Displaying items by tag: bordeaux wine

Lonely Planet has released their Best in Travel 2017 guide about THE places to visit in the next year…and Bordeaux tops their list as the No. 1 city destination in the world!

Bordeaux contains more preserved historical buildings – such as Place de la Bourse – than any city in France aside from Paris © Justin Foulkes / Lonely Planet

Summary: 

Wine Futures, often referred to as the En Primeur campaign, are a means to buy the most highly sought-after Bordeaux wines in advance of their release to the market. The Futures campaign for the 2014 vintage began in April and wines are available for purchase by the general public through various retailers. Fabrice Bernard and Denise Barker, both of Millesima, will join us for a preview of this year’s campaign. While we have covered this topic before, this webinar will have a slightly different slant since they will approach it from the point of view of one of the largest Bordeaux merchants.

Presenters: Fabrice Bernard & Denise Barker

With 2.5 million bottles of Bordeaux wines (more than 30% of which are classified growths), Millésima is one of the largest Bordeaux merchants. Founded in 1983 by Patrick Bernard, with its emphasis on mail order (and now online) sales, Millésima continues to be a family business to this day.

Based near the banks of the Garonne River in downtown Bordeaux, Millésima’s warehouses date to 1840. The cellars are crammed with crates upon crates of high-end Bordeaux wines, some of which have been packaged specifically for Millésima. Adjacent to the cavernous warehouse space, the Imperial Library houses over 10,000 large format bottles as they age. Fabrice Bernard serves as the CEO of Millesima.

Beyond Bordeaux, Millésima operates wine shops in both Saint-Tropez and New York. Located on the Upper East Side, the New York-based shop was opened in 2006 and is overseen by General Manager, Hortense Bernard, a post she has held since June 2012.

Fabrice Bernard graduated from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce of Amiens in 1999. He joined the Renault Group in 2000 as a commercial for Renault Crédit International in the South East of France then in Paris. He is then in charge of marketing for Nissan Finance for France and the Netherlands. In 2007, Fabrice Bernard is appointed Marketing Manager at Millesima. Since 2012, he is the Managing Director of Millesima.

He is joined in this webinar by his colleague, Denise Barker, Assistant Wine Buyer for Millesima USA. Denise is one of Millesimas’ Wine Futures Specialists which allowed her to attend En-Primeur week in Bordeaux to taste the 2014 vintage. Denise began her journey in wine 8 years ago, when she entered the Le Cordon Bleu Institute of Culinary Arts Hospitality program and took her first wine course.

Incorporating her love for travel, Denise moved to France where she lived and worked on vineyards in the Loire Valley, and also completed an internship in Madiran while also travelling and tasting through the Languedoc/Roussilion, Bordeaux, Galicia, Spain and the Douro Valley in Portugal.  After returning to the States, Denise accepted a job at Sokolin Wine Merchants in Bridgehampton, New York where she first learned of investment-grade wine sales and held various positions ranging from administrative to Director. To continue her wine education, Denise completed Level 1 of the Court of Master Sommeliers and is pursuing Certified Sommelier. She is also WSET (Wine and Spirits Education Trust) Level 2 Certified with Distinction and is pursuing the WSET Level 3 Advanced Certificate.

Explore Bordeaux at the deepest level with the Bordeaux Master-Level program and Bordeaux Study Trips. Learn more about French wines with the French Wine Scholar study & certification program.

Summary:

Terroir and vintage are two of the key concepts in winemaking, but in Bordeaux they interact and express themselves in interesting and unexpected ways.

This webinar will explain how each of these elements influence the style of the regions wines to help you understand which is predominant when it comes to buying and enjoying a Bordeaux wine.

Presenter: Dewey Markham, Jr.

Dewey Markham, Jr. has a Bachelors degree in English and a Masters degree in Cinema from New York University. He is also a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. Post-graduation, he received a fellowship as an editorial assistant engaged in research and writing for the schools textbook, The New Professional Chef.

