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.
Read MoreA 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.
Read MoreOn 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.
Read MoreWhen 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.
Read MoreK&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.
Read MoreBordeaux 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!
Read MoreSometimes 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.
Read MoreIn 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.
Read MoreAll the chips were stacked against Bordeaux being able to pull off an En Primeur campaign. If prices were less than astounding,there would have been no chance to even get off the starting block. Then Pontet-Canet got a potential 100-point review from Wine Advocate, dropped their price by 30%…
Read MoreWhen they were in barrel, we were not quiet about the fact that we thought we had something special on our hands. In bottle, we were not shy about how incredible the 2016s Bordeauxs were looking. Now they’re here, and they’re must-try wines of the highest caliber.
Read MoreThis past Friday, K&L hosted our annual Union des Grands Crus (UGC) Bordeaux tasting, featuring the 2017 vintage. It remains one of the great events of any given year and one of the most comprehensive tasting events you’ll find for any given region.
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