Please contact me for private tasting parties on (646)322-3658 or email Karl@charlemagnefinewines.com

Yearly Archives: 2014

Re-Uninification: Life in The USA

June 27 2014 posted by Karl Curran
I wanted this site to be about life and community. This June of 2014 will mark my eleventh year living in the USA. I miss the UK and Ireland. I miss football or soccer as they call it in the US. Funny how I still look at the BBC website first thing every morning to see the results from the night before. When I lived in London, I used go to Arsenal and watch midweek games. Now far away from all of that I think back, estranged and lacking a sense of community. I am in a chat group on ‘what’s app’ with a few of my brothers and some friends on saturday mornings which keeps me in the loop, an identity of some sorts. We talk about what’s happening, transfer talk and general bollocks. It’s quite funny, me and my brother John are Arsenal fans and there is...

Face your fears

June 25 2014 posted by Karl Curran
I was walking on a beach in Brazil when suddenly life became so much clearer and all because of a rash guard emblazoned with ‘Face your fears’ had caught my eye. The slogan had translated itself into its real meaning. O’Neill is a surf apparel company and coincidentally I was staring at the huge surf in Buzios, Brazil’s most famous surf town. I had taken a vacation in South America from the craziness of the global currency markets. I saw this T-Shirt and I knew there and then my days as a currency broker were over. I was going to face my fears. If I had seen that T-Shirt in some bar in London it wouldn’t have meant a thing, but the size of the waves and the sheer sight of guys getting thrown about the surf like rag dolls made me grab my balls and ask myself what...

The Hidden Facts of Fronsac

April 25 2014 posted by Karl Curran
I will let you in on some secrets: the hidden facts of Fronsac. Two-thirds through the bottle shared between two or three people something should start to happen. Whatever the conversation is about, it should be slightly thwarted by the wine. I kept a bottle recently for two days on the mantle of my hotel bedroom at room temperature, Chateau Aney from Cussac in the Medoc. Outstanding, a 2009 which is starting to drink very well now. I can only imagine what it will give in another couple of years. In order to find value you have to get off the beaten path, you have to find an edge. The edge comes in many guises, but once you get the slightest scent of the guise, you jump on it. I heard about Fronsac, and I decided to schlep it over the bridge on a Saturday morning. Fronsac is a...

Bordeaux Market Shifts

April 12 2014 posted by Karl Curran
Bordeaux is like no other in the wine market. Every year around the last days of March and first few days of April, the wine press and buyers emerge excited to taste the new vintage. The custom has been to buy the wines en primeur (straight out of the barrel) for over three hundred years now. The wines are then delivered to buyers roughly three years after payment. The 64 million dollar question is how does the buyer know what he’s getting? That’s where tasters like Robert Parker come in. Parker has become a household name. There are others too such as Jancis Robinson and James Suckling. These tasters hold strong opinions, and it’s very true in the wine business that the pen is mightier than the sword. As a producer, if you’ve been given a medium score, it can result in huge financial losses. The grading system is...

Bon Merde: A Guide to Burgundy

March 21 2014 posted by Karl Curran
Bon Merde: A Guide to Burgundy The Cote d’Or is a stretch of land either side of Beaune which is in Burgundy France. The Cote is divided into two parts, to the north of Beaune lies the Cote de Nuits stretching for roughly twenty-five miles towards Dijon, famous for its moutarde. To the south of Beaune there is the aptly named Cote de Beaune. The reds come from the northern half and the whites come from the southern half. There is an exception, on the southern half there are reds from Volnay and Pommard too, Volnay reds have a reputation of being especially fine. However, there are no Grand Cru reds on the southern part, only 1er Cru and there are no whites made of any recognition on the northern half. The reds are made from Pinot Noir, the whites are made from Chardonnay and without exaggerating these wines...

Brunello, how can I resist you?

March 5 2014 posted by Karl Curran
There are some wines that everyone should try at least once. Very few have the opportunity and time to get into the layers of mystery that lie in a great bottle. Sure, we all drink wine, however few us really appreciate what it can be. I am here to hopefully help you discover some of the great wines just after I have gone through the process of being the kings taster. Something I have to say relatively speaking, relative to time that is, we are on this planet for very little time. Take a look at the stars on a very dark night. If light travels at 196,000 miles per second and we see a star that is say just one light year away, well, thats the number of seconds in one year times 196,000 right ? Get it ? So relatively speaking we are dots. I guess I...

Investing in Chianti Classico

March 3 2014 posted by Karl Curran
How can you tell what is good and what is not so good? How do I, as start up business make my selection process in an appellation as big as chianti where literally there are hundreds and hundreds of producers? How do I go about the selection process that will allow me to import the finest of quality? I will let you into a little secret! Walking through the beautiful streets of Siena I had a great idea as I was walking by a fairly selective wine shop, in Italian an ‘Enoteca’. Find a good retailer who knows his stuff, learn from those who already know, it saves time and money, and is certainly very efficient. I found one such store, ‘Enoteca Cantina Del Brunello’. I went inside and introduced myself to the owner. We started chatting and I got him to write down on the back of a...

Allow me to introduce you to Castello Monterinaldi near Radda in Chianti

February 16 2014 posted by Karl Curran
A good friend of mine Inge Hoste kindly hooked me up with this fine estate. Castello Monterinaldi is based in the hills of the Chianti region situated forty-five minutes south of Florence. I had such a struggle this morning getting my rental car sorted out. It was like one of those parodies in a ‘Faulty Towers’ episode. I arrived at the Europcar office, camera and apple-tablet in hand eager to get on the road for my first meeting of this tasting season. As I reached the desk I was to be told by my not so humble servant, your chariot does not await you m’lud. “What do you mean I need a Voucher?” I said to the five-o-clock shadowed extra from scarface. I was careful though, as I know my canny little European friend was waiting for an excuse to not do business with this seemingly arrogant American, whom...

Bernard Reverdy et Fils Sancerre Rose 2013

January 21 2014 posted by Karl Curran
    The Rose wines that hail from Bernard Reverdy are worthy of respect. Pinot Noir is a delicacy when grown in the optimum climatic conditions. Too many try to emulate the natural disposition of French Pinot Noir. In Sancerre, the climate allows the grapes to grow with warm summers and cool nights thus producing fruit that has the delicate balance between sugar and acidity. This vineyard is tiny measuring just over 4 acres, which means a great attention to detail and a very polished product. The vines are on average twenty-five years old and the soil types are Limestone kimmerigian marl. These are the perfect ingredients to cultivate top class fruit. This wine has an elegant shade of salmon pink, with an intense nose of white peaches, red berries, and white flowers. This flavorful rich wine has persistence which is ultimately balanced by a succinct acidity. This wine...