Giles Cadman

“…the DRC at its best produces prodigiously fine wine.” Clive Coates MW The decade of the 80s saw a strong run of form from the undisputed Burgundy superstar estate. As Robert Parker writes: “The 1988s are celestial wines selling at stratospheric prices.” He’s not wrong on either count! The wines from the exalted Domaine de […]

Coming from a background in construction, Joseph Phelps turned his hand to winemaking in the early 1970s, setting in motion a series of events, which would result in the release of Insignia in 1974, and create an instant benchmark ‘Napa Cab.’ at the same time. This Bordeaux blend, made up predominantly of Cabernet Sauvignon and […]

Without doubt one of the world’s finest wine producers, Château d’Yquem is the stuff of legend, producing ‘liquid gold’ from an incredibly labour intensive process which goes some way towards justifying its extraordinarily high price. In fact, no expense is spared in its production, with pickers on constant alert for anywhere between one and a […]

Château Ausone is beautifully sited on the slopes of Saint-Emilion’s hill, just under the medieval town wall – one of Bordeaux‘s greatest vineyard sites. Acknowledged by many as one of France’s finest and rarest wines (only around 2,000 cases are produced a year), Ausone is becoming increasingly difficult (and expensive) to get hold of. For […]

I try never to pass up a chance to drink Dom Perignon, the luxury cuvee from the Champagne house Moët at Chandon. As many of you will know it’s named after the famous 17th Century Benedictine Monk. But, what it less well known is that Dom Perignon actually did more for still wines in the […]

I often think that some of the best relative values in the world of fine wine come from Italy, and this is a view which was recently confirmed to me when an opportunity arose to try the 2000 vintage of Giuseppe Mascarello’s Barolo Monprivato (one of the country’s benchmark wines which is only produced if […]

I don’t know any new world wine which conjures up a stronger impression of identity or place than Penfolds Grange. The name of this luxury cuvee originates from the cottage (named The Grange) that Englishman, Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold and his wife built in 1845 (in South Australia), and around which he planted vine cuttings […]

The tiny estate of Château Lafleur neighbours the great Château Petrus in Pomerol, and the 1998 Bordeaux vintage was a year in which this appellation excelled as the star of the show in the entire Bordeaux region. Lafleur sits comfortably amongst the handful of Pomerol estates considered to produce some of the finest wines available […]

by Giles Cadman – Venulum Ltd The Summer edition of Venulum’s Uncorked Summer 2012 newsletter is available. In uncorked this month we look at Chateau Latour and Bordeaux‘s famous left bank. A favourite wine of many, and one of the truly great wine growing regions. We describe how to decant wine, and which wines to decant. […]

Although right bank wines were excluded from the 1855 classification of Bordeaux, Cheval Blanc (along with Ausone and Petrus), would undoubtedly have made the grade, and indeed these estates today make up three of Bordeaux’s eight greatest châteaux, along with the first growths of Bordeaux’s left bank. I have always enjoyed the suppleness and smooth […]