Simon Davies, Head of Marketing at FINE+RARE, shares his musings on 2010 Burgundy post his trip to Domaine Chanson.
 I was in Beaune yesterday tasting a range of 2010s at Domaine Chanson (the estate owned by Bollinger). While it’s all still fresh in my mind I thought I would share some thoughts. The 2010 Burgundy vintage is very high quality ...

2010 Burgundy: A few early thoughts

Domaine Romanée-Conti (DRC) is the exemplary Burgundian wine producer. Its 25 ha of Grand Cru vineyards cluster around the village of Vosne Romanée with part of the proprietorship including two of Burgundy’s greatest monopoles, La Tache and Romanée Conti. The six red and one white Grand Cru wines are often transcendental, each single vineyard distinctive (a Batard Montrachet is also ...

Domaine Romanée-Conti: Rare & Exceptional

Simon Davies, Head of Marketing at FINE+RARE, shares his musings on Le Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche following a spectacular lunch hosted by winemaker, Veronique Drouhin.
I went to a magnificent lunch yesterday hosted by Veronique Drouhin where she showed a vertical of Le Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche. The vintages shown were as follows: 2009 Le Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche, Domaine Joseph ...

Le Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche

On Thursday 27th October wine journalists and the FINE+RARE team gathered for a very special event: 57 domains, one vineyard, one vintage, tasted blind. This is the second year (we hope of many) that we have organised this Clos Vougeot tasting, and quite some organisation is required. We started contacting producers back in February to try and secure a bottle ...

The Annual Clos Vougeot Tasting : Presenting 2009

Simon Davies, Head of Marketing at FINE+RARE, shares his thoughts on the 2010 Burgundy vintage following his trip to the region last week. The Vintage A week of tasting close to 300 wines across 19 different domains from Gevrey in the north of the Côte de Nuits to Givry in the Côte Chalonnaise has given me a very clear picture ...

2010 Burgundy Vintage Report

FINE+RARE laid bare: Leading fine wine blog 12x75 invited Mark Bedini, co-founder and Executive Chairman, to discuss many aspects about the past, present and future of FINE+RARE. Including what it was like to meet HM the Queen. 12x75: You’ve been in the wine industry for over 30 years and have seen it from many angles; you’ve worked as a shop ...

Mark Bedini Interviewed by 12x75.com

Me: “Paul, are you sure that sample is Merlot, it tastes a lot like Cabernet?” Paul Pontallier: “Yes absolutely it’s a Merlot, amazing eh?” Me: “Paul, are you really sure this isn’t a Cabernet?” Paul Pontallier: “Hmmm, no, not any more. Let me check…” It had started as a simple question in late Nov 2011 when I was at Ch ...

Assessing the blend: 2011 Chateau Margaux

In early March 2012, FINE+RARE's Sales Director Jamie Graham, Events Manager Amanda Baxter and a small group of our customers embarked on our annual tour of Bordeaux. Amanda Baxter updates us on their trip. Day 3 A very decent departure time of 9am took us through the centre of Bordeaux into the often underrated Graves to complete our round up ...

Bordeaux Wine Tour Report March 2012 (Day 3)

In early March 2012, FINE+RARE's Sales Director Jamie Graham, Events Manager Amanda Baxter and a small group of our customers embarked on our annual tour of Bordeaux. Amanda Baxter updates us on their trip. Day 2 It was an early start for our intrepid tasters, 7am to be precise, to enjoy breakfast before the trek to the Left Bank with ...

Bordeaux Wine Tour Report March 2012 (Day 2)

In early March 2012, FINE+RARE's Sales Director Jamie Graham, Events Manager Amanda Baxter and a small group of our customers embarked on our annual tour of Bordeaux. Amanda Baxter updates us on their trip below. Day 1 Less than half our small group of customers boarded the (luxury) minibus to Saint Emilion last Wednesday as the temptation of an extra ...

Bordeaux Wine Tour Report March 2012 (Day 1)

(Map reproduced from World Atlas of Wine with kind permission of Jancis Robinson MW OBE) Moving from right to left you have the three Grand Cru parts of Musigny: Le Musigny; the smaller Les Petits Musigny and then to the left a small section of Musigny divided from the 1er cru above by a low wall. This section of Musigny ...

Chambolle Musigny Combe d'Orveaux: Taupenot-Merme: A Rose by any other name...

