Baron De Brane

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Type: Collectors

Country: France

Region: Bordeaux

Sub Region: Margaux

Class: Grand Cru

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 "Lovely plum and berry character, with plenty of richness. Medium- to full-bodied, with firm tannins and a medium finish. Needs time. Second wine of Chateau Brane-Cantenac. Best after 2006. 16,665 cases made." -Rated 88, Wine Spectator

 Grands Vins De Bordeaux

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Type: Collectors

Country: France

Region: Bordeaux

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Grand Vins de Bordeaux covers a wide range of Grand Cru's, in the Bodeaux region. Most are 1st trough 5th growths.

 Chateau Buzet

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Type: Collectors

Country: France

Region: South West France

Sub Region: Buzet

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Buzet was once considered part of Bordeaux until 1952, now adays it stands as its own appelation, with 27 communes, producing amazing wines. Some of the grapes found in this great appelation include: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. There are also three white grapes found in the region: Sauvignon, Semillon and Muscadelle.

 Chateau Berliquet

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Type: Collectors

Country: France

Region: Bordeaux

Sub Region: Saint Emilion

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Chateau Berliquet, is one the oldest wineries in the St. Emillion appelation, dating as far back as the 16th century. An estate managed by Patrick Valette, who makes a wonderful wine, with very affordable prices, ranging between $35-$50 USD.

 Bond

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Type: Exclusive

Size: 6 bottle

Country: USA

Region: Napa valley

Sub Region: Central Coast

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Bond is a wine made by the Harlan Estates, which makes Bordeaux style wines. Bond itself began in 1997, with a very limited production of around 700 cases per year. The wine is a collaboration between Robert Levy and vineyard manager Mary Maher.

Chateau Bahans Haut-Brion

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Type: Classic

Size: 12 Bottle

Country: France

Region: Pessac Leognan, Bordeaux

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Chateau Bahans Haut-Brion is the second label to the famous, first growth Chateau Hau-Brion. The Chateau was aqquired by Clarence Dillon, an American banker on May 13, 1935, it has since then, remained in the family.  

Chateau Beausejour Becot

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Type: Collectors

Size: 20" L X 13" W X 7" H

Country: France

Region: Saint Emillion

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Once a vineyard cultivated by the monks of the Church of St-Martin during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century it was acquired by the Gerès family, the land then named Peycoucou. By marriage the estate came to the de Carle family, seigneurs of Figeac, and in 1787 General Jacques de Carle renamed the property to Beauséjour. When the historic estate in its entirety came to Pierre-Paulin Ducarpe, it was divided in 1869 between his two children. The daughter wed Duffau-Lagarosse, received what became Château Beauséjour-Duffau-Lagarrosse (present day Château Beauséjour) and his son inherited the half which was sold in 1924 to Dr. Fagouet, altering the name to Château Beauséjour-Dr-Fagouet. The estate received its current name after it was acquired in 1969 by Michel Bécot who began extensive efforts to modernize.

Chateau Blason D'Issan

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Type: Collectors

Size: 20" L X 13" W X 7" H

Country: France

Region: Margaux

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 The original fortress was Chateau Teobon, just one part of a succession of battlements on high ground which lined the Gironde. The earliest recorded owners were the Noalhan family, who held the rights to the seigneurie of Cantenac, and who bequeathed the estate to Thomas de Meyrac. It remained with this family until the early 16th Century, passing to Jean de Meyrac, the son, and then to Isabeau de Meyrac. Isabeau married Giron de Ségur, and thus the property was absorbed into the massive Ségur estate, which also included Lafite, Latour and for a while also Mouton. The estate passed through this family to their granddaughter who married into the Salignac family in 1527, and from here it passed to the Ferrière and then the Lalanne families. In the mid-17th Century it came to Pierre l'Essenhault, a knight and local parliamentarian, as part of the dowry of Marguerite de Lalanne. It was l'Essenhault who demolished the old castle and replaced it with the aforementioned moated lodge which still stands today, and thus the property took on his name, albeit an abridged version. The newlyweds and their descendants resided here until 1760, when the property was acquired by a local councillor named Castelnau, the estate subsequently being divided between the Castelnau and Candale families in 1776. The latter took the chateau, renaming it Chateau de Candale. By this time the vineyard was undoubtedly well established, documents showing that d'Issan was one of the earliest classed growth properties to be established, with wines exported to foreign markets, including the UK. They were recommended for the cellars of the Prince of Wales in a letter from a Bordeaux merchant in 1723, and found favour with Thomas Jefferson who makes reference to the estate in a letter he wrote in 1787. The early wines from d'Issan were clearly of some repute.

