Chateau Rollan de By 2008

If you are looking for a very special (but affordable) red wine, read on! 

Chateau Rollan de By 2008 is one of our current favourites. Drinking superbly now but could repay several more years in your cellar.

Winner of the Best Sommelier in the World in 2007, Andreas Larsson, reviews the wine in this short video.




This red is  Cru Borgeois Bordeaux at its best. We think this is wine with a WOW factor for taste and value for money. Currently being served on Air France A380 Business Class. It received two stars in the French wine review bible, Guide Hachette and four stars in Decanter Magazine (UK).

More details here.

The ship has come in for white Bordeaux fanciers.

We have literally cleared the decks for the arrival of the first shipment of 2014 Grand Bateau Blanc from Chateau Beychevelle. And right on cue, this wine has received the highest score (94.5 points) in trade magazine National Liquor News' tasting of sauvignon blanc.

Emblazoned with the famous Beychevelle long boat on the label, the 2014 vintage is billed as one of the best white's recent years from this prominent producer.

The same team that produces the prestigious Chateau Beychevelle red wine makes Grand Bateau which is 100% sauvignon blanc. Beycheville is one of a handful of medoc producers who also make a white wine

Philippe Blanc, Chateau Beychevelle’s chief winemaker, guides the assemblage of wines based on a selection of the best wines from the Beychevelle estates.  Chateau Beychevelle follows “terra vitis” and “sustainable viticulture” practices, to produce high quality grapes using environmentally friendly methods.

Chateau Beychevelle is a classified Saint-Julien cru classé producer with a tradition of growing vines on the Garonne gravel of the Médoc dating back to the Middle Ages.

Our previous vintages of Grand Bateau have been increasingly well received by our trade and online customers. We hope that with this brilliant example there will be a lot of delighted, light bulb moments from discerning Australian wine drinkers when they try it.  

And at $32 for this classy, well made white it’s even easier to swallow! 

2014 Grand Bateau Blanc

Grapes: Sauvignon Blanc 100%

Alcohol: 12.5 % VOL

Wine making:  Pre-fermentation maceration results in a wonderful aromatic structure. 70% of the juice is fermented in new oak barrels for four months, with accompanying batonnage (stirring of the lees or yeast to give some creaminess and richness to the wine)

Our Tasting notes:  Aromatic nose with buttery-vanillin oak notes and exotic fruit.  On the palate the wine is round, fleshy with wonderful minerality and delightful exotic fruit flavours. Lovely balance between the oak, fruit and acidity.  Excellent finish.

RRP $32.00 (trade price on application info@discovervin.com.au )

This was a standout wine at the Vinexpo 2015 wine exhibition in Bordeaux.   It offers value for money and exquisite drinking. Just drink on its own, enjoy with a pre-dinner platter or seafood and white meats.

This wine is available in Australia exclusively to DiscoverVin.

Click here to order online.

We enjoyed it with a beetroot, blood orange and feta salad. Perfect match! 

Beetroot, blood orange and feta salad with classy sav blanc from Chateau Beychevelle in Bordeaux http://www.discovervin.com.au/shop/item/grand-bateau-copy #wine #medoc #bordeaux #bordeauxblanc

A photo posted by discovervinwines (@discovervinwines) on Sep 13, 2015 at 2:24am PDT

If you would like to know more about this famous Bordeaux producer, watch this video from Bordeaux wine distributor Millesima..

Crus Bourgoeis wines of 2012: more producers meet the standard

The Classification of Bordeaux wines can seem complex. Vineyards of the Médoc were classified in 1855 by the government of Napolean III, which was seeking to rank the best vineyards/producers for a trade exposition in Paris. Since then the structure of this system, with 5 levels of classified "grand cru" producers, has been more or less maintained.

However the classification of some Bordeaux wines is not based on historical quality but has to be earnt each vintage. "Cru Bourgoeis" represent the best quality, and often the best value, of the wines produced in the Médoc region of Bordeaux. Since 2009 the title of a cru bourgeois wines is based on a blind tasting of samples provided each vintage.

Right across Bordeaux, the vineyard practices and winemaking techniques have resulted in a vast improvement in quality across the region. High quality wines are produced by many more producers than ever before.  As a consequence these wines called Cru Bourgoeis consistently represent good value-for-money wines.

