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Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $49.94 $54.20
Bright and intensely floral, with a lovely violet aroma and long, rich plum sauce, blackberry and currant notes....
12 FREE
WS
92
JS
91
Red
750ml
Bottle: $41.74
12 bottles: $40.91
Very aromatic and bright with currants and orange peel on the nose. Full body, velvety tannins and a delicious...
12 FREE
JS
92
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $578.88 $643.20
A longer, slower harvest than 2009, with cooler nights giving a resultantly fresher acidity. Highlighting the serious...
12 FREE
DC
99
WA
99
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $384.48 $427.20
Effectively half-and-half Merlot and Cabernet Franc, this is a tremendous wine. With very fine tannins, spice from a...
12 FREE
WE
97
DC
96
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $55.88 $57.20
12 bottles: $54.76
Even better than the 2009, the 2010 Château Barde-Haut offers the same sexy, extroverted style yet has slightly more...
12 FREE
JD
96
WS
93
Red
1.5Ltr
Bottle: $205.00
6 bottles: $200.90
Fantastic aromas of crushed plums and blackberries. Perfumed! Full-bodied and very silky with stone undertones. Best...
JS
94
WA
91
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $75.95 $82.40
Barrel Sample. While this powerful wine does have considerable over-extraction, it also has swathes of ripe berry...
12 FREE
WE
95
VM
94
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $89.95 $97.50
While I wasn’t able to taste the 2015, the 2014 Château Beausejour Duffau-Lagarrosse is fabulous stuff and well...
12 FREE
WS
94
JS
94
Red
750ml
Bottle: $24.60
12 bottles: $24.11
Château Bertrand-Braneyre was purchased in 1993 by Ludwig Cooreman after a 50-year career in the wine industry in...
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $174.95 $184.20
12 bottles: $173.85
Firm tannins still at 10 years very much showing their quality and flexibility. This is brilliant, cassis, bilberry,...
12 FREE
DC
95
JS
95
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $97.94 $99.60
12 bottles: $95.98
Ripe fruit, pink flowers and cinnamon spice nuances on the nose. Round and bright, chewy, chunky, but restrained too,...
12 FREE
DC
95
VM
95
Red
750ml
Bottle: $57.61
Spicy, rich and full of ripe fruit, this wine has great potential. It is structured and dense while bringing out a...
12 FREE
WE
94
WS
93
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $134.55 $149.50
62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc. Still a very youthful and lively Margaux with fine tannins...
12 FREE
DC
98
WA
94
Red
750ml
Bottle: $77.95
This is a complete wine, full of both tannins and great swathes of ripe fruit. It has a serious side as well in its...
12 FREE
WE
95
WA
92
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $216.45 $237.20
This is an architectural wine, very classical in its structure like so many of the top wines of 2010. It's powered by...
12 FREE
WE
97
JS
96
Red
750ml
Bottle: $163.83
12 bottles: $160.55
This is real powerful and sexy with a voluptuous style of ripe fruit, mushrooms and wet earth. Leafy. Full and...
12 FREE
JS
96
DC
95
Case only
Red
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle: $210.00
Deep garnet in color, the 2010 Canon la Gaffeliere delivers classic plum preserves, boysenberries and cigar box...
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Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $99.90 $101.50
12 bottles: $95.29
Barrel Sample. Superripe fruits dominate this wine. It is generous and full in the mouth, the tannins and structure...
12 FREE
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $172.80 $192.00
You know you are on the Right Bank limestone plateau with this wine not by the fruit character, which is savoury,...
12 FREE
DC
96
WA
96
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $111.78 $124.20
Intense aromas of minerals, chalk, bright cherries and stones. Full-bodied, tight and silky; very linear. Like a...
12 FREE
JS
96
VM
95

Melon de Bourgogne Red Bordeaux 2002 2010 2014

One of the more unusual French grape varietals, Melon de Bourgogne has been grown in and around the Loire Valley for several hundred years. In fact, this grape was first planted in the Loire region of Pays Nantais back in the mid 17th century, after a devastating frost decimated most of the red grapes which were typical in the area. The winemakers of Pays Nantais were keen to cultivate vines which were hardy, high yielding, and capable of surviving another such frost, and so turned their attention to Melon de Bourgogne for this very reason. The native home of the varietal is actually in Burgundy, where it is still grown to a lesser extent.


Because Melon de Bourgogne produces naturally heavy yields, the vintners of Pays Nantais go to great lengths to reduce the amount of fruit the vines bear. This allows the finest characteristics of the grape to come forward, and also opens up the opportunity for it to express the wonderful granite and schist soils in which the vines are grown. Melon de Bourgogne is a minerally white wine grape varietal, with a very subtle set of fruit flavors. It is prized for its freshness and brightness, and is seeing a revival in the twenty first century as an excellent wine for pairing with a wide range of foods.

There are few regions in the world with stricter regulations in regards to wine production and grape varietals than those found in Bordeaux, France. Here, in the home of the world's finest wines, the type and quality of grapes used is of utmost importance, and the legendary wineries which work on the banks of the Gironde river have mastered the careful art of juice blending to find the perfect balance for their produce. Whilst there are six 'official' Bordeaux grapes, the two key varietals for almost every fine Bordeaux wine are Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and with good reason. Whilst Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are renowned for their acidity and astringency, strong fruit and spice flavors and full body, Merlot grapes are notably rounded, soft, fleshy and lighter on tannin. The combination of these two varietals, along with a small percentage of (commonly) Petit Verdot or Cabernet Franc, is the perfect balancing act – the two grape varietals cancel out each others weaker points, and accentuate all that is good about the other.