From 1986 to 1989 Markham lived in Paris, where he was a director of the French cooking school L'Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne where he introduced a wine studies program to the curriculum.

He has worked for two of New York's leading wine shops, Morrell and Company and Sherry-Lehmann Wines and Spirits; in addition, he has authored Wine Basics (published in the United States by John Wiley and Sons), an introductory book for the beginning wine drinker that has gone through seventeen printings to date.

Since 1993 Markham has lived and worked in Bordeaux, where he wrote 1855: A History of the Bordeaux Classification, published in 1997 to critical and professional acclaim. It was winner of the James Beard award for wine book of the year.

He holds a degree in wine tasting from the School of Oenology at Bordeaux University and is an accomplished lecturer on the Bordeaux region and its wines.

Explore Bordeaux at the deepest level with the Bordeaux Master-Level program and Bordeaux Study Trips. Learn more about French wines with the French Wine Scholar study & certification program.

Summary: 

The Cru Bourgeois category of Bordeaux wine has a long and illustrious history in this famed region, but many people may not know about these châteaux or are confused about their current status in the market.

Learn all about what’s been going on with these wines and see why they are worth knowing about.

Presenter: Tracy Ellen Kamens, Ed.D., DWS, CWE

Tracy Ellen Kamens is a wine educator, writer and consultant who currently serves at Membership Director for the Wine Scholar Guild.

She has taught at the International Wine Center, New York University, Cornell University and Baruch College and has also worked with the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, Consorzio Chianti Classico, Alliance des Crus Bourgeois, Balzac Communications, Consorzio Prosecco Superiore and Sopexa.

Dr. Kamens previously spent time at Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits in their public relations department. In addition to her doctorate in higher education, she holds the Diploma of Wine & Spirits from the WSET and is a Certified Wine Educator through the Society of Wine Educators.

Learn more about the Cru Bourgeois of Bordeaux with the Bordeaux Master Level program and Bordeaux Study Trips. Learn more about French wines with the French Wine Scholar study & certification program.

Summary: 

Join Jeffrey M. Davies, longtime Bordeaux resident and wine merchant, for the inside scoop on Bordeaux: changes among the big names, excellent producers that fly under the radar, and undiscovered treasures…

Find out which stars are rising, which are falling and which are ready to go supernova!  Unlike the picture painted by the press, there is true value to be found in Bordeaux at every price point. This webinar is a "must" for everyone who collects or drinks Bordeaux! 

Presenter: Jeffrey Davies

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, 90 minutes from the Napa Valley, Jeffrey developed an early predilection for the (fermented) fruit of the vine. By the time he hit the university, he was hooked. This led him to spend his junior year at the Université de Bordeaux, where, much to the chagrin of his professors, he spent considerably more time in the vineyards than in their classrooms.

After graduating with honors from the University of California, he returned to Bordeaux to enrol at the Institut d'Œnologie. Those were the last two years during which world-renowned enologist, Professor Emile Peynaud, taught at the Institut from which Jeffrey would become one of the first two Americans to graduate. They became good friends.

After graduation, Jeffrey worked in the retail wine trade in Bordeaux then in New York City. Later, he moved to the Midwest, where he was hired to set up an import division focused on European wines. The portfolio he built there included many fine Bordeaux estates, the wines of Aubert de Villaine, the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Etienne Sauzet from Burgundy, and an extensive range of outstanding German producers. At the same time, he served as Midwestern Regional Director for Les Amis du Vin, for which position he was "hand-picked" by its co-founder, Robert Gourdin.

In 1979, he returned to France with his Bordeaux-born wife and began writing for the respected wine and food magazine, "Gault Millau", for which he was the first American contributor. That period also marked the beginning of his association with the premier American wine periodical, "Friends of WINE Magazine", for which he served as the French Editor from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.

