By Charles Lea on 26/04/2013
2012 Bordeaux - Château Talbot and Connétable Talbot All has now gone a bit quiet as Bordeaux prepares for one of those funny weeks in May when there are so many holidays that it is tempting for them to 'faire le pont' at both ends of the week and not actually turn up at all.
By Charles Lea on 25/04/2013
Another large number of releases this morning, some sensible and some.
By Charles Lea on 24/04/2013
2012 Bordeaux primeurs - recent releases Yesterday and today saw more mostly quite low-key offering being made - some are lower than current vintages, but really not sufficiently big brands or low prices to fire this lacklustre market.
By Charles Lea on 22/04/2013
Rather too many wines at once today - the Lafite stable, which of course includes the top Pomerol l'Évangile topping off a little rush of releases. A shame because there are some stories here - Jean-Luc Thunevin's Valandraud (£895) has been elevated to 1er Grand Cru Classé status from this year, and is a fab wine if you are into this sort of modern style - it is done with real panache.
By Charles Lea on 18/04/2013
The Bordeaux 2012 campaign, which has been criticised in recent vintages for its boringly slow progress, has had the sense to start briskly this year - slightly too briskly for me as I had to get to Vinitaly as well this year and the notes are far from complete.
By Charles Lea on 11/04/2013
Few areas of Bordeaux arouse such interest and demand as Pomerol. Next door is a slightly less well favoured terroir which nevertheless produces wines from Merlot, or Merlot and Cabernet Franc, like Pomerol, and on clay soils, like Pomerol:- We first encountered Vieux Château Gachet when we took the lush and voluptuous 2009 vintage (you may be lucky enough to find the odd bottle or two still kicking around in one of our shops).
By Charles Lea on 24/12/2012
6 am Christmas Eve and all the warehouse and delivery team are at our Battersea warehouse, where the vans are being loaded with the last runs before the Christmas break. And they've done it! On Friday things were looking good first thing, with all the runs fully routed.
By Charles Lea on 19/12/2012
The deadline for deliveries before Christmas outside London is past, but if you live in (central-ish) London, you can still order online for delivery today (Wednesday), or, if you really insist on taking it to the wire, tomorrow (Thursday). Even then our magnificent warehouse crew will get your wine to you before Christmas.
By Charles Lea on 15/12/2012
The time is fast approaching.
By Charles Lea on 13/12/2012
The L&S Christmas Hamper case The cut-off for country deliveries is fast aproaching (you need to get your order in by Sunday night to be sure of getting your wine for Christmas). Part of the problem is often just making a choice, so here is a mixed case of our favourites in our enormous range which will sort out a multitude of Christmas drinking opportunities.
By Charles Lea on 11/12/2012
Bring a bit of real summer to this dark time of year with some of this amazing white. It includes a variety which might test even the authors of the new great tome 'Wine Grapes', (Jancis Robinson MW, Julia Harding MW and Swiss botanist Dr José Vouillamoz).