Brew Hops & Wine Stops

Another very successful Bordeaux Grande Wine Tasting was held at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort three weeks ago in Orlando. Thirty chateaux from Bordeaux dazzled the crowd with the new 2011 vintage wines, as they started an American tour that would also take them to Toronto, New York City, Washington, Chicago and then out west to Los Angeles. This annual event has become a wonderful opportunity for wine lovers to get a sneak peek (taste) of the new vintage wines from Bordeaux long before they hit the retail shelves.  

The wines from 2011, in my opinion and that of many of the winemakers and owners I spoke with, are going to show themselves sooner than the previous vintage of 2010. So while you wait for your 2009 and 2010s to reach their peak, you can be enjoying the great wines from 2011. I had a chance to speak with Philip O’Conor, representing Gonzague & Claire Lurton Vineyards and pouring Chateau Haut-Bages Liberal and Chateau Ferriere, about the vintage and he agreed that though the wines will certainly have much staying power, they are much more accessible earlier than some previous vintages.

A couple of my favorite wines of the evening were the Clos Marsalette from Stephan von Neipperg. This wine was by far one of the best values of the show. Another wine I thoroughly enjoyed and had never had in the past was the 2011 Chateau Berliquet being poured by Cyrille Thienpont. And although there were many fantastic wines to choose from that night, the wine that I ended the evening with was a real show-stopper…the 2011 Chateau Suduiraut from Sauternes. This viscous, honeyed, floral wine will last forever both on the finish and in your wine cellar…a real stunner.

 

Ken Amendola, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits Wine Supervisor

Follow him on Twitter @abcwinekena

As we say goodbye to another year and 2013 is in our rearview mirrors, we can begin to look ahead at the new year of 2014. I was thinking how fortunate I was to have enjoyed some wonderful wines and had the opportunity to visit some of Napa Valley's most iconic wineries. Now, as I look to the very near future, I see some incredible wine events that are directly in our sights…

Coming at the end of the month is Nadia Galati's Italian Winemakers' Tour, one of the most anticipated wine happenings on the calendar. These events bring many of Italy's finest wine minds to the Sunshine State for a tour of Italy’s finest wine regions. So on January 29, 30 and 31^st you can visit your local ABC Fine Wine & Spirits locations in Tallahassee, Ponte Vedra and Oviedo to meet these talented winemakers from all parts of the “boot.” Special guests will include Alberto Passeri of La Gerla in Tuscany, Giovanna Tantini of Tantini from the Veneto, Gregory Perrucci of Racemi in Apulia along with many more Italian winemaking artists. If you are a already a lover of Italian wines, looking to learn a thing or two, or you just enjoy drinking fine wines, then this is the place for you…be sure to mark your calendar!

Another unique wine event that is right around the corner is the Bordeaux Grande Tasting being held Wednesday, January 15, at the beautiful Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando. This is another one of a kind event that brings 30 or so of France's finest producers of Bordeaux to Florida. Here you get another opportunity to meet and speak with some of the superstars of Europe's wine community. You also get to taste some of Europe's finest wines such as Château Léoville Barton, Domaine de Chevalier and Château Angélus without ever having to show your passport. This was one of the highlights of last year's wine events and is sure to be one of the best of 2014.

If these two amazing Eurpoean wine events are any indication of what is in store this year for the wine enthusiasts in Florida, than I can’t wait for February!!

For more information on these events, visit abcfws.com/events.

