Magnums

This Shiraz has a deep, rich ruby red color with notes of plum and berry on the nose. The wine is robust and full-bodied on the palate with nice fresh fruit. This delicious wine pairs well with grilled meats.

This property is a real hidden "gem", just a stone's throw away from the St. Julien appellation and stars such as Lagrange and Gruaud Larose. We're happy to keep the secret because it means more wine for us! Owner Francois Nony, whom we got to visit with during our recent trip to Bordeaux, delivers a great 2009. A blackcurrant and cassis-like nose leads to a classic Medoc earthy finish. This wine is well-balanced with a freshness of fruit that is a hallmark of this vintage. It should age well for 5-10 more years. A real bargain!

The prodigious, fantastic 2003 Cos d?Estournel is a candidate for ?wine of the vintage.? A blend of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon (unusually high for this chateau), 30% Merlot, and 2% Cabernet Franc, 17,500 cases were produced from low yields. An inky/blue/purple color is accompanied by a compelling perfume of black fruits, subtle smoke, pain grille, incense, and flowers. With extraordinary richness, full body, and remarkable freshness, elegance, and persistence, this is one of the finest wines ever made by this estate. The good news is that it will be drinkable at a young age yet evolve for three decades or more. Kudos to winemaker Jean-Guillaume Prats and owner Michel Reybier.

A sensational Yquem, 1997 may be this estate's finest effort since 1990 (although I would not discount the 1996 turning out to be nearly as good). The 1997's light gold color is accompanied a gorgeous perfume of caramel, honeysuckle, peach, apricot, and smoky wood. Full-bodied and unctuously-textured, with good underlying acidity as well as loads of sweetness and glycerin, it looks to be a great vintage for this renowned Sauternes estate. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2055.

Beautiful golden-yellow colour. Concentrated, very attractive bouquet of ripe fruit, stewed fruit, and vanilla biscuits. Round, very sweet, and well-balanced on the palate. Plenty of volume and a suave quality marvellously underpinned by acidity. The fruity, spicy, mentholated nuances are accompanied by a really beautiful smooth, elegant texture. While this vintage had low yields, the quality perfectly reflects the drastic selection made during picking and blending.

No tasting note was given.

JADE JAGGER DESIGNS CROIX DE BEAUCAILLOU LABEL!

Calvert Woodley is proud to be one of a handful of retailers in the US selected by Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou to offer the newest brainchild of its innovative, art-loving owner, Bruno Borie.

Bruno commissioned noted designer Jade Jagger, daughter of Mick and Bianca, to create an elegant label for Croix de Beaucaillou, his superb "second wine." Bruno told Decanter magazine, "I really admired the work that Jade Jagger did … and we liked the idea of the daughter of a Rolling Stone working on Beaucaillou." Apropos when you realize that Beaucaillou means 'beautiful stones' in French.

The re-design of the Croix de Beaucaillou label will commence with the 2010 vintage but as a pre-cursor, Bruno and Jade have made available extremely limited supplies, in large format bottles, of the sensational 2009 vintage with the new label.

Quantities are limited!

Bruno has made it a personal project to raise the level of quality of Croix de Beaucaillou and he wanted to re-design the label to showcase the uniqueness of the wine. Not your typical "second wine," Croix de Beaucaillou is sourced from its own dedicated vineyards to give it a more consistent quality. It undergoes the same rigorous selection as the grand vin but comes from younger vines than Ducru which makes it more approachable at a younger age. Having now tasted the wine at the chateau two years in a row we can say without hesitation, "Mission accomplished!"

This saturated bluish-black/purple-colored wine seems at first closed and broodingly backward. In the mouth, it is dense, textured, full-bodied, pure, yet, at the same time, closed. This wine is large-sized, with high tannin but equally high extract and richness. The wine will require patience, and seems to me to be the best effort Gruaud Larose has put forth since their sumptuous 1990. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2030.