All Wine

Savoury, structured and classically beautiful Bordeaux which drinks beautifully with complex black olive, dried herb and fragrant dark fruit flavours now; made from 48% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 12% Cabernet Franc. 

Chateau Magnol has 31 hectares of grapes in the Haut-M?doc, west of the city of Bordeaux and has gravel as well as sandy soils in its vineyards. It has gained the classification of Cru Bourgeois, which this commandingly impressive wine more than lives up to. 

A firm full bodied blend of Nebbiolo grapes with all the elegance, red fruit and silkiness of a great Barolo; it's a blend of mostly cru vineyards offering a complex red now and for ageing. 

Made by one of Piedmonte's great wineries. A wine with superb elegance, depth, complexity and aromatic length. Drink now or cellar.

A great Syrah with black plum, blackberry and ripe red cherry notes from French winemaker Jean-Baptiste Souillard. 

This spicy full bodied red is new in store and offers great drinking now as well as ageing potential for up to a decade, potentially beyond. 

A great Syrah from the northern Rhone appellation of Cornas, famous for its staunch full bodied dry flavoured reds and long ageability of wines made from here. This powerful red from Ferraton Pere & Fils has dark black fruit flavours, strong spicy aromas and a hint of black pepper, tar and earthiness all adding great complexity to an outstanding and youthful wine. 

Drinks well now, if decanted, and begs to be cellared for up to and potentially beyond 10 years. 

Everything that great Syrah can be is present and accounted for in this plummy, spicy, chocolatey dark red wine from Cote Rotie, the northernmost appellation for Syrah in France's Rhone Valley. 

Full bodied, dry, spicy and rich right now, this impressive red will age well, evolving into a silky, even more seductive red over at least 10 years. 

Reviewed by: Joe Czerwinski

Drink Date: 2023 - 2035
A 60-40 blend of Grenache and Mourvèdre aged in a combination of demi-muids and new barriques, the 2019 Chateauneuf du Pape Renaissance shows plenty of smoky, toasty nuances laid over the top of roasted cherries. Full-bodied, rich and velvety in texture, it finishes long, with overtones of mocha lingering on the finish. It's oaky now, but it should improve with short-term cellaring. Tasted twice (once blind), with consistent notes.

I confess to being slightly disappointed in the offerings from this fine domaine this year. The Grangeon family owns vineyards in some superb sandy sites, including the lieux-dits of Cristia and la Font du Loup, but the 2019s and 2020s (to a lesser extent) are too easy in style, and some cuvees are overly marked by wood. Still, there is no denying their commercial appeal. The 2020 white, however, showed well on both occasions I tasted it. Baptiste Grangeon is picking those grapes a bit early "to keep the freshness," then compensating by using a bit more new oak and bâtonnage.

"I was a big fan of 2019 and less of 2020 in the beginning," Grangeon said as we tasted through the range. "But with time, I like '20 more and more." Alcohol levels here were close to 16% in 2019 but more like 15% in 2020. "You can't get in '19 what we got in '16—that was a perfectly balanced vintage. Chateauneuf is supposed to be a fine and elegant wine," Grangeon added in closing.

Looking at the older wines, the 2011 (there was only a single cuvee produced) should be consumed without further delay, and the 2001 came across as tired and of only academic interest at this point (no review given). As a rough rule of thumb, I would suggest drinking these wines within their first decade.

Published: May 06, 2022

Indigenous yeasts, stainless steel ferments and minimal sulphur additions. What more could you ask for in iconic white Burgundy? This wine is new in store and we have a precious six bottles only, so get in quick. Jean Baptiste Boudier is an up and coming maestro in Pernand Vergelesses in the Cotes de Beaune in Burgundy.

In 2014 as Jean-Baptiste worked together with his father at their family domaine in Pernand-Vergelesses it was clear they had very different approaches to winemaking and viticulture. It was clear to both father and son that the ambitious Jean-Baptiste needed to go his own way. By this time Jean-Baptiste had already worked stints at wine estates worldwide including Nicolas Rossignol in Burgundy, Vieux Télégraphe in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Château Haut-Brion in Pessac-Léognan & Domaine Gauby in Rousillon.

Crozes-Hermitage is an appellation in France's northern Rhone Valley where Syrah rules the roost. In fact, Syrah is the only red grape allowed to grow here and in the entire northern Rhone, for that matter. Whites are rare and they're another story.

This big, dark, full bodied red has all the bells and whistles you want to find in high quality French Syrah, namely, ripe dark fruit flavours with aromas of white pepper and savoury spice. It's three years old and still youthful, but drinks well now, decanted. It will continue to age for up to a decade in a good cellar.

Vinification
For vinification, grapes are 100% destemmed, no yeasting. The maceration phase lasts 4 weeks. Pumping over is preferred to cap punching, as it is a gentler extraction method. Vinification temperature never goes above 28°C.

After devatting, the wine is barrelled immediately in demi-muids, where malolactic fermentation takes place. The barrels are mainly one or two wines old.  The wine is racked after 12 months, before spending 3 months in a vat prior to bottling.