On September 19th 2014, the association for Cru Bourgoeis wines announced the wines that could be called Cru Bourgeois for the 2012 vintage. 267 wines were included- the highest number yet. These producers come from the many sub-regions of the Médoc eight prestigious AOCs : Médoc, Haut-Médoc, Listrac-Médoc, Moulis en Médoc, Margaux, Saint Julien, Pauillac and Saint Estèphe. The increase in numbers reflects the increase in quality of production methods.

We were pleased to see some of our favorite producers retained in the 2012 classification Chateau Rollan de By, Chateau Greysac, Chateau Tour Séran, Chateau Semeillan Mazeau. Click on these links to have a look at  the recent vintages of these producers that were given the classification of Cru Bourgeois. 

And if all of this still sounds complicated, don't worry! We only stock wine that we can vouch for, would happily buy for our own cellars and serve to our friends and family. At the end of the day we hope that you are able to trust us, or other wine merchants, to search for the best value wines of this fantastic region.

DiscoverVin in the Pavilions des Vins at Brisbane French Festival July 2014

Yummy French Treats.

 DiscoverVin spent the weekend before Bastille Day at the Brisbane French Festival.  A wonderful celebration of all things French organised by a great time of Brisbane Francophiles.

The team behind the Brisbane French Festival

Chateau Rollan de By Cru Bourgeois Rouge from the Médoc was one of the most popular wines on the day.  The customers enjoyed the lifted nose with  gorgeous mouth feel, soft, round and long with great balance. 
We think this is wine with a WOWfactor for taste and value for money. 
Currently being served on Air France A380 Business Class, so BBR visitors were happy to sip, taste and imagine the flight to Paris.





People were interested to taste wines made from indigenous varieties such as Tannat from Madiran in the Domaine Du Crampilh rouge.

Women in Berets on a Sunny Saturday in Brisbane

New wine: Chateau Rollan de By 2008

Our new wine from Bordeaux Chateau Rollan de By 2008 has attracted some attention this week being named wine of the week by wine writer Winsor Dobbin.  He wrote....

"The price of some the more prestigious Bordeauxs has put them beyond the reach of mortals with budgets; but there is still some great "claret" available to those without a black American Express card. This is a case in point, a very impressive Cru Bourgeois from the ever-growing stable of Jean Guyon, who also owns the renowned Chateau Greysac. This Medoc blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and petit verdot is soft and understated without any hints of greenness. There are moccha and ripe fruit aromas while the medium-bodied palate is blessed with an appealing structure with dark blackcurrant and restrained oak to the fore. Perfumed and elegant, it was an excellent match for a beef casserole. I liked this a lot. $59. Imported by DiscoverVin " ...

This wine has won many other awards including 2 stars in the French wine review bible The Guide Hachette and a Gold Medal at the Paris wine show.

All published scores for this wine are here on wine-searcher 

Wine Enthusiast	90/100
Wine Spectator	90/100
CellarTracker	87/100
Jean-Marc Quarin	85/100
Decanter	16.7/20
Gault & Millau	15/20
Jancis Robinson	15/20
Vinum Wine Magazine	14.5/20

Jean Guyon is the owner of Château Rollan de By. Twenty years ago, when he purchased this domain, he began to improve quality and extended the vineyard.  Traditional vine growing systems were adopted.  Vines were replanted and natural fertilizers used to support the recovery of the natural ecosystem.  On an impressive deep soil of gravel, Jean Guyon produces wines that were every bit as good as the classified-growths.  The vines on the 45 hectare vineyard have an average age of 35 years.

Berry Brothers in London describe this Chateau as "a very reliable source of good value Medoc"

Region/Terroir:  Médoc –Cru bourgeois

Grapes:  Cabernet Sauvignon (20%), Merlot (70%), Petit Verdot (10%).

Soil:  Clayey-chalky gravel hills.

Alcohol:  13% VOL

Wine making: Grapes picked by hand.  Fermentation occurs at low temperatures in stainless steel, temperature controlled vats.  Malolactic fermentation occurs partially in new oak barrels.  The wine is aged in oak for 16 months.

Cellaring potential:  A wine that will achieve full maturity a decade from the vintage, but which enjoys such balance that it can be enjoyed in its youth.  Parker suggest drinking over the next decade (see below)

Our Tasting notes:  This wine had a WOW factor in a large line up of wines from the Médoc.  Lifted nose with some floral (violet) notes and blackcurrant/cassis.  Gorgeous mouth feel,soft, round and long with great balance.  Complex palate , blackcurrants, liquorice notes and tobacco.  As good as many classified growths.