Domaine Bonneau du Martray

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Size: 6 Bottle 

Country: France

Region: Burgundy

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Charles the Great - also known as the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne; Charles towered over his age - literally at a reputed six feet four inches - and certainly over his father, King Pepin the Short! Legend says that his wife ordered the planting of white grapes so that her husband could drink white wine instead of red, thereby avoiding the staining of his regal beard. Reputedly, that same vineyard is the piece of land that Charlemagne bequeathed to the Abbey of Saulieu in 775, a piece of land on the hill of Corton between Pernand-Vergelesses and Aloxe-Corton that still bears his name.
If the story about the white grapes is true, then the wife concerned could have been Desiderata daughter of King Desiderius of the Lombards. Charles married Desiderata, the second of his 5 wives, with the aim of forging a peace. Unfortunately for this liaison, Pope Adrian I intervened in 772 asking Charles for help against attacks by King Desiderius and his Lombards. Charles divorced his wife, invaded Italy, defeated his former father-in-law and added a new title to his growing list - King of the Lombards.
Winning so many battles and ruling over so many peoples, Charles had built himself an empire and was a defacto emperor. It was, however, Christmas Day 800 before he received the title officially. Charles was praying in Saint Peter's Church in Rome when Pope Leo III arrived to place the crown upon his head - the Holy Roman Emperor at last.

Chateau Beau Soleil

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Situated at the southern end of the Pomerol plateau with its 3.5 hectares of vineyards bordering those of La Croix du Casse and Nenin. Beau Soleil has been owned by the Arcaute/Audy family since 1995 and, with the assistance of cult oenologist Michel Rolland, the quality of the wines has been transformed.

Beau Soleil's vineyards have a high average age (approx. 35 years old) and are planted with 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. The grapes are hand-harvested and are then fermented in temperature-controlled, stainless steel cuvées. The wine is then matured in oak barriques (80% new) for 24 months. It is bottled unfiltered.

Co-owner Jean-Michel Arcaute was tragically killed in a boating accident in 2001.

Chateau Haut-Batailley 

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Haut Batailley is the smaller sibling of neighboring Batailley, having split from the larger estate in 1942. Thus much of this estate's history is as for Batailley, from its possible Medieval origins through to the early 20th Century, before the division, when it was under the control of two brothers by the name of François and Marcel Borie. Thus, much of this profile mirrors exactly that written in my profile of Chateau Batailley.

The name of the original Batailley estate suggests a military origin, a battle perhaps, and indeed this may be so. The vineyards of modern Bordeaux were, in many cases, the scenes of Anglo-French conflicts of varying degrees of ferocity during the course of the wars which are known, collectively, as the Hundred Years' War. The location of Batailley, a few miles to the west of Latour, itself the location of one such siege, was reputedly the site of just such a skirmish near the end of the war. An alternative explanation concerns a local vigneron named Batailley, who was credited with planting the vineyards here, although the case for this is less robust. It is also a less bloodthirsty tale, and thus obviously of less interest; I prefer the suggestion of battle myself. Whatever the explanation, by the end of the 18th Century there is a vineyard here named Batailley, one which was to give rise to the Batailley and Haut-Batailley that exist today.

 Chateau Beychevelle

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The château's character has been tempered by three centuries of history in the hands ofseveral powerful families, influential in the economic, political, and cultural life of the

Bordeaux area, and even further a field.

In the reign of the French King Henri III, Beychevelle belonged to the Dukes of

Epernon, starting with the first duke, Jean-Louis Nogaret de la Valette, Grand-Admiral of

France and Governor of Provence, then of Guyenne. We can appreciate how powerful he was

from the fact that ships sailing in front of his estate had to lower their sails as a sign of

respect. This is the origin of the name "Beychevelle", which means « Baisse Voile » (lower

the sails).Château Beychevelle's emblem, a ship with a griffon figurehead and a lowered sail,

was sculpted in bronze in 1989 by Roberto Gnozzi, Professor at the Rome Academy of Fine

Arts. The figurehead is especially appropriate as, according to Greek mythology, a griffon

was the guardian of Dionysus' wine goblet.

Chateau Beaulieu

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The grand estate of Beaulieu is between the Opal Coast and the country of Belgium. One of the few wineries situated in this location, the winery has been producing exceptional wines since the 17th century. The estate also has an elegant hotel and beautifully designed restaurant with the famous chef Marc Meurin.

 Finca El Bosque

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As a wine producing region, Rioja has had a very tumultuous history, but it has entered the Twenty-First Century as the leading wine-producing DO region in Spain, famous the world over for the quality of its wines, which stand alongside the finest bottles from Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Rhone Valley in France, Piedmont in Italy and California in the U.S. In his book The New Spain, Spanish wine writer John Radford has noted the importance of France as an export market that helped to establish Rioja wines in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. At the time, France’s vineyards had been ravaged by mildew and phylloxera, and it took some years for French growers to replant original vines grafted onto American rootstocks which had to mature before they could produce quality fruit for winemaking. Rioja growers who had been learning to use Bordeaux methods began a bustling trade to France, thus the traditional, mature, and wooded, elegant-fruit style of Rioja was born.