Visit Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne in 2019

We regularly visit and taste at the beautiful Chateau Pichon Baron in Pauillac. Great people and delicious wines.

Chateau d'Yquem in Sauternes produces sensational sweet wines as well as a beautiful dry white. The gardens are beautiful too.

Chateau Latour has a tower!! Even in winter the vineyards have character.

We normally taste Chateau Lafite Rothschild in the cellars uner candlelight. A wonderful experience.

We also can organise accomodation at sensational Chateaux such as this one above.

We are planning many more wine tours in Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne at the moment. Some of the tours for 2019 will be group tours, so if you have a small group of friends and colleagues who want to come and taste some lovely wines and taste amazing food and have a wonderful experience, then email hamish@bellawines.co.uk
Many other tours are bespoke guided, private tours............

Francois Pinault of Chateau Latour buys Clos de Tart for €40 million per hectare?

Francois Pinault, the 81 year old French billionaire businessman, who owns Chateau Latour, has just confirmed the purchase of Clos de Tart in the Burgundy village of Morey St Denis. This beautiful 7.53 hectare of Grand Cru vines is a Monopole, which means it is under sole ownership, rather than classically being split into multiple ownership.
There was a strong rumour that the Rouzaud family (owners of Champagne Louis Roederer and Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande) were going to buy Clos de Tart.
But Francois Pinault has a history of buying ultimate quality prizes. He bought Chateau Latour in 1993 under the nose of the Wertheimer family, who were under bidders, and took consolation by buying Chateau Rauzan Segla in Margaux and Chateau Canon in Saint Emilion.
Clos de Tart joins Francois Pinault's other burgundy estate Domaine Eugenie (formerly Rene Engel) in Vosne Romanee.
Clos de Tart has some significant neighbours in the village of Morey St Denis in Clos des Lambrays owned by Bernard Arnault's LVMH as well as the excellent Domaine Dujac owned by the Seysses family.
The cost of Clos de Tart has not been released, however the rumour is that the price was between €200-€250 million, valuing the estate at c€40 million per hectare.
Decanter magazine and The Drinks Business have written about the purchase.

Wine Tours in Bordeaux

 Flourishing roses and vines at Chateau Pontet Canet today (June 17th)

Excellent lunch at Chateau Pichon Longueville.

Tasting at Chateau Latour

Clear blue skies at Chateau d'Yquem

Violaine in the vineyard explaining biodynamics at Chateau Ponet Canet

Busy time for wine tours at the moment.www.bellawinetours.com We have received Americans, Canadians, Chinese, British, Australian, Swiss and Dutch clients recently.

Chateau Latour 2011 : Change of Strategy

The twittersphere was buzzing yesterday as a result of quite a dramatic decision by Chateau Latour, the First growth wine estate in Pauillac, Bordeaux. The Chateau has decided not to release allocations of the 2011 wine via the negociants and will instead sell the wine at a later date. In effect the Chateau are taking away the opportunity for people to buy at the Primeur/Futures price and then secure stock at the time of bottling. The Chateau will hold on to all of the wine and then release certain quantities in to the market at a later date.
This means a significant investment from the owners of Chateau latour and is contrary to what most chateaux use the Primeur system for.....which is a big contribution to positive cashflow.

The news was announced via letter to the 12 or 13 negociants who had remained to receive allocations. This is not unexpected as Chateau Latour had changed their philosophy over the years.
They had severely cut the amount of negociants with whom they dealt. They had savagely cut people who had loyally bought and promoted their wines. Unfortunately the negociant with whom I work in Bordeaux was one of the victims.....despite Bill Blatch having previously worked for Harveys (who owned Chateau Latour back in the 1970s) and having a very good relationship with the personnel at the Chateau.

Chateau Latour released their 2009 and 2010 wines via their tight distribution network at high prices and with very small quantities. This obviously raised the price and investor/collector desire for this wine within their portfolio.
It is an interesting strategy to try and control the price of your wine in the market. But there is so much money involved in the First Growth wines of Bordeaux nowadays, that they probably feel that they don't need other people to distribute their wines. They want to control the price, control the destiny and control the margin.
I am not sure whether other First Growths will follow suit and I am very sure that many other Chateaux will definitely NOT follow suit, as Primeur sales are contribute to a very positive cashflow.
The Bordeaux system of trade between the Chateaux, the courtiers and the negociants has its critics, but it is a system that seems to function very well to sell and distribute a large amount of wine to all corners of the globe.

Chateau Latour 2009 . Top wine?

Decanter magazine have 'voted' Chateau Latour 2009 as their top wine from the Bordeaux vintage.
For the full article click here.
I have tasted Chateau Latour at the Chateau last week, as well as tasting Chateau Margaux (3 times), Chateau Lafite Rothschild (twice), Chateau Mouton Rothschild (3 times) and Chateau Haut Brion (twice).
Undoubtedly all the First Growths have made exceptional wines in the 2009 vintage. There are certainly more powerful (tannins and alcohol) wines produced. Wheras the top wines have a balance, poise and sheer class about them.
But for absolute pure elegance, charm, and beauty my vote would have gone for Chateau Margaux 2009.

Chateau Latour For Sale?

This is an interesting rumour that started last week in The Times.
Apparently Monsieur Pinault the multi millionaire owner of Ch. Latour in Pauillac has been hit hard by the credit crunch. Therefore he is trying to get rid of some of his assets pronto.
He also owns Christies auction house as well as the luxury goods brands Gucci, Yves St. Laurent and Stella McCartney.
Monsieur Pinault bought Chateau Latour in 1993 for €83 million. He is now looking for €150-200 million......but in a realistic market surely this First Growth Chateau and part of France's heritage would fetch nearer €500 million.
The Chateau has 78 hectares in total. But the fruit for the 'Grand Vin' comes from some of the best vineyards in the World...the 47 hectares surrounding the Chateau known as L'Enclos.

Bernard Magrez, who already owns Chateau Pape Clement along with a host of other very smart Bordeaux properties is rumoured to be interested.

It will be very interesting to see if any more Bordeaux Chateaux become available on the market due to the current global financial situation.