Bordeaux 2017

In Dutch "De Malle" means "The Fool". Perhaps that explains why they, the people at Château de Malle, thought it was a good idea to raise the price of their wine this year—so far De Malle is the 'winner' with a markup of 14% on their 2010 price.

Of course I should take into account that De Malle is a Sauternes, and in fact it are the sweet wines of Sauternes who were most successful in 2011. Most Sauternes have more or less maintained the same price as they had last last year. Perhaps that 14% markup is not even that shocking after all.

No, the real fool is Quintus (perhaps I should write QVINTVS). This used to be Tertre-Daugay, until the château was acquired by Domaine Clarence Dillon (from Haut-Brion and Mission Haut-Brion) who obviously put some serious money into the domain.

But the same vine that produced a wine that was sold for approximately €25 en primeur last year (the Tertre-Daugay 2010), brought forth a wine of a shocking €133 one year later (Qui…

Dwayne Perreault — What better an endorsement can the Languedoc get than to have one of the top winemakers in Burgundy, a producer of such grand crus as Richebourg, Echezeaux and Clos Vougeot, come to the region, recognize a great terroir when they see it, and take the risk of making a major investment in an area which, let’s be honest, pales in comparison to the reputation of le Bourgogne?


Les Carretals

But that is what Anne Gros and her husband Jean Paul Tollot have done. Having established reputations in Burgundy, they were looking for a new adventure and were considering purchasing a vineyard in the south of France. They came to the tiny hamlet of Cazelles in the Minervois, bordering on St. Chinian, and it was love at first sight. A brand new winery was built in 2008, now sitting on 16 hectares of vines ranging from 5 years to more than 100 years old. Modern, high-tech equipment is used, including three different sized tractors, since the oldest vines are so narrowly planted that n…