Outside the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills for the Cercle Rive Droite LA tasting, March 2012
Outside the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills for the Cercle Rive Droite LA tasting, March 2012
Some members of Le Cercle Rive Droite with digital food & wine marketing agency, Able Social Media, at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, California for the 2012 Spring tasting in LA
L’Ambroisie du Château La Croix des Moines
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“L’Ambroisie” is a wine that made with 100% Merlot from the Château La Croix des Moines. Grown on a hilly terroir in the Lalande-de-Pomerol appellation (AOC), the highly complex and “gravelly” (large pebbled) and aging process of 18 months is oak barrels creates a “beautiful maturity, concentration and finesse” in this wine unlike any other.
Proprietor Jean-Louis Trocard dedicates his Cuvée “L’Ambroisie” to “highly-refined connoisseurs.”
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For more information, visit http://www.trocard.com
Château Ampélia
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Château Grand Corbin-Despagne manages five hectares of Château Ampélia in the AOC (appellation) Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux. Made of 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc, Ampélia is made in individual batches for each vineyard plot and matured in oak barrels. The terroir differs from top to bottom: in the hilltops, there is clay and limestone, while at the slopes, there is sandy gravel. In the valleys, you’ll find clay and silt. You’ll sense an already opened bouquet that expresses red berries, citrus fruits. Also, you’ll pick up a delicate wood scent as well as ripe and silky tannins. Altogether, these flavors create an “ample flesh, a touch of welcome freshness that is accompanied with softer notes of toffee.”
Château Barde Haut
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Owned by Sylvaine Garcin-Cathiard since 2000, this estate lies in the very east commune of Saint Emilion with the vineyards facing the south of the Dordogne Valley forming a natural amphitheater. The soils are composed of clay over a limestone bedrock lying close to the surface typical of region. Made of 86% Merlot and 14% Cabernet Franc, Barde Haut is dark and glossy wine in the glass with meaty and beefy” edge yet expressive nose. This rising star in Saint-ÉmilionGrand Cru combines its wine growing techniques inspired by modern science and tradition with a one-of-a-kind terroir.
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For more information, please visit http://www.vignoblesgarcin.com
Château Barrabaque
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Founded in 1747, this old estate has since then been managed by the Noël family from 1936. The estate’s vineyards lie to the south on hillsides that are constantly exposed to the sun.
The vines are tilled, grapes picked by hand, vine rootstocks and grape varieties are selected according to the terroir’s properties. Château Barrabaque wines are aged in barrels with 40% of them in new ones. The “Prestige” is typically dark in color in its early years. As the wine ages, it turns a ruby color. On the nose is a remarkable bouquet of aromas - the palate is clean and exhibit top quality tannins that keep the structure of the wine.
The Château Barrabaque “Prestige” is pairs well with gamey meats, meat dishes with sauces, and young cheeses while the older vintages perfectly pair with red and white meats.
Trolleys stacked with stemware clink past conference rooms overflowing with the curious and the thirsty at Vinexpo Asia-Pacific, the region’s largest wine and spirits fair.
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Meanwhile, more than 50 people are taking their seats for the first Saint-Émilion Pomerol Fronsac master class. While the area is not part of the coveted Haut Médoc on the Gironde estuary’s Left Bank – which regularly produces wines that sell for thousands of dollars – the Right Bank of Bordeaux is hardly the wrong side of the tracks.
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* For the full article, “THE KINGDOM OF MERLOT IN HONG KONG,” visit Wine Searcher