For 35 of the last 40 years, Jeffrey has worked in France, cultivating close relationships with growers in Bordeaux, Champagne, Burgundy, the Languedoc, and the Rhône. His focus is on discovering, introducing, selling and marketing exciting new wines to markets worldwide, concentrating on North America, Europe and Asia. In this connection, he has enjoyed the support of the international wine trade and the specialized press, especially Robert Parker, Stephen Tanzer, James Suckling, La Revue du Vin de France, Katsuyuki Tanaka, etc. (A short list of wines launched by Signature Selections is attached).

Profiled in Stephen Brook's superbly researched book, Bordeaux: People, Power and Politics (Mitchell Beazley - 2001), Jeffrey is also a recurring figure in William Echikson's Noble Rot: A Bordeaux Wine Revolution (W. W. Norton & Co. - 2004), and is regularly quoted in newspapers and magazines ranging from "Le Figaro Magazine", "Le Monde", and "Libération", to "The New York Times", "The Wall Street Journal", and "The San Francisco Chronicle". Jancis Robinson, the FT's wine critic, praised his pioneering work in the Languedoc. France's top wine critics, Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve, called him "l'un des meilleurs négociants actuels, l'Américain Jeffrey Davies (Signature Selections)." ("Currently one of the best wine merchants, the American, Jeffrey Davies, owner of Signature Selections," company he founded in 1986).

Acquire a profound knowledge of Bordeaux with the Bordeaux Master-Level program and Bordeaux Study Trips. Learn more about French wines with the French Wine Scholar study & certification program. 

Summary: 

The Bordelais have viticultural and vinicultural “best practices” down to an art. It’s not technology per se…it’s technique. This translates into very high quality across multiple price points. Learn why Bordeaux, (yes Bordeaux!) can give you incredible value for the dollar!

Learn why Bordeaux is both art and state-of-the-art.

Presenter: Jeffrey Davies

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, 90 minutes from the Napa Valley, Jeffrey developed an early predilection for the (fermented) fruit of the vine. By the time he hit the university, he was hooked. This led him to spend his junior year at the Université de Bordeaux, where, much to the chagrin of his professors, he spent considerably more time in the vineyards than in their classrooms.

After graduating with honors from the University of California, he returned to Bordeaux to enrol at the Institut d'Œnologie. Those were the last two years during which world-renowned enologist, Professor Emile Peynaud, taught at the Institut from which Jeffrey would become one of the first two Americans to graduate. They became good friends.

After graduation, Jeffrey worked in the retail wine trade in Bordeaux and then in New York City. Later, he moved to the Midwest, where he was hired to set up an import division focused on European wines. The portfolio he built there included many fine Bordeaux estates, the wines of Aubert de Villaine, the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Etienne Sauzet from Burgundy, and an extensive range of outstanding German producers. At the same time, he served as Midwestern Regional Director for Les Amis du Vin, for which position he was "hand-picked" by its co-founder, Robert Gourdin.

In 1979, he returned to France with his Bordeaux-born wife and began writing for the respected wine and food magazine, "Gault Millau", for which he was the first American contributor. That period also marked the beginning of his association with the premier American wine periodical, "Friends of WINE Magazine", for which he served as the French Editor from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.

For 35 of the last 40 years, Jeffrey has worked in France, cultivating close relationships with growers in Bordeaux, Champagne, Burgundy, the Languedoc, and the Rhône. His focus is on discovering, introducing, selling and marketing exciting new wines to markets worldwide, concentrating on North America, Europe and Asia. In this connection, he has enjoyed the support of the international wine trade and the specialized press, especially Robert Parker, Stephen Tanzer, James Suckling, La Revue du Vin de France, Katsuyuki Tanaka, etc. (A short list of wines launched by Signature Selections is attached).

