Guy Sangster & Sacha Lichine enjoying a glass of Garrus ’08 before dinner

On Tuesday, March 2nd Sacha Lichine attended The Wine Dinner in aid of the National Society For Epilepsy and MacIntyre. The former is the United Kingdom’s leading national charity working for everyone affected by Epilepsey while the latter supports people of all ages with learning disabilities to lead fulfilling lives. This all important event was overseen by Johnny Goedhuis, Chariman of Goedhuis Fine Wine Merchants. The evening raised over £200,000. In addition to Chateau d’Esclans’ top Cuvee, Garrus ’08 being served during the reception, Sacha donated a two night three day stay at the Chateau during the upcoming harvest.

Wine List At The Dinner

Château d’Esclans, Garrus 2008
Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Embrazées
Domaine Philippe Colin 2006
La Chapelle de La Mission Haut Brion
Pessac-Léognan 1998
Domaine de Chevalier, Pessac-Léognan 1998
Château L’Evangile, Pomerol 1998
Monbazillac, Clarendelle Amberwine

 

During The South Beach Food and Wine Festival we were thrilled to have Chef Eric Ripert of Le Bernadin stop by our stand seen here enjoying a glass Garrus 2007.

 

Sacha Lichine and his consulting oenologist, Patrick Leon were in Miami during the last week of February to promote Chateau d’Esclans at the 2010 South Beach Wine & Food Festival. The weekend’s festivities began on Friday evening during which Chateau d’Esclans was selected to participate in The Best of The Best at the Fontainebleau. Sponsored by The Wine Spectator, all featured wines at this illustrious event have a 90 rating or better. The following day, many came by to taste the Chateau’s wines at the “Celebrate France!” Pavilion. That evening Chateau d’Esclans was served at the Setai for a Dim Sum and Disco night. During this event, the Fusion-forward Chef Ming Tsai and the Setai’s decorated Executive Chef Jonathan Wright, plus a team of others, combined traditional Chinese small plates. Chateau d’Esclans was considered to be a perfect pairing with this featured food!

 

Chateau d’Esclans was pleased to donate Whispering Angel as a raffle item at an intimate, yet important event, at the Avon Theatre in Stamford, Connecticut on February 9. The evening included a screening of the wildly popular “Le Diner De Cons.” With Rose season just a few months away, the evening’s host and film reviewer John Farr of bestmoviesbyfarr.com said, about Whispering Angel, “Someone here will be very excited to open their refrigerator in May and pull out a bottle of this wonderful wine.”

Chateau d’Esclans picked up Decanter 2009 World Wine Awards for three of its cuvees:

Whispering Angel 2007 - Côtes De Provence, Provence, France

Chateau d’Esclans 2007 - Côtes De Provence, Provence, France
Redcurrant jelly nose. Creamy, soft, complex. Very good length, hint of oak.

Garrus 2007 - Côtes De Provence, Provence, France
Red fruit and spices, faint aromas of oak. Powerful, balanced, good depth, good length.

The 2009 Vintage at Chateau d’Esclans, from the vines to the cellars...

Chateau d’Esclans’ harvest took place this year with winning ingredients including a benevolent eye cast upon it by our proprietor, Sacha Alexis Lichine, the Vineyard’s Foreman and Technician, Franck Fantino and Cellar Master or Maitre de Chais, Jean-Claude Neu. The Chateau’s Consulting Oenologist, Patrick Leon was on hand as well. Patrick’s involvement is key in relation to our quest to aspire to excellence at Chateau d’Esclans. His vast experience in making wine at Mouton Rothschild in Pauillac, Opus One in California and Almaviva in Chile go a long way towards ensuring this.

Essential to this celebrated team of professionals, are scores of harvesters who, under Franck’s direction, worked with selecting grapes from the different parcels of vines at Chateau d’Esclans. Additionally, Jean Claude’s team in the cellar, who subsequently received and sorted the grapes grape by grape, play an equally important role.

Expert direction and dedicated execution were made possible by good weather conditions offering many days of blue skies, the happiness of the Mistral and the maritime entries arriving every afternoon to dry both the vines and grapes.

