Our discussions around Petit Château have been rather frequent over the past few months, and rightfully so. These charming treasures have garnered such popularity that they swiftly sold out, and our excitement was palpable when they made their return.

Now, there's more fantastic news to divulge; we've successfully taken possession of a container brimming with Petit Château, a mix of familiar favourites and fresh selections.

This year, during her visit to Bordeaux to sample the 2022 En Primeur vintage, our General Manager, Liz Wheadon, embarked on a tasting expedition, assessing a multitude of options for our collection.

The wines Liz had the privilege to sample were curated by one of our partners in Bordeaux, Liz having provided their buying team with specific criteria for the search. The assortment Liz tasted was merely a fraction of the wines that were scrutinized and sampled, all in the pursuit of presenting you with the absolute best.

The wines featured below are the latest additions. They exude excitement, offer exceptional value, and are simply delightful. At the conclusion of the tasting, Liz reflected, ‘While I relish the opportunity to partake in En Primeur tastings of the world's finest wines - being in Bordeaux and savouring the region's finest - discovering wines like these is super exciting. These are value-packed wines that deliver well beyond their price tags.’

As with every wine Glengarry imports, these selections have been transported in refrigerated containers, ensuring that the level of quality experienced in Bordeaux is replicated here in New Zealand, the wines presented to you exactly as envisioned by the winemakers themselves.

Reinforced by its imposing châteaux, the aristocratic Bordeaux holds court at the centre of France’s vinous universe. A large winemaking area, Bordeaux boasts a peerless pedigree with world famous wines that you cannot ignore. Some of the best value Bordeaux wines are crafted by the petits (small) chateaux. They offer serious, estate-grown and chateau-bottled wines crafted by quality conscious individuals.

These producers work hard at upping the stakes, and many are delivering earlier drinking, riper styles that allow a user-friendly route into the complex world of Bordeaux wine appreciation. Glengarry’s unsurpassable approach to selecting these wines ensures that there is quality in every sip. These are wines tasted, selected and imported by Glengarry for you. While on the subject of importation, all is done in refrigerated containers that ensure your wine is in the best condition when it gets to you.

Without getting into the overly complex (the wines can do that), let’s divide Bordeaux in two, the river in the centre. On the left bank, north of the city of Bordeaux the area is referred to as the Medoc. It’s here that you’ll find gravel riverbeds and Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant wines. Over on the right bank, there’s more clay, and that’s Merlot land. Cabernet Sauvignon as a grape variety crafts some of the most long-lived wines in the world, the firm tannins, brisk acidity and oak maturation that is common giving the wines the ability to do it.

Ripe Cabernet Sauvignon tends to exude cassis fruit characters. You’ll generally feel the structure of Cabernet Sauvignon around the outside of your mouth. Merlot is all about the middle of your palate, the tannins and acidity softer. There are plum fruit notes and mocha characters. Generally you’ll find the wines of Bordeaux are blends; for petits chateaux, they tend to be Merlot-dominant, regardless of where they come from. The Merlot gives the mid-palate and the Cabernet Sauvignon the structural frame.

It would be fair to say in Bordeaux that with advances in the craft, there are no longer poor vintages, rather those that are better than others. The years are often now characterised by whether they are hot, cool or moderate, rather than exceptional or average. The petit château wines we have available come from the 2018, 2019 and 2020 vintages. All are from warm years, though with different characters; the 2018 wines are complete, bold and structured, while the 2019s have a brighter fruit structure with fresh acidity. The 2020 wines combine the best features from both years.