Gaec de Brangers Menetou Salon Blanc 100% Sauvignon Blanc is crisp and refreshing with rich, ripe lime and grapefruit aromas. Elegant, beautifully rounded, harmonious and well-balanced, a mineral sytle and a smooth and long finish. It is ideal as an aperitif and a great match with shellfish, smoked and grilled salmon, goat cheese.
DOMAINE DU GAEC DES BRANGERS is owned by the CHAVET family, which is one of the most reknown winemaking families of the Menetou-Salon Appellation. Philippe Chavet has been running the estate for 25 years and each year, his cuvees are awarded in the international competitions and by the international press.
Unoaked
12.5 ABV
Average age of the vines is 20 years old. Traditional winemaking in temperature-controlled stainless steel tank.
Slow fermentation at low temperature.
Ideal as an aperitif, any cooked fish such as smoked and grilled salmon, and with goat cheese.
This signature wine contains only fruit farmed on Howell Mountain. The wine comes in a distinctive bottle that is hand dipped in red wax. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. aged 32 months in 100% new French oak.
Vinous 97 Points
Falletto di Bruno Giacosa Barolo is made from 100 percent Nebbiolo
The 2018 vintage was well received after the turbulent 2017 growing year. A longer winter heralded in heavy rains in May and June, which gave the vines much needed water after the previous year's drought. Throughout the summer, conditions were generally ideal with warm days and cool nights, making harvest an overall success. Early samples of Barbaresco and Barolo are indicating a soft, balanced vintage.
Red garnet in color. Intense and fine aromas of fresh red fruit. The palate presents good freshness, excellent structure and fine, velvety tannins.
Review:
The 2018 Bruno Giacosa Barolo is very rich and hedonistic, with ripe strawberries and rose hip and notes of incense, lilies and violets. It is a lovely nose, persistent, intense and enticing and on the palate it is like falling into a soft velvety bed of rose petals. It already has such beautiful harmony and poise. It has a lush, sensual texture of crushed velvet, and is full-bodied without feeling heavy. There are plenty of dense, savory tannins extending the very long finish, creating a combination of seductive charm and power. This is something special, a great achievement in this vintage. Wait 2-3 years at least but I would not want to miss that young fragrance. (SH)
-Wine Independent 98 Points
Finca Sobreno Ildefonso Toro is made from 100% Tinta de Toro
Very Old Vines (Minimum 80 years of age)
Aged in 100% new French Oak Barrels for 18 months + 12 months in the bottle
The wine is produced in very limited quantity from the estate's oldest vineyards (80 years old vines) and is fermented in 2,000-liter open-top fermentation vats. Our winemaker punches down the cap by hand three times a day using the traditional pigeage method to ensure optimal extraction.
The name of the wine is the surname of the San Ildefonso family, father Roberto and daughter Paloma, and represents the apex of their winemaking tradition.
Tasting notes
Deep cherry color.
Very expressive, elegant and complex with ripe fruit, mineral notes, sweet spices, chocolate aromas and intense toasts.
Powerful, tasty, round and very smooth. We find again black berries, mineral notes, chocolates with roasted aromas. Very long after taste.
Soil types:
The soil is formed by sediments of sand, clay and limestone, which produce a dark lime-bearing topsoil, with fine and coarse sands.
This year we had low rain falls getting very healthy bunches. Besides, cool nights and not very hot days at the end of the cycle were excellent for a complete ripening of the grapes, full of nuances.
Winemaking and aging
The fruit is manually selected and picked in small cases. After destemming the grapes are stored in 2.000 liter open fermenter tanks and cold maceration at 8ºC during 8 days. Three times a day the cap of the skins is submerged manually (pigeage) and after the alcoholic fermentation is finished at a controlled temperature, the wine is macerated until the wine maker determines the appropriate extraction polyphenols. The malolactic fermentation is carried out in new French oak barrels. The wine was aged in new French oak barrels for 16 months, followed by another 12 months minimum in the bottle.
Ideal for red meats, lamb, roasted meat and strong cheeses
Review:
The deep purple-hued 2017 Ildefonso Toro offers up classic aromatics of spicy red and black fruits, vanilla bean, graphite, cheese rind, and scorched earth, which carry to a medium to full-bodied red that has nicely integrated tannins, a round, layered mouthfeel, and a great finish. Aged 18 months in 70% French and 30% American oak, it should evolve gracefully over the coming decade.