Leading into this successful Harvest was a year round process of attentiveness overseen by Franck including a broad range of processes to make sure that the best grapes are grown.

This coupled with a continual investment in the vineyards (vine renovation) and the cellar (state of the art equipment) guarantees outstanding quality control. A critical element to this has been a recently installed pneumatic wine press ensuring no oxidation.

The result to this is to producing Chateau d’Esclans’ free run juice which is essential to give our wine both minerality and elegance. Additionally, this gives way to the coveted pale color that makes Rose pleasing to the eye. Part to the process is the prioritizing the juice which goes into making the range of Chateau d’Esclans’ four award winning cuvees: Whispering Angel, Chateau d’Esclans Esclans, Les Clans & Garrus.

Vinification for each cuvee includes stainless steel for Whispering Angel, a significant proportion of oak for Chateau d’Esclans, while our most exclusive cuvees, Les Clans and Garrus, are completely vinified in 600 liter demi muid oak barrels from the Taransaud cooperage. These barrels have a very fine grain, a medium toast and other specific technical characteristics.

The precise nature of the oak vinification process gets an important boost from a high end temperature system which monitors and controls the temperature of the fermentations for each barrel. This is a key innovation at Chateau d’Esclans giving its roses incomparable balance. Towards that end, the freshness of the fruit is consistently maintained throughout the fermentation process.

That process includes employing the batonage or stirring from the bottom of the barrels twice a week during the vinification process. The result is obtaining depth, complexity and length that many impressed consumers experience when they have Chateau d’Esclans’ oak vinified Rose.

To date, the fermentations are taking place smoothly and Jean-Claude foresees the juices being easy to work with, followed by simple fermentations to be followed by making the 2009 vintage “amazingly fresh without stress."

Equal enthusiasm is palatable for Deesse, Chateau d’Esclans’ red wine cuvee which will be kept in new barrels for nine months. The Chateau is producing more red wine and we look forward to presenting an impressive vintage.

With the wine now in the tranquility of the Château d’Esclans’ cellars we expect exciting results in the New Year!

 

On October 21 magnums of Whispering Angel were served at the Angel Ball for Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation for Cancer Research founded by Denise Rich and her daughters and son-in-law in memory of Rich’s daughter, Gabrielle who passed away at the young age of 27. The event which took place at Cipriani Wall Street in New York honored three individuals for their commitment and dedication to the fight against cancer, Her Highness Sheikha Salama bint Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, Thomas Quick and his sister, Tricia Quick.

A sold-out affair drawing approximately 1000 patrons the event raised nearly $4 million. Contributing to this was an auction item for a 2 night stay at Chateau d’Esclans during the 2010 harvest in September.

A bottle on ice is nice, but how about ice in wine?

The wine tasting panel decided to find out. Six wines were poured and tasted at 74 degrees: two whites, two rosés, two reds. Then each glass got one ice cube. The panel came back and retested several minutes later when the ice had melted. Panelists looked to see if the wines would taste watery when the ice was added. Tasters thought the addition of ice did not improve taste or aroma for most wines. Only two wines, a California chardonnay and a French rosé, scored higher with ice added.

2008 Chateau d'Esclans Rosé Whispering Angel: There's a sweet-tart nose to this rosé from Cotes de Provence. A raspberry flavor gives way to a citrus finish. The ice brings out the fruit. $20 YES ICE.

We were delighted to greet Tony Bilson, renowned restrateur from Sydney, Australia at our stand during Vin Expo this past June.

Subsequent to his visit, Tony wrote the following in his August newsletter
about Chateau d'Esclans:

As many of you know, my passion for food and wine centres on France with both its haute cuisine and its regional flavours. To keep this passion fresh I recently travelled to France where I attended Vinexpo and moved all over the country, delighting in new discoveries and visiting old friends. One of the most exciting discoveries I made was in a range of rosés from Provence, Chateau d'Esclans, in my opinion the world's best rosés. Recently awarded a Gold Medal at Le Mondial du Rosé in Cannes, winemaker Sacha Lichine (son of Alexis Lichine) has combined his talent with the magical terroirs and sun-drenched soils of Provence. I am so convinced by the suitability of this wine to our Australian summer that I will be hosting a special event later in the year where we will launch Chateau d'Esclans to the Australian market. Details to follow.