Our wines of the vintage with scores out of 20 points in brackets: Haut Brion Blanc Pessac(19) Mouton Rothschild Pauillac (18+) Pontet Canet Pauillac (18+) Margaux Margaux (18+) Eglise Clinet Pomerol (18+) La Conseillante Pomerol (18+) Domaine de Chevalier Blanc Pessac (18+) Ducru Beaucaillou St Julien (18+) Lafleur Pomerol (18+) Vieux Chateau Certan Pomerol (18) Leoville Lascases St Julien (18) ...

2011 Bordeaux - Vintage Report

Bordeaux 2011 has gone off ahead of Robert Parker's usual starting gun with Lafite unexpectedly leading the way (we are still confirming our allocations). Mutterings in Bordeaux that Lafite is too expensive is unlikely to prove true given it's attraction for the Asian markets, but the other 1st Growths would perhaps be wise to disregard Lafite when setting their own prices. The ...

2011 Bordeaux: An Uncertain Start

When we last tasted at Lafite, we were disappointed with the 2011 vintage as the wine was awkward and surly: blackly fruited and ferociously structured; showing none of the charm for which this chateau is so famous. Two weeks on and Lafite has blossomed into a silky, sweet, polished princess. The wine has softened, showing a nice bit of baby ...

2011 Bordeaux: Great News for Lafite Lovers

Returning to Bordeaux two weeks after our initial tastings has been an eye opening experience. The plan this week wasn't to taste any wine at all but instead to make short films with chateaux owners and winemakers so they could describe the 2011 vintage in their own words. Along the way we have had the good fortune to retaste Lafite and siblings ...

2011 Bordeaux: What a difference a fortnight makes

Most wine regions have a very clear varietal identity. For example, in France, Bordeaux is best known for its red blends dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and white blends using Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc; Burgundy has Pinot Noir and Chardonnay; Alsace is defined by its Rieslings, Gewurztraminers, Pinot Gris and Muscats and so on. However one country which is ...

New Zealand's Wine Identity

This wine is as elusive as seeing a badger crossing your local high street. Actually it is almost impossible to find any bottles of South African wine from the 1998 vintage, so if you ever have the chance to visit, there are two things you need to bring back with you. The first is a sun-tan. The second: any bottles ...

“Let the big guns roar” www.kanonkop.co.za

Having just returned from California, Mark Bedini (Founder and Executive Chairman) shares his adventures in Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley including an incredible visits to Vérité and Harlan Estate. 4th & 5th May: The Adventure Begins... Departed San Francisco to visit my friends from Norfolk, Rowan and Jenny Gormley. They'd spent the day visiting producers and reviewing a range of ...

Bedini in California

FINE+RARE battled their way through the country-wide competition to be selected as one of 50 National Finalists; they are the only fine wine brokers selected and are representing the drinks trade alongside winery Bodegas Emilio Moro from Spain and Italy’s Fratelli Branca Distillerie. FINE+RARE is a fine wine broker where over 45,000 wines are valued, bought and sold at market rates to trade ...

FINE+RARE to represent UK in European Business Awards

“The crp about collecting wine is just that, crp. Wine is there to make the journey through life more enjoyable”. Put in a way that only South Africans' seem to be capable of expressing, we raised our glasses to this sentiment from Andre Van Rensberg, but I made sure to write some surreptitious notes along the way too. 2011 Reserve ...

Our old friends Vergelegen drop into FINE+RARE for a tasting

It's not often that you get the opportunity to taste 299 points of wines in one sitting, but last Thursday we got to do just that. Dimitri Mesnard, from Jackson Wine Estates, dropped into our offices to present Verité's spectacular 2008s, along with 2008 Lokoya, 2008 Cardinale and chief winemaker, Pierre Siellan's wines from Chateau Lassegue in St Emillon and ...

299 Points Wines

Two weeks ago I attended Decanter’s Great Bordeaux Fine Wine Encounter at The Landmark Hotel in London. The tasting featured over 80 of the region’s most prestigious producers, from the most renowned chateaux (such as Angelus, Montrose, Giscours and Beychevelle) to the best petits chateaux. It was here that fine wine enthusiasts were given a rare opportunity to discuss the ...

Decanter’s Great Bordeaux Fine Wine Encounter

FINE+RARE has, for the first time, been included in The Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 which lists the top 200 mid-market private companies with the fastest-growing international sales over the last two years. International sales grew at over 40% per annum between 2009 and 2011 to £40.8m and has been a core driver of the company’s expansion. CEO Graham ...

FINE+RARE's achievement in The Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200

July ought not to be a great time to taste a new vintage from Burgundy. Nine months after harvest the wines are still very young – there is a reason why it’s not until November time, when the wines have had a bit longer to settle down in barrel, that the majority of the wine trade decamps to the Cote ...