Ken Amendola, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits Wine Supervisor

Follow me on Twitter @abcwinekena

Okay, so it’s late in the fourth quarter, times running out and you still have some gifts to buy…no problem. Fortunately for you, your friends and family are wine lovers and that’s where ABC Fine Wine & Spirits comes in to save the day. We have many great last minute ideas for you and the people to help you make these critical, last-minute gift giving decisions. A wonderful wine gift idea is a pair of tickets to one the best wine tastings you’ll find this side of the Atlantic. On Wednesday, January 15, from 7-10 p.m. at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort is the second annual Bordeaux Grande Tasting. This incredible event brings the finest Bordeaux châteaux to Orlando, FL, for an amazing evening of world class wines, delicious food and a chance to discuss these unique wines with those who know them best. In attendance will be more than 30 owners and managers of some of the top estates in Bordeaux such as: Château Clinet from Pomerol, Château Leoville-Barton from St. Julien, Château Lynch-Bages from Pauillac, Château Angelus from St. Emilion and many, many more. Just click here for all the information…tickets will be going fast, so you may want to get tickets for yourself while you’re there!!

Another good choice for your wine aficionados is always a great bottle of wine…no worries, we gotcha covered. Just in is a beautiful wine from Sonoma County, the Block 533 Reserve from Chalk Hill ($21.99). This is our first Block Series wine from the Chalk Hill AVA in Sonoma, and it is a home run. A massive, full-bodied Cabernet that oozes with ripe, rich dark fruits and a balanced structure, carries its mouthful of cassis, ripe black cherry and spice all the way through the forever finish. This will bring a smile to the face of any the fine wine lovers on your Christmas gift list.

And while you are at your local ABC, it might be a good idea to pick up a few bottles of your favorite sparkling wine like an Italian Prosecco from Collalto, a fine Champagne from Moutard, Charles Mignon or Haton and a great value in Spanish Cava, Dominio de la Peseta at just $10.99…you always want to have a bottle or two of bubbly in your fridge, especially during the holidays.

So to you and all your friends and family, I would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Until next time, cheers!

Ken Amendola, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits Wine Supervisor

Follow him on Twitter @abcwinekena

Located in the commune of Pessac, just outside the city of Bordeaux, Chateau Pape-Clement is a living piece of history! The estate is the oldest in the region, as the vineyards were planted in 1300—and they harvested their 700th vintage in 2006! The estate was presented to Bertrand de Goth as a gift from his family upon his appointment as archbishop of Bordeaux. Shortly after, Bertrand was elected Pope, took the name Clement V, and gave the estate the name Pape Clement.

Although the estate was originally omitted from the first classification of the wines of Graves in 1953, it was rightly classified in 1959. The vineyards total around 80 acres, of which roughly 74 acres are planted with red varieties (60% Cabernet, 35% Merlot and a little Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot) and 6 acres in white (45% Sauvignon, 45% Semillon and the balance Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle) for the stunning Pape Clement blanc.

Today, the Chateau is owned by Bernard Magrez, who in addition to the crown jewel Ch. Pape-Clement, owns Ch. Fombrauge in St. Emilion and Ch. la Tour Carnet in the Haut-Medoc, amongst others in Bordeaux and throughout the world. A trademark of Bernerd Magrez is restoring the estates from the ground up, while restoring the wines to world class form. A collector of many things, including a Stradivarius, Mr. Magrez had recently saved a collection of ancient olive trees in Spain. He purchased them, had them uprooted and shipped to his estates in Bordeaux, and transplanted them for visitors to view! Many of these trees are nearing 2,000 years old! I don’t believe they produce olives anymore, but they are certainly amazing. One of the olive trees at Ch. Pape Clement was planted in the year 162 AD, and is aptly named Marcus Aurelius, who just happened to be alive and well in 162!

Brad Lewis and I spent three nights at Pape Clement, and had the pleasure of dining in the chateau each evening…Foie gras, duck, lobster, and wine! Old vintages of Pape Clement red and white were the stars of the evening, as expected.

On Saturday, we spent the day with Phillipe Magrez, Benoit Tomas (Export Director) and Lionel Labat (Export Manager) in the corporate helicopter visiting each of the Bordeaux estates in the Magrez umbrella, with an unbelievable lunch and tasting at Ch. Fombrauge.