 

8/6/09 : Chateau d’Esclans is proud to have Whispering Angel’s 2008 vintage selected by the Palm Steakhouse to be on its national wine list!

Along with this, Whispering Angel will be on the wine lists at The Palm in 14 states including California, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Tennessee, Illinois, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, The District Of Columbia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts. We are thrilled that Mr. Willy Cellucci, The Palm’s National Director Of Wine will be overseeing the placement of Whispering Angel onto The Palm’s wine list.

Chateau d’Esclans’ Garrus and Les Clans captured the top two ratings for Les Roses de La Mediterranee in La Revue du Vin de France in its July August 2009 issue!

Garrus captured an 18/20 and Les Clans a 17/20.

The significance of these distinctions underscores the unmatched craftsmenship that goes into the making of these wines and the high level of appreciation they get time and again.

During this past Spring Château d’Esclans was honored at four important wine competitions in France. We are proud to note that our labels won several accolades including the following:

Le Mondial du Rose in Cannes (April 25-27)

Whispering Angel 2008 Gold Medal
- Les Clans 2007 Gold Medal
- Garrus 2007 Silver Medal

Femmes et Vins du monde in Monaco (April 23-24)

- Les Clans 2007 Silver Medal

55th Annual Concours des Grand Vins de France in Macon (April 18)

- Chateau d’Esclans 2007 Bronze
- Garrus 2007 Bronze

Challenge International du Vin in Bourg (April 18)

- Whispering Angel 2007 Silver
- Les Clans 2007 Silver
- Garrus 2007 Silver
- Château d’Esclans 2007 Bronze

These are all select and prestigious events in which to compete and be honored. We are thrilled for the recognition that our wines have received at each of them!

As seen on www.ahadleigh-wine.com/blog on June 15 th
Also available the PDF file.

During the weekend of May 15, Chateau d’Esclans was pleased to be a part of The Nantucket Wine Festival, one of the most coveted U.S. based events in which to have wine showcased.

Both Sacha Lichine and Paul Chevalier were on hand to present and pour the chateau’s wines throughout the weekend under the Big Tent. In addition to this general segment to the festival, Les Clans ’07 was featured in a cooking demonstration given by renowned Bay State Chef, Lydia Shire who paired Les Clans with a tasty salmon dish. As the afternoon continued, Sacha was honored along with his wines at Epernay Wines where a bottle signing event took place with Amber Cantella, owner of this fine wine shop. During the evening of the 16th, the chateau’s flight of wines were served at a special dinner at the idyllic Summer House Restaurant hosted by its proprietress, Danielle deBenedictis.

Chateau d’Esclans has been honored by the distinction to be part of The Wine Spectator’s 2009 Grand Tour which showcases 200 of the world’s finest wines.

The chateau’s top end wine, Garrus has been selected by The Spectator and the tour ran through Atlantic City, Chicago and Las Vegas beginning May 9 and concluding May 16.

Part of the criteria to be included at this premiere event is to be a top scoring selected wine by The Spectator. Towards that end, Garrus, which enjoys a 90 point Spectator rating, has been described by Managing Editor, Kim Marcus as “Very creamy and rich, with concentrated flavors of berry, cherry, pepper and spice.” Marcus goes on to note Garrus’ qualities of broadness and lushness on the minerally finish.

Attendees to the event which represented a cross section of oenophiles, top restaurateurs and off premise organizations were very impressed by Garrus and, in many instances, told the Chateau d’Esclans group that they were urged to come taste Garrus. Many could not believe they were drinking Rose, a testimony to the sophisticated craftsmanship that goes into making Garrus which is arguably the world’s finest Rose!

During the last week of April, Chateau d’Esclans was proud to participate in Provence In The City, a four day event in New York City sponsored by the Conseil Interprofessional Vins de Provence (CIVP). The chateau’s complete line of Roses were poured at the following restaurants: Fig & Olive, Allegretti, Flute and Benoit.

