Duluc de Branaire-Ducru 2004

Duluc de Branaire-Ducru (second label Branaire Ducru) 4th classified growth, named after one of the estate’s early owners.

The wine is smooth in the mouth and well balanced with chewy red fruit flavours and vanilla pod.

Chateau Branaire-Ducru, 50 hectares in all, planted with 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot and just 4% Petit Verdot, with an average age approaching 40 years. The harvest is manual, and fermentation takes place in a modern, well-equipped cellar, funded by the Maroteaux administration. The must and embryonic wine is fed through the cellar by gravity rather than pump, to ferment in stainless steel, temperature-controlled, before up to two years in oak, 50% new each vintage. The wine undergoes an egg-white fining prior to being bottled unfiltered. The grand vin is Chateau Branaire-Ducru, 15000 cases, and there is a second wine, Chateau Duluc, named for the Duluc family, of which there are 7000 cases per annum.

Saint Julien
the smallest of the four famous appellations of the Haut Medoc, is known for highly extracted, finely structured, Cabernet-based reds. It is nestled between Pauillac to the north and Margaux to the south. Like St. Estephe, there are no first growths in this area. Leoville-las-Cases, Leoville Poyferre, Leoville Barton, Ducru Beaucaillou, and Gruard Larose are the second-growths of St. Julien followed by Lagrange which is the only third-growth. Beychevelle, Branaire Ducru, St. Pierre, and Talbot, which are all fourth-growth wines, round out the grand cru classe chateaux. In the last several vintages, wineries from this appellation have been out-performing their traditional rankings making many of the wines from this region some of the best values in red wine today.

Villa Maria Private Bin East Cost Gewürztraminer 2009

Gewürztraminer 2009
This wine was blended from fruit sourced in Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Auckland, Marlborough and Waipara.

Each vineyard was harvested separately, destemmed, crushed and chilled to 6⁰c upon entering the press. To aid flavour extraction, the skins and free-run juice were held for a skin contact period of two to four hours prior to being gently pressed. The resulting juice was cold settled then racked clean and inoculated with aromatic yeast strains. Cool fermentation techniques were employed to promote fruit aromatics and intensity. Ferments were tasted daily and stopped to retain some natural residual sugar, enhancing mouth-feel and richness. The wine was then blended, lightly fined, cold stabilised and filtered prior to bottling.

WINEMAKER’S COMMENT
This wine shows delicate and classic varietal aromas of rose petal, quince and ginger spice. The palate reveals similar flavours, delivered with a seamless texture and balance.

Other’s comment
Full of aromatic tropical fruit and perfect with Chinese or Thai dishes. It has a floral bouquet plus hints of honey and ginger and a flavour of lychees. The wine is medium bodied with moderate acidity and goes well with Oriental food or creamy Indian curries.

Gewürztraminer 2006
The 2006 vintage varied across the regions where the fruit for this wine was sourced. Auckland and Gisborne experienced a warm, dry and disease free vintage, whilst Hawkes Bay proved more challenging to viticulturists, with rain during March slowing ripening. Marlborough was the best of the four regions with exceptionally warm and dry conditions leading to an early vintage of ripe and intensely flavoured fruit.

AWARDS
Gold – New World Wine Awards, 2006
Silver – NZ International Wine Show, 2006
4 Stars – Winestate Magazine, Dec 2006
Blue Gold & Top 100 - Sydney International Wine Competition 2007

Link: Villa Maria

Château Moulin Riche 2005 -Saint Julien

Château Moulin Riche is the second wine of Château Léoville-Poyferré. " Bordeaux and Its Wines by Order of Merit", the reference book by Edouard Féret and Charles Cocks in 1850 give an account of Château Moulin Riche's primacy among the Cru Bourgeois vintages of Saint Julien. In 1932 Château Moulin Riche was classified as a Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel – the only wine out of the 11 Cru Bourgeois Saint Julien wines to be marked out as such.

The vineyard is made up of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon 28% Merlot 8% Petit Verdot 2% Cabernet Franc. The wines are concentrated, dense and powerful. They have smoky flavors of spiced black fruits and plum with a voluptuous finish, are tannic and age well. The addition of Petit Verdot to the blend of Château Moulin Riche since 1970 has helped to express the deep backbone of the wine.

Saint Julien
The Grand Vin Château Léoville Poyferré is a Second Growth (2ème Cru Classé) and lies in the appellation of Saint Julien. Saint Julien lies on two plateaus between Pauillac and Margaux on the left bank of the Gironde Estuary. It is divided into essentially 2 areas - the riverside estates around the village of Saint Julien and the southern estates around the village of Beychevelle where the area's Cru Bourgeois are also grouped.