Perhaps the blessing of the Pope, or simply good fortune, the 2010 Ch. Pape Clement, which is available now via our ‘en Primeur’ or Bordeaux Futures campaign, recently scored the magical 100 points by Robert M. Parker Jr. and we still have a few cases available. On a more personal note, the wine staff at ABC Fine Wine & Spirits also had the pleasure of sampling both the 2010 Ch. Pape Clement red and white at our own Bordeaux UGC event in Orlando this past January, and I can say the Pape Clement Blanc 2010 is simply stunning. One of the most complex dry whites I have had in many years. I am also happy to say we have secured a good supply of the red & white wines of Ch. Pape Clement in vintage 2012! The red carries a Robert Parker rating of 92-95 and the white, ahhhh, the white! The 2012 white received a remarkable 95-98 from Parker! Both are available on our Futures 2012 offer, but will certainly sell out.

Shayne Hebert, Central Florida Wine Supervisor. Follow Shayne on Twitter: @ABCwineshayne

For the weeks leading up to the Bordeaux Grande Tasting held at the beautiful Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando last Wednesday in Orlando, I told wine guests and friends that this was an event not to be missed. I said that knowing it would be a very memorable tasting, but I had no idea how memorable. What an incredible evening for anyone that has even the slightest interest in wine. I do not know of any wine event in the state of Florida that would allow you the pleasure of meeting 30 of Bordeaux’s finest winemakers and managers (because there isn’t any)! The opportunity to attend an event such as this is few and far between, so I tried my best to try all these fine Bordelaise wines.

I found two that I could call my favorite, but choosing just two to talk about wasn’t very easy, as all were good and many were very good. The first was the 2010 Chateau Canon La Gaffeliere from world renowned wine icon Count Stephan von Neipperg. This wine was reviewed by the Wine Spectator in April: “Ripe and dense, but very, very sleek, with lovely polish to the texture, which lets the layers of plum sauce, blueberry and boysenberry fruit glide along. Powerful but perfumy. A beauty in the making. 94-97 points.” 

The wine was truly wonderful, but I have had many wonderful wines. What made this memorable was tasting the wine with Count von Neipperg. The chance to listen to the Count speak about the four wines he was sampling was a thrill! 

The second wine I want to mention is the 2010 Leoville Poyferre. As much as I liked many of the wines, this was my favorite of the evening. Presenting this wine was Didier Cuvelier, General Manager and co-owner of Poyferre. This is what Robert Parker thought of the wine when he reviewed it in May of 2011: “…It boasts an opaque purple color in addition to a sweet perfume of spring flowers, black raspberries, crème de cassis and a hint of spicy oak. This seamlessly constructed St. Julien possesses massive concentration, moderately high tannins, abundant glycerin, an unctuous texture, remarkably fresh acids and wonderful precision. 95-98 points.” 

This was a Grande evening of drinking, talking and learning about wine. What a pleasure to be able to talk to these winemakers and proprietors without ever having to step on a plane!

 

Ken Amendola

(Follow me on twitter @abcwinekena)

In March, Robert M. Parker Jr. finalized his scores on the 2009 vintage in bottle….a few months earlier than in past years. I was pretty much finished with the Campaign 2009….until that point! His scores caught many by surprise (18 wines finished with 100 points!) and needless to say, nearly every wine I still had to offer was scooped up within a day or two! So with the last of the 2009s gone, what do you have to look forward to?

 

2010: A (another) pivotal vintage…With Robert Parker blessing so many of the 2009s with 100 points, where does a rating go from there? The 2010s are wonderful, and look like they may give 2009 a run for the money. The major difference between the two is that the 2009s will be accessible sooner, where the 2010s are much more tannic and backwards, indicating a ‘vin de garde’ vintage, one for the cellar. Prices in 2010 were, again, record breaking, although, let’s be honest, that is as frequent as the vintage of the century song! Can’t wait till next year and see how the ratings pan out! I can say now, however, that I have a small amount of the 1st Growths still available at opening prices….Get them while you can, because in the Spring next year, you may well wish you did.

