In this series, Mark Pardoe MW provides insight into how Bordeaux’s key communes fared in 2020. Here, our Wine Director looks at Pomerol, based on a conversation with Fiona Morrison MW of Le Pin. At a glance: Pomerol in 2020 Hectares under vine: 800 Average yield: 40hl/ha in 2020 (43hl/ha in ’19); down 7% Significant […]

In this series, Mark Pardoe MW provides insight into how Bordeaux’s key communes fared in 2020. Here, our Wine Director looks at St Estèphe, based on a conversation with Lorraine Watrin of Ch. Montrose. At a glance: St Estèphe in 2020 Hectares under vine: 1,250 Average yield: 41hl/ha in 2020 (50hl/ha in ’19); down 18% […]

Bérénice Lurton inherited Ch. Climens, a Sauternes powerhouse, from her father in 1992. We speak to her about her dry white Bordeaux, Asphodèle.   The fields of Homer’s underworld are strewn with asphodels, whose delicate white petals have long been associated with death.   Unlikely associations, then, for Ch. Climens’ latest wine, a dry white Bordeaux with only two vintages behind it. Asphodèle is born of Bérénice Lurton’s collaboration with Sancerre winemaker Pascal Jolivet. Its association with death, she explains, is no accident.   […]

When he’s not advising Bordeaux’s biggest names, winemaking consultant Stéphane Derenoncourt can be found tending Domaine de l’A, his 12-hectare home estate in Castillon.    In 1999, Stéphane Derenoncourt was on the hunt for a vineyard of his own. “My dream was to buy a first growth in St Emilion,” he recalls. “But the bankers […]