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About the Wine
If you love Cabernet Franc, this wine will make you want to sing arias.
Château Petit Gravet is located on the “Right Bank” of Bordeaux and it happens to be a neighbor of Chateau Canon and La Gaffeliere, with a beautiful terroir with deep, sand and clay soils and an extension of 6.1 acres planted with 80% Cabernet Franc and 20% Merlot. Actually, one of the highest Cab Franc concentrations in all of Bordeaux is right here in this Château! The estate has old vines, some up to 70 years old.
Catherine Papon-Nouvelle, the owner and winemaker of Château Petit Gravet also own Clos St. Julien and Chateau Gaillard in St. Emilion. The wine and the vineyard are certified as organic; No pesticides, herbicides or any other chemicals are used.
The 2015 vintage of Petit Gravet Ainé is considered one of the best of this Château. This wine is made from 70-year-old vines and is aged in new French oak barrels for 18 months.
Tasting Notes: Deep garnet-purple color. Aromas of mature fruit, more like jam, mocha, espresso, white pepper, and mint. The palate is intense and very firm, with a long finish. Pair this wine with veal, pork, beef, lamb, duck, game, roast chicken, roasted, braised, and grilled dishes. Best enjoyed in the first 5-20 years of life.
Reviews
From a great, yet tiny, sandy/clay terroir near Canon-la-Gaffelière and a unique Cabernet Franc-dominated blend mixed with 20% Merlot aged in new barrels, the 2015 Château Petit Gravet Aîné boasts a complex, exotic bouquet of incense, spring flowers, and dried herbs, with a beautiful core of black cherry and plum fruit. The palate is where this gem shines, however, and it’s sensationally pure, layered, and elegant, with a full-bodied, sexy style that just begs to be drunk. Give bottles a few years and enjoy over the following 15-20 years. This is an awesome wine brought to the US by American merchant Jeffrey Davies. ~95 Jeb Dunnuck
Catherine Papon-Nouvel's 2015 Petit Gravet Ainé boasts serious richness and intensity from start to finish. Mocha, espresso, raspberry jam, white pepper and mint are some of the many notes that are pushed forward in this unctuous, super-ripe St.-Émilion. The summer heat appears to have baked out the Cabernet Franc aromatics that are such a signature here. Today, the 2015 is incredibly tightly wound. It will be interesting to see where things ultimately shake out. For now, the 2015 is an embryonic wine built on intensity and ripeness. I would like to see a little more of the finesse this site is capable of. Petit Gravet Ainé is 80% Cabernet Franc and 20% Merlot done in 100% new oak. Tasted two times. ~ 93 Antonio Galloni
Composed of 80% Cabernet Franc and 20% Merlot matured in 100% new French oak barrels for 18 months, the deep garnet-purple colored 2015 Petit Gravet Aine is provocatively scented of red currant jelly, raspberry tart, and blackberry preserves with hints of dried roses, stewed tea, and dried herbs. Medium to full-bodied, very firm, and grainy with a lovely perfumed red fruit expression, it finishes long and minerally. This needs 2 to 3 years, at least! ~ 93 Wine Advocate
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 Wine
Viña Tabalí is located in the Limarí Valley in Chile, known to be one of the most promising Valleys in all of Chile. It’s worth noting that although BHW staff have tasted thousands of wine from Chile, we feature only a small handful that pass our stringent tasting panel.
This property originally founded by Guillermo Luksic is currently managed by his son Nicolás Luksic, and is constantly improving with new growth and innovation. “What we seek is to produce high-quality wines that demonstrate their origin, that when tasted, transfer the person to the soil and climate that characterizes the Tabalí vineyards. That was what my father always wanted to convey”, says Nicolás.
Tabalí has a strong focus on quality. The Winery is a small-scale, exclusive, family winery focused on details. It is built in such a way that the fruit and wine are transported by gravity. The winery aims to avoid any unnecessary pumping and relies on nature to do the work wherever possible.
Felipe Müller, Tabalí’s winemaker since 2006, was born and raised in Santiago, Chile’s capital. Today, at the age of 41, he is considered one of the country´s most influential and important winemakers.
In 2001 he joined Viña De Martino as the second winemaker, in charge of viticulture as well as the vinification for red and white wines. In this winery, he worked with winemaker Marcelo Retamal, and formed a bold and renowned "Wine Dupla". Together they discovered new wines, studied various valleys, regions of Chile, and vinify around 350 vineyards throughout the country.
Felipe harvested two famous Chateaux Grand Cru Classé in Saint Emilion, France: Chateau Canon La Gaffeliere and Chateau La Mondotte.
Felipe Müller was named ‘Best Winemaker of the Year’ in the sixteenth version of “Guía de Vinos de Chile 2010”, Chile’s oldest and most prestigious wine industry publication. This distinction was an important recognition for the enthusiasm, passion, and dedication he puts in crafting wines. “Wine is my passion and an important part of my life. I feel capable of leveraging the knowledge I’ve built throughout these many years", says Felipe.
In the year 2011, Felipe was appointed Manager Director, keeping his position as Chief Winemaker. From then Felipe was not only responsible for the quality of the wines but also for the global strategy of the company.
In January 2014 Felipe Müller was chosen ‘Best Young Winemaker’ (next to Aurelio Montes who was chosen Best Senior Winemaker).
The grape to produce 2017 Tabali Malbec-Cabernet Franc Vetas Blancas comes from El Espinal vineyard, in the coastal area of the Valley. This vineyard is located in the oldest alluvial terrace in the coastal sector of the Limarí Valley. With a cool climate, alluvial soils, and volcanic rock compounds, the terroir of this area is ideal for producing high-end wines.
2017 Tabali Malbec-Cabernet Franc Vetas Blancas is aged in 100% French Oak Barrels for 14 months.
Tasting Notes: 60% Malbec, 40% Cabernet Franc. Deep red color. Elegant on the nose, with aromas of red fruits such as blueberries, cherries, floral and spicy notes. Great structure on the palate, firm tannins, and perfect balance. Pair this wine with a nice grilled burger or pasta.
Reviews
The 2017 Vetas Blancas Malbec-Cabernet Franc is a new red blend in the Vetas Blancas range that is made with a combination of grapes that is getting very popular across the Andes in Argentina. It was produced with grapes from their El Espinal vineyard in Limarí, a blend of 60% Malbec and 40% Cabernet Franc. It's very impressive and really integrated, with the two grapes complementing each other and coming through as harmonious and with very good freshness, combining power and elegance. It's floral and spicy, with fine tannins and a dry, serious finish. It seems to transcend the vintage and the price point. Great value. 9,000 bottles were filled in August 2019. ~ 92 Robert Parker, Wine Advocate
Violet-like flowers and forest leaves shroud fresh red berries in attractive and fragrant style, leading to a smooth, supple palate with glossy dark berries and a very smooth, finely chalky tannin texture. This is very drinkable! ~ 92 James Suckling
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
