“May we be of service with the menu?” asks a fellow restaurant guest with an English accent, seeing a friend and I discussing amongst ourselves the translation of the menu at l’Auburge Du Porche, a charming restaurant and Inn near…
“Welcome to Chateau Paloumey,” says Martine Cazeneuve, owner and winemaker of this 22-hectare, award-winning, Bordeaux Supérieur property. Fashionably dressed and accessorized, Madame Cazeneuve greets me at the door with her public relations executive Barbara Engerer. I am tasting my way…
Bonjour,” says English-speaking Jerome Juhe, part of the winemaking team at Chateau La Lagune. Handsome and compact with dark hair and electrifying enthusiasm for his company’s wine, he guides me through the remarkably modern and clean winemaking facilities, of which…
At some point in your life, you might have entertained the fantasy of living your life in the most elegant of French Chateaux. Of course, the chateau would look like Cinderella’s castle and would be located on a small hill,…
“My grandfather created Château Cailleteau Bergeron in 1933,” says Pierre-Charles Dartier, a tall, affable fellow with the rugged, camera-ready good looks of a football star, standing in front of his family’s winery with his sister and partner, Marie Dartier. It…
“I started this winery in 1979,” says handsome, blue-eyed Jean-Louis Reculet, showing me around his vineyard and winery on a crisp January Sunday afternoon. A fat family cat scampers amongst the vines, just now in the midst of being pruned….
According to Jane Anson in Bordeaux and Decanter magazine, estates are being told to stop using several different chateau names for the same wine, bottled at the same property. Many producers use a different name for different sales channels such…
… of course, there are wine shops and there are wine shops. A shop I often visit lacks the upscale ambiance of many featured recently in Zagat’s new listing, yet it has these incredibly great-value wines from France. Recently I…
For whatever reason, I felt rather indulgent these past few holiday weeks. Usually a savvy bargain hunter, I subscribed to the “life is short” theory and chose wines from every major area of Bordeaux in restaurants like Daniel, Bouley, and…
