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Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $92.07 $99.00
Gorgeous perfumes of plums, berries, light chocolate and walnut follow through to a medium body, fine tannins and...
12 FREE
JS
95
DC
94
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $27.59 $31.54
Tight and polished with a beautiful center palate and density. Full-bodied, ripe and polished. Really delicious fruit...
JS
92
DC
91
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $16.20 $17.50
Nice color with glints of crimson. Seductive nose, offering a broad aromatic palette in which scents of red fruit and...
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $26.00
Leathery and earthy nuances with touches of black pepper under lots of dark fruit aromas. Very dense and smooth...
12 FREE
DC
94
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $6.99
The wine is a deep red ruby, with purple highlights and a light mousse and rim of the same color. It has an intense...
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $41.88
12 bottles: $37.98
Readers will find a rich, flamboyant wine in the 2016 Barde-Haut. There is not a ton of subtlety here, but I am not...
VM
96
JD
95
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $22.80
12 bottles: $21.66
Superb intensity and clarity of fruit, ranging from blueberries to blackcurrants to oyster shells and lightly tarry...
JS
94
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $19.94
12 bottles: $19.54
91-93 Barrel Sample. Ripe, soft, revealing sumptuous black fruits, this wine shows an impressive side to this estate....
WE
93
VM
92
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $74.90 $78.20
12 bottles: $69.94
Sweet dark fruits on the nose, like black cherry jam with lovely touches of Cabernet Franc apparent in the herbal,...
12 FREE
DC
95
VM
94
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $31.90
12 bottles: $31.26
First vintage that I have tasted from this estate, purchased in 2006 by Bernard Magrez and renamed from Château le...
12 FREE
DC
94
VM
93
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $44.93 $46.00
12 bottles: $44.03
#22 TOP 100 WINES OF FRANCE 2022. Wow. This shows so much intensity, with black-olive, blackberry, meat and earth...
12 FREE
JS
97
DC
94
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $57.70 $58.98
Very attractive aromas of currants, tile and sandalwood with black and red currants. It’s full-bodied with a tight,...
12 FREE
JS
97
VM
96
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $99.51 $107.00
Right from the attack this has beautiful intensity and focus, with tannins covered by a layer of silk. A dash of...
12 FREE
DC
96
WE
96
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $87.42 $94.00
Quite possibly the finest vintage of this cuvée I've tasted, the 2020 Château Canon-La-Gaffelière offers that rare...
12 FREE
VM
97
JD
97
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $199.94 $219.94
The 2020 Canon is a wine of mind-blowing purity and nuance. It has been nothing less than thrilling on the three...
12 FREE
WA
100
DC
99
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $28.83 $29.89
94–96. Barrel Sample. This fine estate has produced a powerful, rich wine that has fine potential. Solid,...
WE
96
JS
94
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $59.65
Ripe black fruits shine through this balanced wine, showing strongly against a backdrop of rich, generous tannins....
12 FREE
WE
95
DC
94
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $17.89
Lively, with aromatic pomegranate, rooibos tea and savory notes forming the core, picking up currant coulis and iron...
12 FREE
WS
90
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $14.88 $17.71
91-92 A medium-bodied red with plum and berry. Soft and refined with nice, ripe and creamy tannins. Very polished.
JS
92
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $34.93 $37.08
The 2019 Château Carbonnieux sports a deep purple/ruby hue to go with a brilliant nose of red and black currants,...
JS
94
JD
94

Grenache Lambrusco Mencia Red Bordeaux Rapid Ship Wine

The Grenache grape holds the honor of being the most widely planted wine grape varietal on earth. It has a long and impressive history, and has been the backbone of the some of the planet’s most respected and famed wine regions, blended with Syrah in regions such as Chateauneuf du Pape, and in certain other Loire and Languedoc regions where it reigns supreme as a single varietal wine grape. In other key areas, such as Spain’s La Rioja (where it is known as Garnacha Tinta), it is blended with Tempranillo to make that country’s signature red wine, and is widely used as a blending grape in other old and new world countries, due to its unique character and jammy, fruit forward character.


For a long time, the Grenache grape was somewhat looked down upon as an ignoble varietal, incapable of producing wines of any particular interest. However, times are very much changing - in the right hands, Grenache grapes result in astonishingly intense and complex wines, full of fascinating features, and capable of achieving plenty of expression. For a while now, Grenache has been a major player in Australian wines. While not yet quite as extensively planted down under as Shiraz is, the Barossa Valley is bringing out some of the finest examples of this grape’s wines in recent years.

Some grape species are distinct and unique varietals, clearly separate from each of their cousins. Others, like Lambrusco and Muscat, are more like umbrella terms, featuring several subspecies which show slight differences from each other from region to region. Indeed, there are astonishingly more than 60 identified varieties of Lambrusco vines, and they are almost all used in the production of characterful Italian sparkling wines. They are distinguishable by their deep ruby blush, caused by strong pigments present in their skins, and their intensely perfumed character.


Lambrusco vines are grown in several Italian regions, although we most closely associate this varietal with Piedmont and Basilicata. It has also been grown successfully in Argentina and Australia. The varietal suffered from a fairly lowly reputation in the late 20th century, due to bulk, low cost production of Lambrusco sparkling wines, aimed at markets across northern Europe and America. However, things are rapidly changing, and the older, more traditional methods of bottle fermentation are returning, along with a higher level of quality and expression, as consumers become more discerning and demanding. Many of the Lambrusco sub-varieties have their own established DOC, such as Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce, Lambrusco di Sorbara and Modena, where new regulations are keeping standards high and methods traditional.

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.