VinExpo is a wine and spirit event organized by Vinexposium. This year the expo has and will be held in Paris, Hong Kong and Mumbai. On June 24-25, the expo was held in New York City, “the trendy wine market that never sleeps”.

The event was held at the Jacob K. Javits convention center at 429 11th Avenue on the far West side of Manhattan.

It featured 260 exhibitors from over 30 countries including off the radar wines from Armenia, Georgia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Brazil. The vast majority of the wines at the event were definitely from France with Italy a distant second with the U.S. represented with only a small handful of producers. Spirits and beer were on hand as well with a large selection of Japanese whisky.

While most of the wines were French, the majority of those French wines were from the Rhone Valley. That’s not a bad thing since some excellent wines come from that part of that country. I particularly like the underrated white wines made from local grape varieties such as Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier while there were plenty of reds from Chateauneuf du Pape, Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Crozes-Hermitage and Cote-Rotie to name a few of the Rhone appellations that were present.

VinExpo was held in conjunction with the Fancy Food Show, so when I needed to cleanse my palate after trying several wines, I would make my way to the food show and graze on the numerous and excellent domestic and international cheeses.

I did attend one of the Masterclasses.

Crus Bourgeois du Medoc.

Crus Bourgeois are the unclassed growths of Bordeaux, as such they are usually a good value compared to the classified growths. They are red wines that come from 250 chateaux produced in 7 appellations. Bordeaux has had a string of good vintages up until the 2021 vintage and in good vintages, there is so much good grape juice that the quality extends to all the tiers of producers.

2020 Chateau de Panigon (Medoc): 50% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot. Clear medium red, crushed rock and petroleum on the nose, tight and tart with some green notes.

2019 Chateau d’Agassac (Haut Medoc): 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc. Opaque dark red to black, smoky black fruit on the nose, juicy with crushed rocks on the dusty, firm finish.

2019 Chateau Reverdi (Listrac Medoc): 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Petit Verdot, 30% Merlot. Opaque dark red with a purple rim, crushed black fruit and gravel on the nose, concentrated and dusty fruit with firm tannins on the dusty finish.

2022 Chateau Mongravey (Margaux): 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc. Opaque dark red to black with a purple rim, closed nose of herbs, concentrated and dusty with some cardboard notes on the fruit.

2019 Chateau Tour de Pez (St. Estephe): 63% Merlot, 28% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc. Opaque black with a purple rim, tarry dark chocolate on the nose, tight, minty red fruit ending with big tannins.