March Classics Collection

It's been pretty quiet of late, but Vintages has announced the March Classics catalogue…

The much heralded 2005 Vintage of Burgundy features several Faiveley and Jadot selections. Expensive yes, indeed.

It's quite a packed list actually with many interesting options from Northern & Southern Rhone, Alsace, Champagne, Languedoc, Spain, Piedmont, Tuscany, Australia and even South Africa. The Bordeaux and California collection isn't thrilling.

GÉRARD BERTRAND CHÂTEAU L’HOSPITALET 2003 looks very interesting to me. The past bottles I've had from Gérard Bertrand have been fantastic!

The 2005 release of Le Clos Jordanne is listed as well.

UPDATE (May 9, 2008): Just heard from Le Clos Jordanne confirming my order from last year. Sounds like they had significant difficulty with the bureaucracy that our wonderful province puts wineries through.

I'm pretty I was upset with Le Clos Jordanne. Despite attending an invitation only event last year and putting in order requests at the time, there's been no communication about whether I will be offered anything so I have no clue if I'm better to try and get from Vintages. This is a winery that seems to be at the top of their wine making game, but at the very bottom of customer service. Restaurants and the LCBO are clearly a much higher priority to them than building a great, direct relationship with enthusiastic consumers. Oh well, there's always Hidden Bench!

Comments

[Sean Kozey]

Hey Ken,

I share your frustration with the private orders with LCJ, but I'm willing to cut them some slack, as it's the LLBO that's holding up the orders. LCJ has been trying for what seems like forever to get their winery retail license in place, and it's caught up in all kinds of government licensing red tape. Hopefully it will get sorted soon and we can all get a chance to pop the corks on the latest vintage.

Sean

[Ken Bereskin]

Hi Sean, I'm surprised that other new and even smaller wineries (like Hidden Bench) have been able to navigate the maze of the LLBO, yet, LCJ with the backing of VinCorp cannot.

Further, since attending this even back in November, there has been zero communication from LCJ on the status of the order or their ability to sell direct. Even if the bureaucratic mess is the cause of the holdup, a simple email or phone call would have been appreciated.

My bottom line is that there is a lot of great wine out there. I shouldn't have to beg for the privilege.

[Ken Bereskin]

Good news: I just got a call back from Candis at Le Clos Jordanne confirming the order that I had placed back late last year. It sounds like LCJ has had a lot of trouble with the bureaucracy that our wonderful province requires.