The dark and gloomy weather which welcomed us on Wednesday morning certainly didn’t dampen our mood, especially as we heard that the forecast for the day was much improved. Pauillac was our destination as we boarded the minibus and, as usual, Ch. Pichon-Lalande was our first appointment. An estate that has improved impressively during recent […]

Day two began with a tasting at a négociant found on the outskirts of Bordeaux. Trying wines in this environment is quite unlike any other you can imagine. Clever use of lighting, walls which are decorated in contemporary art and tables set amongst a seemingly endless row of racking in the state-of-the-art cellars (it’s really […]

We asked our Wine Club Manager Katie Cooper to explain exactly what ‘en primeur’ is, how the system came about and what it means for buying wine. What is the en primeur system? In a nutshell, en primeur (or wine futures) refers to the system by which Châteaux sell their wine from the barrel; that […]

The terms Left Bank and Right Bank refer the two parts of the Bordeaux wine region that lie on either side of the River Garonne and the huge Gironde estuary, into which the Rivers Garonne and Dordogne flow. These waters exert a significant influence on both the climate and the soil structures of each sub-region […]