A sneak peak at 2011 Burgundy (and a bit about 2012 too)

Day Two Moet Chandon proved a difficult start, since we could not at first work our way into the building! When eventually we were sat down in the boardroom, we launched into the short daily test before moving onto the lecture, this time on vineyards and harvest. And the reward at the end of our hard work? A trip round ...

Diary of a 2012 Champagne Academy Alumnus Day Two

Day Three Our day 3 lecture was on the picking of grapes to bottling stages and led by the ever composed cellar master Frédéric Panaiotis at Ruinart’s recently renovated maison. (They also had the best patisseries and coffee of the week!) This test was one of the hardest for me, partly being that we had no time to review the ...

Diary of a 2012 Champagne Academy alumnus Day Three

And so under heavy clouds again we trekked into the Lanson headquarters for the last lecture "From the Cellar to the Consumer" which was technically the most relevant, or at least the one we should relate to most. There were a lot of market figures to absorb so we were quite overwhelmed by the time we met the cellar master. ...

Diary of a 2012 Champagne Academy alumnus Day Five

FINE+RARE has been shortlisted for the Blackberry Growth Strategy Award at this year’s Orange National Business Awards. Graham Sumeray, CEO, will face a Dragon’s Den-style interview with a panel of judges and the winner will then be revealed at the Awards Dinner inLondon on 13th November 2012. Graham Sumeray, CEO said:  “We are revolutionizing a traditional market by providing more than ...

FINE+RARE announced as National Business Award Finalist

After a spectacular week, the final day brought a test on the previous day’s lecture, a blind tasting of Vins Clairs to identify the grape variety and then a blind tasting of Champagne to identify the house, vintage and main grape. Once completed we visited Reims Cathedral in the daytime – a must-do if in the area – and then ...

Diary of a 2012 Champagne Academy alumnus Day Six

Strong August sales – Olympics or no Olympics While the latest industry reports from the CBI show lower than usual August trading figures in London, wine sales at FINE+RARE have bucked the trend with a significant increase on the equivalent period last year, suggesting that the fine wine market remains buoyant despite concerns in the wider economy. Bordeaux sales remain sluggish, especially ...

Market Report August 2012

Sherry can be the colour of coffee stains on a cream carpet, the colour of lemon-curd sandwiches or the colour of lacquered mahogany. It is the diversity of sherry which makes it so appealing, a surfeit of styles with a gradient of colour. You can taste a light and breezy Manzanilla from the Sanlucar coast which has a sea salt ...

Fifty Shades of Sherry

That’s Madeira the fortified wine favoured by none other than Thomas Jefferson, who used it to toast the Declaration of Independence; George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams to name a few, oh, and it was the drink of choice to christen the USS Constitution in 1797! Actually Madeira the island is pretty amazing too. A volcanic island sitting between ...

It’s high time to befriend Madeira

Bordeaux picks up slightly driven by 2009 but interest at the very top end remains limited Bordeaux’s share of the market at Fine+Rare was up on last month at 60%, compared to 47% in August. The most heavily traded vintage by far was 2009, accounting for almost a quarter of all sales, with the delivery of en primeur stocks boosting interest ...

Market Report September 2012

Bud Cuchet and I spent a couple of days in Bordeaux last week – the first time that either of us have visited Bordeaux during the harvest despite nearly forty years in the trade between us. The aim was twofold: to see the 2012 crop coming in and to retaste a few 2011s and 2010s. Despite our hosts being rather ...

A couple of days in Bordeaux

The first evidence of wine production was in Georgia around 7000BC and domestication of vines occurred around 3000BC. Wine was a natural, simple product: grapes that were pressed and fermented – a true expression of the terroir and the creator’s expertise. But does tradition make better wine? Or is this a romantic notion of turning back the clock to a ...

'Natural', Biodynamic, Organic - is tradition always best?

The Market in October Bordeaux trade dominated by top vintages
Interest in 2009 Bordeaux continues to be strong, partly aided in the UK by Decanter’s* *recent report on the vintage. There has also been significant interest in 2010s, as well as 1996s, 1990s, 1986s and 1982s, suggesting that buyers are looking to top vintages for security in an uncertain market. Rhone volumes up on anticipation of new ...

Market Outlook November 2012

Blind tasting is not always the best way to taste. The effort it involves focuses the mind and tends to imprint the experience much more firmly in the memory. It also erases preconceptions – you can’t ‘taste’ labels when you can’t see them. But because you are forced to look at the bigger picture as you seek to pin a ...

