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About the Wine
The winemaking tradition of the Brunel family dates back to the 17th century. Gaston Brunel, a famous négociant, acquired the Château de la Gardine in Châteauneuf du Pape in 1945. The estate is now run by his two sons, Patrick and Maxime with the help of their wives Eve and Maryse and their children Marie-Odile and Philippe. The estate spreads over 52 ha of vineyards (48 ha of red and 4 ha of white) and 20 ha of forests, all gathered around the property. The Domaine is famous for the quality of its wines and for the unique Gardine bottle. Today around 70% of the production is exported in about 30 countries.
The Gardine bottle, both original and elegant, is the result of a happy coincidence. When he first wanted to expand his cellar, while digging in the ground, Gaston Brunel found a mouth-blown bottle. He loved it and decided to use a similar shape for all his wine. In the beginning, he had to go all the way to Italy to find a glass supplier that was able to make it. Since 1964 all the wines have been bottled in the unique La Gardine shaped-bottle.
Tasting Notes: Red wine. From 90+ year old vines. Very long drinking window. See details below.
Reviews
The dense inky ruby/purple-colored 2004 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee des Generations is backward for a 2004, and should be one of the longer-lived wines of the vintage. It exhibits notes of creme de cassis, smoke, toast, and plenty of licorice and chocolate. It is full-bodied, powerful, and unusually tannic and structured for a 2004. Give it 5-7 years of bottle age and drink it over the following 15+ years. A decidedly modern take on Chateauneuf du Pape, but wine built for long-term aging is the rule of thumb from this estate tucked away in the very western reaches of Chateauneuf du Pape. I have cellared their Cuvee des Generations as far back as 1978. It’s a wine that does behave more like a Bordeaux than many Chateauneuf du Papes, requiring a good decade of cellaring, and it may be one of the few wines that takes that long to shed some tannin. Of course it sees aging in new oak barrels, as La Gardine was one of the first to use new oak for its Chateauneuf du Pape, and while the wine can be somewhat internationally styled and oaky in its youth, the wood does get absorbed as the wine ages, and after a decade there is no doubt it is a southern Rhone wine with plenty of Provencal typicity in it. At about age 7-8, the aromas of black cherries and other black fruits intermixed with smoky garrigue notes come to the forefront. ~91+ Robert Parker, WA Drink 2012-2027
About the Wine
Looking for that perfect quaffer to bring you back to the Mediterranean Sea? Look no further. The key here is that the wine is sourced from 30+ year old vines. You get a graceful wine that would normally sell for much more. Since BHW is a direct importer, our price here is unbeatable.
This wine has only four months in French oak barrels, and it is light, uplifting, and a joy to drink with tapas, light to medium weighted foods. It's perfect with B-B-Q too.
Tasting Notes: Very intense red-violet color. Aroma: notes of red and black fruit and spicy touches. On the palate: very fresh, complex and soft wine, with a long finish.
Blend: 60% Carignan, 35% Grenache Noir, 5% Syrah
Serve this wine with a light chill.
About the Winery
There are no secrets to the production of Kracher’s unparalleled range of remarkable sweet wines, headlined each year by up to a dozen or more trockenbeerenauslese cuvées. For three generations the Kracher family has led the way in the Seewinkel, that corner (Winkel) of Austria to the east of Lake Neusiedl, just an hour’s drive from Vienna. It was Alois Kracher Senior, back in the ‘50s and ‘60s who first realized the potential of the area for quality wine growing. Then in 1991, Alois Junior (Luis) set the world on fire with his ‘new’ style of dessert wine, focusing on finesse and balance in addition to just outright sweetness. From there he went on to win the British Wine Journal’s ‘Winemaker of the Year’ title 5 times, before his untimely passing in 2007.
“Luis” Kracher is one of the greatest visionaries in winemaking and was a driving force behind the “Austrian wine wonder” during the 1990s and a motor behind the renaissance of noble sweet wines. The whole wine world mourned the premature death of Luis, who – as a trained chemist – began his winemaking career at his father’s estate aged twenty-two years old.
He created a new style of dessert wine, in which the fruit character, finesse, and balance of the wine were far more important than just mere sweetness. The 1991 vintage brought Kracher his first international acclaim, and shortly afterward, his name would become synonymous with cult sweet wines, especially in America.
Zwischen den Seen "in between the lakes" are the wines aged in wood barrels or tanks, and under long yeast contact to deliver fresh, fruity wines with grape aromas. The Nouvelle Vague wines are aged in small barrels and allowed to interact with air during the aging process. The Nouvelle Vague are vivid and lively in taste, these wines show a spicy depth and length.
The dessert wines from Kracher are now widely considered some of the finest "Stickies" or sweet wines in the world. In fact, the Kracher wines have bested the noble (and much, much more expensive) Chateau d'Yquem Sauternes in numerous blind tastings. These wines are bright fresh and a true celebration to drink and enjoy. Kracher sweet wines are also incredibly interesting and delicious to drink following extended aging; they are built to last generations.
If you love sweet wines, these are some of the finest sweet wines available anywhere. BHW has the best price in the US.
About the Wine
Grape Variety: 100% Scheurebe
Residual Sugar: 289 g/L
Acidity: 8.3 g/L
Alcohol: 8%
Vinification: Fermented and matured in stainless steel for a period of 18 months.
Tasting notes: Sweet Wine. 100% Scheurebe. Bright golden-yellow. Bouquet of meadow herbs, delicate notes of stone fruit, and lychee. The palate is fresh and vibrant, with nuances of pineapple, and tropical fruit notes on the finish, complemented with a hint of honey in the aftertaste. Good grip.
Reviews
An exquisitely floral honeysuckle aroma surrounds a creamy yet sharp note of passion fruit, while a peppery verve tingles around the edges. The palate has the same playful character: a floral tease here, a full-blown passion-fruit kiss there, a total embrace of sweetness balanced by a sure-footed command of acid that draws everything together and assembles a newly precise picture with every sip. This is so heady, so delicious, so pure, so moreish that it should be a controlled substance. This should hold well through 2040, at least. ~100WE
This winery did the hard work aging these delectable bottles so you don’t have to! Since 1895, the Cazes clan has tilled vineyards in and around Rivesaltes--now growing to 220 organically farmed hectares--that yield some of the best expressions of Rivesaltes terroir on the market!
About the wine
The Cazes family worked this land for 50 years before releasing their first wines, and they’ve only gotten better with each vintage since! Now certified biodynamic for a full twenty years, the estate is a picture of dedication to the best agricultural practices and you can taste it. A rare treat, this aged muscat wine has developed secondary and tertiary qualities of honey and caramel laced with orange rind, dried apricot, vanilla, cinnamon, clove, and allspice. The fermentation is halted with the addition of high proof grape spirit, so the remaining sweetness is natural from the grape.