 2011: Futures and their future…So, finally, Bordeaux has to eat a bit of humble pie in 2011. The wines are turning out to be fine, but more like 2008, only for a bunch more money. Chateau  Lafite-Rothschild, which oddly was one of the first estates to open (NOT one of the first TOP estates to open, one of the first in the vintage!) offered their wine at prices about 30% less than last year. Apparently their thought was to price 2011 as the most affordable vintage currently available, to stimulate sales. Anyone not following suit is, at least at this early stage, is digging their own grave…..remember 1997? Cos d’Estournel opened at a very nice price (about half) compared to ’09 and ’10, but there are so many awesome vintages of this wine available now, drinking now, for less, why would anyone snap this up on the futures campaign? The exceptions are probably the First Growths, which, with severe selection on the sorting table, managed to still make wonderful 2011s. My feeling is that, besides the First Growths (and maybe a few of the super-seconds) 2011 will prove to be a vintage relegated to ‘a drinking vintage’ and for restaurants. Except in Sauternes…

 

Shayne Hebert

Follow me on Twitter @abcwineshayne

As you may know, the 2011 Bordeaux Futures campaign is now open. Here are some insider tips from the Bordeaux Futures tastings I was at two weeks ago.

 

Highly recommended:

 Inexpensive: Domain de l'A 2011- saturated ruby red, great fruit, red berries and black cherry, nice middle and balance, long finish.

 

Moderately priced: Chateau Franc Mayne 2011 - deep ruby color, freshness, elegance and power, long finish. Great effort; sleeper of the vintage.

 Expensive: Chateau Troplong Mondot 2011 - one of the best St Emilion estates and very consistent in recent vintages. Another great effort, this 2011 exhibits saturated  ruby red color, aromas and flavors of blueberry and blackberry fruit, great balance, elegance and depth, long lasting finish.

 

Atanas Nechkov, Wine Supervisor Central Florida

Follow me on Twitter @abcwineatanas

I think most people were expecting the vintage to open with a tiny little POP or maybe even a sigh, but it appears that 2011 will be a campaign of surprises! Whatever it takes to draw attention to the wines, I suppose, especially in a less-than-anticipated year like 2011. Of course the top estates will craft wonderful wines, as they always do, but overall there is less than the usual excitement in the market for 2011...Not everyone has the cash for another great vintage, much less another ‘vintage of the Century’.

 Prices are expected to drop somewhere between 25-40%, which is about what it will take to jumpstart the campaign. That would be a pleasant surprise. This is good news from top to bottom, collectors can snag First Growths (well, Lafite, anyways) with mid-90’s ratings for (are you holding your breath?) around $700-$750 a bottle on release price.

This represents a pretty sizable decrease over the 2010 vintage, where we offered (and sold every bottle) of Lafite-Rothschild for $1,150-$1,700, depending on when in the campaign you called me!

 Another surprise is that Lafite-Rothschild has actually opened the vintage, offering a small amount at 360 Euro to negociants, who in turn offered it at 420 Euro on the opening (first tranche) price. A fair savings over 2010, where the wines were offered at 600 euro, more than a third difference! For Lafite to open this early in the campaign is very rare. First Growths typically play the waiting game, letting all of the other Classified Growths set their prices, then wait until the other First Growths decide their price….they don’t want to be low man on the totem!

 The third bit of news at this early stage of the vintage is from Ch. Latour. This hugely collectable estate announced that 2011 would be the last time you would find her wines available on the ‘futures’ market. Instead, as far as I can see, the wines will be released when the estate thinks they are more approachable (maybe 10 years?) and most likely profit themselves for their patience, rather than watch their wines skyrocket in value right after the futures campaign, the profits lining the investors' pockets rather than the Chateau.

 It's awfully early in the vintage to digest this much news! But it sure is exciting to watch…

 

Shayne Hebert, Central Florida Wine Supervisor

Follow me on Twitter @abcwineshayne