It is a pleasure for DiscoverVin to bring this wine to Australia. It can be found on our website by clicking here. Trade prices on application 0260206016 or info@discovervin.com.au

2004 Bordeaux drinking at their peak

La Revue du Vin de France is one of France's leading monthly wine magazines. We subscribe to it and love pouring over the pages filled with news, articles and dozens of wine reviews.

The December 2013 edition featured a review of the Bordeaux 2004 vintage with the headline- "They are at their peak, start to drink them!"  

To celebrate we are offering a discount on 2 reds from the 2004 vintage.

Anyone going to the DiscoverVin site from this blog can use code BDX04 for a 15% discount on these wines (minimum order 6 bottles in total- can be 3 or each). Click the links to the wines below. Be quick. Limited stocks.

In summary the article says it was "a generous/good volume harvest but the level of maturity was not optimal. At their birth the 2004 Bordeaux in barrel samples, didn't enthuse the critics. Retasted 10 years later in bottles, it amounted to the following: agreeable/nice reds, disappointing dry whites and premature evolution of the Sauternes". 

After the hot and dry year of 2003, 2004 was cooler and wet. The cool and wet finish to the harvest led to a "level of maturity not always optimal' . It was a late harvest and in many cases the grapes suffered from dilution due to the moisture.

This appears to have been more of an issue for the dry whites and the sauternes which are showing early ageing and need to be consumed if not done so already!

The reds have done better- with the right bank St Émilion and Pomerol, described as "pleasure wines" ready to drink with round, perfumed with typical merlot characteristics but often with firm tannins.

The left bank, prime slow-ripening cabernet terroir, seems to have done best, especially the reds of Pessac-Leognan on the southern outskirts of Bordeaux, and the Reds of the Medoc, stretching along the Gironde estuary to the north of the city.

The 2004 left bank reds are ready to enjoy. They can be kept for several more years without a problem but are currently drinking well. Optimally they would benefit from a couple of hours in a carafe (the oxygen softens the tannins and reinvigorate the fruit).

Similarly the Bordeaux Index after reviewing wines from the 2004 Vintage on March 13 2014, said "In the main these are delicious, bright, medium-bodied and digestible clarets. They have an extremely pleasant aromatic profile, with enough ripeness to accurately show their regional and vineyard characteristics; when the fruit was able to sufficiently ripen and the grapes were delicately and sensitively handled, the palates are also extremely satisfying: soft and seamless but with both a firm tannic structure and balanced acidity. The best examples have a solid weight of fruit on the mid-palate which helps along with the acidity to provide medium to long and often multi-layered finishes. The best of the wines yesterday – which weren’t necessarily the biggest names or most highly prized bottles – were genuinely delicious. They also have the benefit of being, in the main, very good value."

Victoria Moore in the Telegraph (UK) April 2014 also wrote about the value and  the merits of the Bordeaux 2004 vintage compared to recent releases.

DiscoverVin has 2 Bordeaux left bank reds from the 2004 vintage. These are available online or to trade. They are both drinking at their peak as the article suggests. They will last for several years but why wait when one can enjoy mature Bordeaux at its peak!





Chateau Lanessan 2004 
A great value example of the power, finesse and elegance of the Médoc.

The Lanessan vineyard has belonged to a succession of eight generations of the Bouteiller family since the 18th century.  Made up of 45 hectares (111 acres) of vines that form part of a larger 80 hectares (198 acres) estate on one single plot.  The Lanessan vineyard is located in the commune of Cussac-Fort-Médoc, close to Saint-Julien, in the Haut-Médoc appellation area and runs east to west along a fine ridge of deep Garonne gravel.
The average age of the vines is about thirty years.  

Region/Terroir:  Haut Medoc.
Grapes:  Cabernet Sauvignon (60%), Merlot (36%), Petit Verdot (4%).
Soil:  Deep Garonne gravels.
Alcohol:  12.5% VOL
Wine making:  Grapes are picked at optimal ripeness and hand-sorted to ensure only optimal grapes used.  The wine is made in thermo-regulated concrete tanks and aged for 12 months in French oak (⅓ new).
Cellaring potential:  This wine is already drinking at or close to peak. A chance to enjoy aged Bordeaux now, but will last for several more years to come.



Our Tasting notes:  It was such a pleasure to find this parcel of aged Bordeaux.  We bought some of the last remaining cases!  It is a great value example of the power, finesse and elegance of the Médoc.  A classic claret nose with fruit, spice and developed meaty notes.  Luscious mouth filling fruit, good balance and fine softened tannins.  It has a lovely structure and length.