Profiled in Stephen Brook's superbly researched book, Bordeaux: People, Power and Politics (Mitchell Beazley - 2001), Jeffrey is also a recurring figure in William Echikson's Noble Rot: A Bordeaux Wine Revolution (W. W. Norton & Co. - 2004), and is regularly quoted in newspapers and magazines ranging from "Le Figaro Magazine", "Le Monde", and "Libération", to "The New York Times", "The Wall Street Journal", and "The San Francisco Chronicle". Jancis Robinson, the FT's wine critic, praised his pioneering work in the Languedoc. France's top wine critics, Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve, called him "l'un des meilleurs négociants actuels, l'Américain Jeffrey Davies (Signature Selections)." ("Currently one of the best wine merchants, the American, Jeffrey Davies, owner of Signature Selections," company he founded in 1986).

Acquire a profound knowledge of Bordeaux with the Bordeaux Master-Level program and Bordeaux Study Trips. Learn more about French wines with the French Wine Scholar study & certification program.

Summary: 

Saint Emilion is one of the most famous names in the wine world. It is also one of the only regions in the world where an appellation also contains a classification. If this sounds confusing, the legal wrangles over the Saint Emilion classification which is updated every decade have thrown up many interesting discussions about the quality of the different terroirs and crus in the region. Some of the most famous châteaux have decided not to be classified, others have been promoted more on their commercial success than on the quality of their soils. This webinar gets to the heart of one of the most hotly debated topics in Bordeaux.

Presenter: Fiona Morrison MW

Fiona Morrison MW is an independent wine writer and consultant with over 30 years of international experience in the fine wine business on both sides of the Atlantic. Born in America of British Parents, she was raised and educated in France and Britain before starting off her career first as a journalist and then in the fine wine business for Anthony Terlato, Seagram Château & Estates and the Wines of Bordeaux (C.I.V.B.)

Since her marriage to Jacques Thienpont, Belgian wine négociant and owner of Le Pin in Pomerol in 1997, Fiona divides her time between Belgium and Bordeaux. Winner of numerous awards for her wine journalism including the James Beard Award and the Prix Lanson, and co-chairman and organiser of the 2010 Master of Wine Symposium in Bordeaux, Fiona runs the family wine négociant business in Belgium and writes, consults and lectures about wine throughout the world when not working with her husband at Le Pin or at L’IF, their recently purchased vineyard on the plateau of Saint Emilion. She also sits on the board of directors of the Institute of Masters of Wine in London and the C.M.B. international shipping company in Antwerp.

Acquire a profound knowledge of Bordeaux with the Bordeaux Master-Level program and Bordeaux Study Trips. Learn more about French wines with the French Wine Scholar study & certification program.

Presenter: Dewey Markham, Jr.

Dewey Markham, Jr. has a Bachelors degree in English and a Masters degree in Cinema from New York University. He is also a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. Post-graduation, he received a fellowship as an editorial assistant engaged in research and writing for the schools textbook, The New Professional Chef.

From 1986 to 1989 Markham lived in Paris, where he was a director of the French cooking school L’Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne where he introduced a wine studies program to the curriculum.

He has worked for two of New York’s leading wine shops, Morrell and Company and Sherry-Lehmann Wines and Spirits; in addition, he has authored Wine Basics (published in the United States by John Wiley and Sons), an introductory book for the beginning wine drinker that has gone through seventeen printings to date.

Since 1993 Markham has lived and worked in Bordeaux, where he wrote 1855: A History of the Bordeaux Classification, published in 1997 to critical and professional acclaim. It was winner of the James Beard award for wine book of the year.

He holds a degree in wine tasting from the School of Oenology at Bordeaux University and is an accomplished lecturer on the Bordeaux region and its wines.

Explore Bordeaux at the deepest level with the Bordeaux Master-Level program and Bordeaux Study Trips. Learn more about French wines with the French Wine Scholar study & certification program.

Delve into Bordeaux with the insight of Bordeaux experts and masterful instructors..sign up for the Bordeaux Master-Level program and Bordeaux Study Trips. Learn more about French wines with the French Wine Scholar study & certification program.