In attendance were the media, trade and consumers interested in tasting Rose wines from Provence. The event culminated at Benoit during which the chateau donated a magnum of the lauded 2006 vintage of Chateau d’Esclans. This beautiful bottle of wine was provided as a door prize. On hand to receive the bottle was Charlotte Delemarle, Regional Controller for Benoit which is part of Group Alain Ducasse and Tom Schreckinger for Chateau d’Esclans.

 

Chateau d’Esclans is proud to have Whispering Angel served as the only Rose served at the luxurious landmark, Hotel Delano in South Beach!

 

Chateau d’Esclans is proud to announce that it has been selected by the renowned and respected Decanter Magazine to be part of the Decanter Fine Wine Encounter at the Hotel Marylebone in London this coming November 21st and 22nd. This is an invitation only event bringing together the best 100 wine makers and wineries in the world.

The event is scheduled to draw 1,000 oenophiles with a proclivity to buy top class wines, sommeliers, restrauteurs and members of the press.

As wines are judged on a regional level to promote a sense of origin, the Fine French Wine Encounter celebrates the diversity of wine, focusing on regional styles and the influence of terroir over bland homogenized styles. The selection of Chateau d’Esclans to be part of this pre-eminent event is testimony to the vision of Chateau d’Esclans’ proprietor, Sacha Alexis Lichine and the chateau’s highly celebrated consulting oenologist, Patrick Leon. Both have been instrumental in guiding and inspiring all at Chateau d’Esclans toward dedicating themselves to making great and unmatched Rose.

Fontainbleau Hotel Partners with Château d’Esclans

We are proud to be associated with the magnificent Fontainbleau Hotel in Miami Beach which reopened this season after a billion dollar renovation upgrade. Jeffrey Klein and David Mokha of the Fontainbleau have selected all four of Château d’Esclans’ Roses, over many others, to be served at the hotels’ restaurants and bars. These restaurants include La Cote, Gotham State Grill, Scarpetta, Hakkason. Whispering Angel By The Glass at Vida and La Cote Esclans, Les Clans and Garrus are on these wine lists as well. La Cote, which is opening March 16, will not only be serving Whispering Angel By The Glass, but has listed all 4 of our roses on its wine list; which is unprecedented.
We thank the Fontainbleau Fine Hotel and resort for becoming true partner with Château d’Esclans!

Chateau d’Esclans & Sacha Lichine featured in the February edition of Patterson’s Tasting Panel Magazine

Chateau d’Esclans and Sacha Lichine are being featured in the February edition Patterson’s The Tasting Panel Magazine which circulates to 65,000 trade professionals and oenophiles. In addition to a feature piece, all four of the Chateau’s ‘08 Roses are rated, and well, Whispering Angel (89); Chateau d’Esclans (90); Les Clans (91); Garrus (92). The ratings are based on color, texture and some well informed judgments. The Tasting Panel Magazine was recently acquired by Anthony Dias Blue, one of the most influential food and wine personalities in the United States. The piece can be seen on the chateau’s web site’s press section.

Whispering Angel Served On Megayacht In Miami Beach

On Friday, February 12, Chateau d’Esclans donated cases of Whispering Angel which were served in Miami Beach aboard Nicholas Cage’s mega yacht The Sea Ghost. Over 100 people attended this casual event which kicked off Valentine’s Day. Paul Chevalier, Fine Wine Director at Shaw Ross was on hand.

Chateau d’Esclans Donated to Eco Love Event In New York City

On Friday, February 19 Chateau d’Esclans donated nine Magnums of Chateau d’Esclans ’07 to an Eco Love event in New York City hosted by a consortium of individuals. Approximately 200 people were in attendance. The Rose wine was served alongside organic drinks and there were organic foods served as well. The event was graced by a rousing talk by Robert F. Kennedy JR. prosecuting attorney for River Keeper an organization that since its inception in 1966 has been a watchdog organization to maintaining the ecosystems of the Hudson River and keeping it clean.

November
From the 15th of November ‘08 and through all of 2009 British Airways will be serving Château d’Esclans 2006 vintage in First Class on all world wide routes.

Launching of Déesse, our new red wine AOC Côtes de Provence.