Here’s what the French wine bible, Guide Hachette, said in 2008 about the 2004 vintage, “The sheer length of family tradition since 1793 has built up true expertise in growing wine on Garonne gravel soils. This 2004 is a fine example with its garnet robe and its bouquet that unfolds gently to reveal cooked fruit aromas with spicy hints. Smooth and round on the palate, this wine is recognisably a Haut-Médoc with its nicely extracted, ripe tannins. It all knits well into a harmonious wine that will be at its best in 3 or 4 years’ time.”

Fast forward to 2014 time’s up!  Time to enjoy! 

Legende de la Tour Carnet 2004

Château La Tour Carnet has its origins in the 12th century and is the oldest castle in the Médoc.  It includes a medieval tower built in 1120 and is surrounded by a moat! The vineyard of Château La Tour Carnet has been established in the year 1407!

Legende La Tour Carnet is the second wine from the Château which has had a  resurgence since 2000, when it was purchased by Bernard Magrez.  Vineyard practices have been modernised and consultant winemaker Michel Rolland consults to the winery team.

Reviewed by Regan Drew in Vinonotebook October 2013
"Showing the petticoats under the frock, there’s complex secondary aromas of older leather and tobacco and meat shadowing the black fruits, violets, tomato leaf and tobacco. The palate still long and exquisite. Class. Olives and blackcurrants and savoury lift given from dried herbs. Those rocks..those hot hot rocks under the vines, they’re there too, with a earthy/mineral quality that assists in the palate length. This is a very smart wine that is smack bang at the height of its power."

Region/Terroir:  Haut-Médoc
Grapes:  Cabernet Sauvignon (55%), Merlot (35%), Cabernet Franc (10%).
Soil:  The area is characterized by a land base of strongly calcareous clay covered with a thick layer of serious gunziennes forming the famous "Butte de La Tour Carnet". (We realise that this is probably too much information but, Gunzinennes (or Guntzian gravel), in case you want to know, refers to the large pebbly gravel distinctive to the terroir of Médoc and is well suited to the cabernet grape.  Gunz refers to a glacial geologic period in the Plesitocene era!.  Bottom line - this is a great location to grow grapes!
Alcohol:  13% VOL
Wine making:  Grapes are hand harvested in small crates with the first selection occurring in the vineyard.  The grapes are again sorted by hand, before and after de-stemming. Vinification occurs in stainless steel vats with cold pre-fermentation maceration at 12 °C.  Fermentation occurs at low temperatures (28°C) with maceration occurring over 35-45 days.  Malolactic fermentation occurs in barrels.
Cellaring potential:  Up to 15 years
Our Tasting notes:  We were impressed with this wine in a line up of many wines from the Médoc.  Complex nose of red and black fruits, some minerals and spicey notes. On the palate, rich complex fruit, raspberries, blackberries, blackcurrants, with minerals and tobacco.  Big but soft and integrated tannins.

Anyone going to the site from this blog can use code BDX04 for a 15% discount on these wines (minimum order 6 bottles in total- can be 3 or each)

Mike Frost in Courier Mail reviews Beycheville's Grand Bateau Bordeaux Blanc

Another review for our new white wine called Grand Bateau Bordeaux 2012.

This is the first time this wine has been imported to Australia. It is available online and to our trade customers exclusively through DiscoverVin. It is one of only a few white wines made in the Medoc- one of the premium red wine growing regions of world. Chateau Beycheville produce thiis white wine as well as a grand cru red wine.

The bateau refers to the famous sailing ship that symbolises Chateau Beycheville. Ships sailing on the Gironde estuary coming to and from the port of Bordeaux would be saluted by a retired Admiral (the "Amiral of Beycheville") who would lower the flag on the tower of the Chateau.

Mike Frost in the Courier Mail published the following review on February 14, 2014:

"From well-known Bordeaux producer Château Beychevelle, this blend of semillon and sauvignon blanc shows citrus and herbal characters with a touch of oak and mineral backbone. 
Its a natural partner with oysters, shellfish or white fish dishes. $24.50 at discovervin.com.au Rating 91 points"


See also a review for this wine by Sean Mitchell in Grape Observer.


We think this is a great quality/value for money white wine from a famous Bordeaux producer.

Currently online or through restaurants and wine stores.