Anatomy of Social Event

Protest - People - Symbol - Media - Law & Order
Protest









People









Symbol





Media







Law and Order

蝴蝶願

冬初曰暖 - 鳳園 - 蝶緣

期盼


蝶花


蝶枝


蝶藍


蝶戀花


蝴蝶願


"十五年前花月底, 相從曾賦賞花詩. 今看花月渾相似, 安得情懷似往時!"
偶成 - 李清照

Mud House Sauvignon Blanc 2008

Named after a mud block house built in the founding vineyard, the Mud House Wine Company produced its first wines in 1996. Since then, the company has grown from 300 cases to well over 75,000 cases today.

Sauvignon Blanc's spiritual home is the Loire Valley, particularly the vineyards of Sancerre and Pouilly sur Loire. Here the best wines are intense, flinty and regarded as among the world's great whites. Outside France, Sauvignon Blanc has had massive success in New Zealand particularly in Marlborough, whose grassy, intensely gooseberry and currant wines are enjoying extraordinary popularity.

The fruit for this wine was sourced from Mud House’s Marlborough vineyard in the upper Wairau Valley, as well as carefully selected grower vineyards throughout the Wairau and Awatere Valleys. According to the company's website, each parcel of fruit was carefully monitored during ripening so it could be harvested as optimum maturity. The fruit parcels were transported with haste for immediate pressing with minimal skin contact to avoid juice deterioration. After settling, each batch was cool fermented in stainless steel using a variety of cultured yeasts to add complexity to the blend and to retain fresh fruit characteristics. The wines were blended shortly after the completion of fermentation, then carefully balanced and prepared for bottling.

Wine Spectator USA - Harvey Steiman, 30 April 2009

87 Points out of 100 "Light and fragrant, this is zippy with lime and passion fruit flavors, echoing nicely on the finish. Drink now. 50,000 cases made."

Goedhuis, August 2009

"Quintessential New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, this 2008 offers luscious passion fruit, guava, gooseberry and grassy notes. A delicious wine which is refreshing and appealing."

La Demoiselle de Sociando-Mallet 2004

Sociando-Mallet is one of those chateaux which makes a mockery of the 1855 classification of Bordeaux. Never entered into the classification of Cru Classé chateaux, and subsequently classified as a Cru Bourgeois in 1932, it consistently turns out wines which outshine those produced by many of its more illustrious neighbours.
(Chateau Potensac 2004)

The history of Sociando-Mallet extends back at least as far as the early 17th Century, as records reveal that the estate was the residence of a Basque nobleman named Sociando in 1633. Otherwise the ancient history of the estate is sketchy, although the owner at the time of Revolution is known to have been a prominent lawyer named Guillaume de Brochon, who was prosecuted and stripped of his property which was broken up for sale. The new proprietor was a gentleman named Lamothe, although it subsequently passed to a naval captain by the name of Mallet, and thus the property was given the name Sociando-Mallet.

Sociando-Mallet was a somewhat dilapidated property in 1969 when acquired by Jean Gautreau. The vineyard and chateau sits right on the Gironde, in the commune of St.-Seurin de Cadourne, just to the north of St Estephe. The vineyard is on a gravel croupe that slopes away from the buildings at the top of the estate. The varieties planted are 55% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot, the remaining 5% part Cabernet Franc and part Petit Verdot. The harvest is manual, and once in the cuvier the fruit is fermented in both concrete and stainless-steel vats, with temperatures up to 33°C to encourage the extraction of tannins. The wine is then macerated for three weeks, before going into oak, 100% for the grand vin, Chateau Sociando-Mallet (typically 20000 cases per annum), although in the case of the second wine La Demoiselle de Sociando-Mallet 20% goes into oak and the rest remains in cuve.

La Demoiselle de Sociando-Mallet 2004
50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Merlot. Good depth of character on the nose, quite concentrated for a second wine, smoky, with a little sous bois. Rather lightfooted on the palate, nicely textured, with an appropriately low level of tannin. A good style, but the 2005 La Demoiselle that followed is eminently superior.

Chateau Sociando-Mallet (Haut-Medoc) 2004
A glossy hue, and a lovely nose of stylish, dark fruits. Quite fresh, cherry perfume, overall a very appealing style. The palate is supple and softly composed at first, but there is substance underneath it all, with nicely composed acidity and tannins.

Chateau Sociando-Mallet (Haut-Medoc) 2000
There is a lovely depth of aroma here, a nose full of leafy blackcurrant fruit, with a fresh and rather surprising seam of mint and a green peppercorn lift. Nice weight, softly composed, and still in possession of quite a grip and tannin beneath it all.