Had ‘Steinbeck’ been ‘Malbec’, his grapes might have had less wrath. Forgive the awful pun, but within the world of Malbec, the more you take things seriously, the more perplexing the curve-ball seems to be. The mainstay of its natural…
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Posted on 2022.12.09 in Cahors, France, Wine-Aid Packages  | Read more...
“A rose is a rose is a rose” is a poetic riff about universal truth by Gertrude Stein, but add an accent aigu to the final ‘e’ and all bets are off. As a style of wine, rosé is as…
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Posted on 2022.08.05 in Tavel, Côtes-du-Rhône, cassis, Corbières, Bandol, Luberon, Ventoux, Côtes-de-Gascone, Côtes-du-Lot, France, Bordeaux, Wine-Aid Packages, Languedoc-Roussillon, Provence, Southern Rhone, South West  | Read more...
Rather than shedding tears, Bordeaux adds tiers—and classification is what Bordeaux is all about. While the Grand Vin is expected to be the A-game of any château, with technological advancements and an increasingly warm climate, the price of these top-shelf…
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Posted on 2022.05.07 in Pauillac, Margaux, France, Bordeaux, Saturday Sips Wines, Wine-Aid Packages  | Read more...
Nowhere has consistency been more sought after than in the Médoc—this despite the vagaries of climate, the uncertain wine market and as seen in Margaux especially over the past twenty years, the importance of the human touch. Americans used to…
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Posted on 2022.03.25 in Margaux, France, Bordeaux, Wine-Aid Packages  | Read more...
‘When you’re number two, you try harder.’ Had the phrase not already been copyrighted by Avis in 1962, Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande might well be using it for their tag line today. Under the 1855 Classification, which Napoleon…
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Posted on 2022.03.21 in Pauillac, France, Bordeaux  | Read more...
As Diogenes went off with his lantern to look for an honest man, at Elie Wine Company, we take special pride in illuminating lesser known French and Spanish wine regions and spotlighting passionate winemakers who often fly beneath the global…
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Posted on 2022.02.18 in France, Bordeaux, Wine-Aid Packages  | Read more...
Pauillac: Cabernet Sauvignon’s Holy Land Bordeaux looms at the periphery of every red wine experience; like Michelangelo hovering above an art class or Shakespeare over English Literature, the twin banks of the River Gironde form a greater tributary from which…
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Posted on 2021.12.08 in Pauillac, France, Bordeaux, Wine-Aid Packages  | Read more...
In wine, ‘natural’ is a concept before it’s a style. It refers to a philosophy; an attitude. It may involve a regimen of rituals or it may be as simple as a gesture, but the goal, in nearly every case,…
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Posted on 2021.11.30 in Saint-Amour, Muscadet, France, Beaujolais, Spain DO, Champagne, Wine-Aid Packages, Loire, Southern Rhone, South West, Arribes, Tierra de Leon, Valencia, Ribeira Sacra  | Read more...
The mystique of Cru Classé Bordeaux transcends that of any other man-made consumable. Reverent vignerons will insist that great wine is made in the vineyard, and yet, however vital is nature’s role—fate, circumstance and geography—no gnarled, stressed, long-suffering centenarian vine…
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Posted on 2021.10.25 in Pauillac, France, Bordeaux, Saturday Sips Wines, Wine-Aid Packages  | Read more...
‘Bordeaux blend’ (which, ironically, never appears on a Bordeaux label) is a loaded term, meant to elicit emotion and stir memories. That’s not a bad thing: In fact, it’s a paean to the world’s most synergistic appellation, where the art…
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Posted on 2021.10.06 in France, Bordeaux, Wine-Aid Packages  | Read more...