Family Matters
2009 Duhart-Milon
A House at the Tipping Point?
Special Bordeaux Futures Pricing

"The 2009 appears to be the finest Duhart-Milon yet made. The Rothschild family has invested heavily in this estate over the last 20 years in order to upgrade the quality, and their investments have certainly paid off handsomely."
- Robert Parker

People are catching on, quickly: Duhart-Milon offers a fantastic quality to value ratio, the chateau's 2009 an exemplary Medoc for the vintage... and at a miniscule fraction of the price of its supermodel siblings (read: Lafite and that maison's Carruades).

Today we continue our 2009 Bordeaux futures campaign with the vintage's Duhart-Milon at $77.95 a bottle.

Our Window Into 09 Bordeaux
2009 La Chapelle de la Mission Haut Brion
1/10th the Price of the Grands: $89.95
Amongst the Lowest Pricing in the World

"There are approximately 2,000 cases of the 2009 La Chapelle de La Mission, the best one I have ever tasted... To get an idea of just how extraordinary all the wines from the Dillon family are in 2009, just consider how phenomenal the second wines are." - Robert Parker

We’re in strict agreement. This is remarkable Bordeaux and easily one of the greatest values in the raucous 09 Bordeaux market.

Robert Parker makes no bones about it, summing up his rhapsodizing review of the 09 Chapelle de la Mission ("amazing density, extraordinary fruit quality... admirable purity and length") by calling it flat out “the best one I have ever tasted.”

My choice for Wine of the Year is the 2000 Chateau de Fonbel.

The story here is simple: An innocent tasting where I was simply blind-sided by the wine's purity and elegance - aromatic with plentiful fruit wrapped in layers of great spice, minerality and florality. The mouthfeel is undeniably St-Emilion - luxurious and full, expansive and enveloping, yet with a seemingly nimble footprint.

At under $40, this is one of the best deals in Bordeaux I've come across all year.

When we tasted the 2000 Mangot we flipped — Not only because of the extremely high quality and aging potential from one of the best years in recent memory, but because it was not "internationalized". While many of its Bordeaux counterparts are over-manipulated, the Mangot classicly European in style and a genuine expression of the terroir of St. Emilion.