-Jeb Dunnuck 94 Points
Gaja Ca'Marcanda 'Camarcanda' Bolgheri is made from 70% Cabernet Sauvignon & 30% Cabernet Franc .
Color : Deep garnet.Aroma : Initial aromas evoke violet, cassis, dark licorice and a spicy note of black pepper, leading to undertones of aromatic herbs, incense, dried rose petals, clove and cedar.Taste : Sleek and intense on entry with elegant herbal, light black pepper and cassis flavors on the mid palate.
Review:
After Bolgheri’s torrid and parched 2017 growing season, more moder-ate conditions in 2018 brought the vines and their wines shimmering to life. All of the wines at Ca’Marcanda fermented spontaneously in 2018, which Gaia Gaja attributes to the balance in the musts. This wine, a blend of cabernets sauvignon and franc, is taut and energetic, its flavors of crunchy plum and blackberry laced with notes of licorice, tobacco and graphite.
-Wine & Spirits 96 Points
The Ca' Marcanda estate does not make a Bolgheri Superiore, although this bottle would qualify as such. The 2018 Bolgheri Rosso Camarcanda is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, and you definitely feel those full-throttle varietal aromas with big intensity and clarity. Spicy greenness comes forward as grilled rosemary and lavender essence, but the wine boasts nice depth and dimension, and enough textual richness to smooth it all out. This was a slightly cooler vintage with some sporadic rain showers throughout the summer. These conditions might explain the sharper side of those Cabernet aromas. As the wine moves over the palate, it reveals more substantial aromas of black fruit, spice and baker's chocolate. This vintage is slightly thinner than the hot 2017 expression before it and the classic 2016. However, this wine should certainly play forward positively in terms of its aging potential.
-Wine Advocate 95 Points
Dense and fluid at once, this red delivers plum, black cherry, licorice, olive, bay leaf and spice flavors. Ripe and balanced, with a lingering, spicy, tobacco-tinged aftertaste. Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2023 through 2033. 1,500 cases made, 225 cases imported. — BS
-Wine Spectator 95 Points
2021 Rossj-Bass displays the main features of the vintage well, with intense fruit concentration and floral notes. The nose shows ripe citrus notes of lemon peel and orange evolving into tropical fruits. The richness of the nose and the same notes are reflected on the palate, where remarkable acidity balances the fruit concentration. The wine is rich, full-bodied and creamy, with a long finish.
Review:
The 2021 Gaja Rossj-Bass starts off with very, crisp, green fruit and much more Sauvignon Blanc dominant aromas of grassy, bright, fragrant green apple and green pepper - all very bright and cheerful. Then Chardonnay seems to take over in the medium-full bodied and pleasing creamy texture of the wine. This is balanced again by the tangy, juicy acidity of Sauvignon. This is very elegant blend of Sauvignon Blanc aromas and zestiness and the textural comfort of Chardonnay. The name Rossj is a nickname of Angelo Gaja’s second daughter, Rossanna.
-Wine Independent 94 Points
All older vintage wines have been purchased from a single collectors cellar. Pictures can be requested before shipment.
For many wine lovers or consumers, wine tasting is the preserve of professionals or real connoisseurs. People still have this image of it being a complex, technical, precise and highly-formalised process. In fact, wine tasting isn’t and shouldn’t be just that. No, it should be straightforward, convivial, interesting and fun. Tasting a wine should provoke curiosity, excitement, pleasure and dreams…
When you taste a Château du Retout wine, you use all five of your senses: the sense of touch when you pick up the bottle to gauge its temperature, the sense of hearing which allows you to enjoy the sound of he popping of the cork and the wine being poured into the glass, and then, of course, you use your senses of sight, smell and taste when you drink the wine:
The Médoc grape varieties and soils give us wines with superb, dense, dark hues, ranging from deep garnet to ruby-crimson, taking on brick red shades with orange tints with age.
Very intense and expressive aromas with powerful notes of black fruit such as blackcurrants and blackberries. In older wines, the nose develops a spicy bouquet of liquorice, leather and marshmallow mingled with the vanilla scents created by well-integrated oak.
Harmonious, elegant and velvety, with smooth, round tannins, that can be appreciated from the wine's entry to the palate through to the finish. These are delightfully full-bodied wines with great aromatic persistence.
Review:
"Shows the ripeness of the vintage, with dark currant and blackberry framed by singed cedar and vanilla. Ends with a tug of warm earth, a light twang of iron and a steady grip. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2034."
- Wine Spectator (TOP 100 wines of 2024), 92 pts and #45 on Top100