Château de Birot is an elegant, 17th-century property with vineyards perched on a high plateau looking down on the Garonne river and across to famous Sauternes. Until a few years ago, it belonged to the renowned Castéja family. They sold it and the new owners have been working hard, updating the estate. In the cellar, they discovered a forgotten batch of château wine from 2007.
Despite its 17 years’ age, it’s still tasting delicious, complex and long. It’s Merlot dominated from estate vineyards in the superior Premières Côtes, with a little of both Cabernets. After 17 years of maturing in the cellars, it has developed some sediment in bottle. A good sign. Stand the bottle upright for a few hours and carefully decant just before serving.
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If you love crisp, dry, appetising whites, you can’t do better than Muscadet. Having lost out in the past to the New World, its winemakers have been working extremely hard of late to win back consumers so quality and value have never been better.
Robert Parker described the Muscadet appellation’s wines as “probably the world’s greatest white wine value”, while wine writer Hugh Johnson said “I can think of nothing more refreshing”. The region is right on the Atlantic coast, so its wines are wonderfully evocative of the sea. You’ll taste that maritime freshness in this delicious white from fourth-generation winemaker Noël Bougrier. For a quintessentially French experience, serve chilled with a bowl of moules frites – mussels and French fries.
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