The Château Grand Tertre of Castillon - Côtes de Bordeaux of Bordeaux

My book The Complete Bordeaux, which has been revised every five years, is soon to be published in its fourth edition. This may seem like excessive haste, given the scope of the book, but it is astonishing how rapidly changes can take place in the region. Burgundy, in contrast, is relatively stable, since most properties are family-owned and tend to stay that way. But not so in Bordeaux, where there are ample opportunities for newcomers to acquire established properties, as they have been doing ...

BCAP, a group controlled by the Castéja family, has agreed to acquire Château Peyrabon and Château La Fleur Peyrabon from Millésima, a subsidiary of the Bernard family, a joint-statement by both families said. Financial details weren’t disclosed. Peyrabon, in Haut-Médoc, was ranked as a ‘Supérieur’ estate in the Cru Bourgeois 2020 classification, which saw the ranking return to a three-tier system. ‘Supérieur’ is above standard Cru Bourgeois level but below ‘Exceptionnel’. Millésima and the Bern ...

Disconcerting: I couldn’t forget this bottle for days afterwards. Still can’t. Back in August, wine critic Lin Liu MW (together with her partner Philippe Lejeune of Château de Chambert in Cahors) came to dinner, en route to a short holiday in Provence. One of the bottles Lin brought for us to try together was the 2018 Les Rocheuses, Parcelles No 5 et 6, from Château Le Rey in Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux. It came in a slope-shouldered bottle, not a classic Bordeaux bottle. We tried it with some R ...