Posted in Bordeaux, French Red, Wine Tastings, tagged Bordeaux, Chateau Palmer, French Red, red wine on June 3, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Oak Barrel @ Ch Palmer
My first encounter of Chateau Palmer was at the Robuchon restaurant in Macau, picked a bottle of 1999 Palmer from the well known extensive wine collection. It was so aromatic, the tannin was very soft, and I felt in love with the wine ever since.
When the invitation came for a wine tasting of Chateau Palmer and also the chance of meeting Bernard de Laage from the Chateau, how can one resist?! (more…)
Posted in Bordeaux, French Red, Wine Dinners, tagged Bordeaux, French Red, Wine appreciation on April 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Home-made French Onion Soup
Something simple …… black pepper ham with French bread
Something light …….. home-made French onion soup
After having a heavy brunch, something simple and light for dinner sounds very tempting. As always a bottle of wine is a must to enjoy with the meal.
Posted in Bordeaux, French Red, Wine Tastings on December 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Do you know the 61 wines that are now the renowned 1855 Classification of Bordeaux, what was the basis on the classification? It was strictly based on price! It would be interesting to test if the quality and price are still in line with the classification these days.
Well, that was the basis of the horizontal tasting I joined this weekend. It was a very small group, only 6 people and the instructor.
We were given 5 Parker scores in the beginning and at the end we were to guess what did Parker give to each wine. (more…)
Posted in Bordeaux, French Red, Wine Makers, tagged Bordeaux, Ch Grand Puy Lacoste, French Red, red wine on December 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Ch Grand Puy Lacoste Wine Dinner
I guess the chance of tasting the 1953 vintage from a classified Bordeaux already got my attention for the wine dinner, and the rest were just details I didn’t really care.
Emeline Borie, the 3rd generation of the owner was hosting the dinner organized by BBR. At dinner she told us her grandfather bought the vineyard in 1978, but the previous owner took all the wines from the cellar. So they have to buy back the wines in the market, including the 53’ we were going to taste. (more…)
Posted in Bordeaux, French Red, Wine Tastings, Wine Tour, tagged Bordeaux, Chateau Pichon Lalande, French Red on July 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Morning Mist
Bordeaux in June, what was it like? It was cool in the morning and hot in the afternoon, the perfect micro climate that vines thrive for.
The blue sky was exactly what I remembered as last summer. This time, instead of joining a tour, I wrote to a few vineyards ahead of time and confirmed private tours & tastings at 4 vineyards – Ch Haut Brion, Ch Palmer, Ch Pichon Lalande & Ch Lynch Bages. (more…)
Posted in French Red, Wine Tastings, tagged Beaugolais Nouveau, Burgandy Red on June 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Beajolais Cru
Beaujolais, a wine that I used to drink quite a bit when I was young; well, simply because it was cheap, fruity and easy to drink. These days, knowing better, this is not a wine I will stock up for my cellar.
But I was genuinely surprised by tasting a Beaujolais Cru last night at a “Burgundy Red” tasting class. Burgundy is a complicated region, and often confusing with the village and vineyard appellations. We tasted a few Premier Cru and Grand Cru last night, most were very complex, balanced with long length. (more…)
Posted in Bordeaux, French Red, Restaurants, Wine Dinners, tagged Bordeaux, Chateau d'Issan, French Red, red wine on March 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »
The lights were on; we looked around and realized we were the last table at the restaurant. We looked at the two glasses of Chateau d’Issan -1979 and 1995 and thought what a shame! The wines were still closed and it would be nice if they had served the wine at the beginning of the wine dinner.
The dinner was at the Bostonian restaurant organized by Watson’s Wine. It was a week’s events highlighting Chateau d’Issan and the owner Mr. Emmanuel Cruse was in town to host the dinners and tastings around town. (more…)
Posted in Bordeaux, French Red, Wine Makers, tagged Bordeaux, Chateau Pontet-Canet, French Red, Hong Kong Restaurants, red wine, vertical tasting on March 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Ch Pontet Canet
A 5-course dinner at H-One accompanied by 10 vintages of Chateau Pontet Canet with a finishing touch of a glass of Cognac Tesseron. All the wines were direct from the Chateau and the owner Monsieur Alfred Tesseron was in town to host the dinner.
Chateau Pontet Canet, a fifth growth from Bordeaux which I visited last summer with my husband. The tour included a lunch at the Chateau and Monsieur Alfred Tesseron also hosted the lunch at the Chateau’s dining room. (more…)
Posted in Bordeaux, French Red, tagged Bordeaux, Chateau Haut-Brion, French Red on February 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »
There were two reasons that I pulled out the AMEX from my wallet and signed for a bottle of the First Growth this weekend.
Over the CNY holiday, I started to plan for my summer vacation in Bordeaux. After locking down on the dates, I wrote to Ch Haut Brion, Ch Margaux and Ch Latour requesting a tour of the Chateau. I was jumping with joy when I received a positive response from Ch Haut Brion. (more…)
Posted in Bordeaux, French Red, Wine Tastings, tagged Bordeaux, Chateau Simard, French Red, red wine, St Emilion, vertical tasting on February 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Ch Simard
Chateau Ausone, one of the Premier Grand Crus from St Emilion is also the owner of Chateau Simard. I was so pleased to have the opportunity to taste 2 vintages from this Chateau – 1990 & 2005. It was over a European cuisine in a small cozy bistro in the quiet part of North Point.
St Emilion wines in general have softer tannins and more body as they are Merlot based red wines. The wines were 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. (more…)
Grape Wine Journey 