Two Champagne Verticals

Speak to anyone on the wine trade about the fine wine market and the words “The Far East” will inevitably come out within five minutes. Since the mid 1990s and perhaps more noticeably, the mid-2000s, more and more wine has been sold in what can no longer really be referred to as a new market. Without visiting the region to ...

A Week in the Far East

On this rather gloomy, wet, winter's day, The Royal Opera House opened its doors to an army of wine professionals to sample the 2010 Bordeaux vintage. The smell of wine filled the magnificent Paul Hamlyn Hall with its large iron and glass windows and gleaming modern glass and gold interior. This juxtaposition effortlessly absorbed the wine tasting into its characterful ...

UGC 2010 En Primeurs Tasting

Bud Cuchet, Camilla Bowler and I spent a hectic week in Burgundy at the beginning of December. The mission was twofold: firstly, to establish the quality of the 2011 vintage, much of which will be offered in January and secondly to sniff out some quality producers. We returned rather pleased on both counts. The vintage The 2011 growing season in ...

2011 Burgundy Vintage Report

A look back on 2012 2012 has been an eventful year in the wine trade. In many ways, it has been a difficult twelve months: tough economic conditions, falling prices for investment grade wines and a tortuous en primeur Bordeaux campaign have all made buying and selling wine more challenging than usual. The flipside of turbulence, however, is opportunity and ...

Market Outlook January 2013

The Market in January Burgundy 2011 The 2011 Burgundy en-primeur release circus has been well-received, along with the circus of tastings that come with it. The key commentators have generally agreed with Fine+Rare’s verdict on the vintage and have reported positively on the quality: Jancis Robinson finds ‘fruit, delicacy and terroir definition’ in the wines, and Allen Meadows puts overall ...

Market Outlook February 2013

Last week Bud Cuchet and I spent a couple of days in what was a rather wet and cold Bordeaux. The reason for our trip was a very special invite from a very special man – Paul Pontallier of Château Margaux had asked us if we would like to taste the component parts of the 2012 vintage. This was quite ...

A rather special tasting and a 2012 heads up

On Wednesday night we were privileged to have the company of Neal Martin at a small dinner in the private room of the brilliant Chez Bruce. The theme was, of course, Pomerol and Neal’s recently published book on the region. Wine and food first. The aim of the wine selection was to be eclectic rather than simply aiming for the ...

A Pomerol Evening with Neal Martin

Chateau Latour releases the first of its mature ex-chateau stock
Having announced last year that 2011 would be the last vintage to be offered en primeur, Ch Latour made a first release of older stock from its cellars in March, in advance of the forthcoming en primeur campaign. The 1995 vintage of the Grand Vin was released along with 2005 Forts ...

Market Outlook April 2013

When Bud Cuchet and I visited Bordeaux in early October all looked set fair for a very good vintage. There are few better barometers of a vintage’s quality than the faces of the men tasked with making and selling the wine, and there were smiles all round as we inspected the vineyards in the beautiful October sunshine. Sadly, whilst we ...

A Mixed Vintage

On Wednesday 6th March 2013, our Sales Director, Jamie Graham, and I, accompanied twelve of FINE+RARE's customers for our exclusive annual Bordeaux First Growth trip. Scheduled visits to some of the top Chateaux in the world proved to us that the magic in this grand region is still very much alive. The wine and food weren't bad either. Day One ...

Bordeaux First Growth Trip - Day One

Day Two The second day of our Bordeaux trip began at 7am with a quick breakfast before our departure from St-Emilion across the river to the Left Bank into the territory of the great First Growths. The sun was a pleasant surprise after the overcast weather of the previous day, highlighting the beauty of the landscape of the vineyards. Our ...

Bordeaux First Growth Trip - Day Two

Day Three After two days of fine wine and brilliant cuisine, there were understandably a few groggy faces as we entered into our final day in Bordeaux. Enthusiasm returned as we made the short journey to Chateau Haut Brion which sits directly opposite La Mission, also owned by Domaine Clarence Dillon. Both properties are surrounded by vines of youth and ...

Bordeaux First Growth Trip - Day Three

The market in April The 2012 campaign started early this year with several big releases during the week after the UGC tastings. Calls by merchants – FINE+RARE included - for an early campaign and significant price reduction looked to have been answered when Ch Mouton Rothschild came out at a discount of 33% to the 2011 price (ex negociant). This ...

May 2013 - Market Report

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