it feels like an exciting moment for this château.

BDX 2020: Classic Wines, Atypical Year

When France opened its borders in early June, our team was on the second plane out of California. And indeed, we were among the very first Americans that many of the French had seen, and we were certainly among the only to taste the 2020 vintage at the châteaux. We were able to learn from the winemakers, taste wines fresh from barrels, and get a perspective on this vintage not afforded to those who didn’t leave terra firma in the U.S. In this week’s newsletter, you’ll find our direct-from-Bordeaux 2020 vintage preview.

2018 St-Julien Sneak Peak

K&L's Team Bordeaux has sampled the 2018 vintage in bottle and their first reports are glowing. In today's blog, they've provided their notes on the exceptional wines from St-Julien, one of the standouts of the vintage. Many of these bottles are available on pre-arrival.

Vintage Report: The Wild World of Bordeaux 2019

Bordeaux 2019 is a campaign for the history books, with en primeur happening mid-quarantine in the comfort of everyone’s own home instead of in Bordeaux. Luckily, the wines are very good and the prices are even better. The only downside, according to Clyde, is that we don’t have enough of it!

A Diamond in the Rough: 2002 Coufran

Sometimes the parts are better than the sum… 2002 is not a favorite vintage for Clyde, with little faith in the Cabernet that came from the cooler/uneven temperatures that year. But in the 2002 Coufran, a Merlot-dominant blend, he’s found a diamond in the rough.

Clyde's Corner

In our next Club Francais, we’ll be featuring the 2000 de Viaud from Lalande de Pomerol, so Clyde took the occasion to revisit a bottle of the 2003 from the estate. This was a controversial vintage in Bordeaux—a warm year with some hits and some misses—so I was curious how the wine would taste 17 years down the line. But Clyde lives by the credo of finding the best wines in under-rated vintages for the best values, and he’s king at picking out the good ones.

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