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Staff Favorites - Clyde Beffa Jr.
Clyde Beffa Jr.
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Had K&L co-owner and main wine buyer Clyde Beffa Jr. not read an article about the gentlemanly hobby of wine collecting in the February 1971 issue of Playboy, he might still be weighing the merits of Holsteins versus Jerseys instead of Château Margaux or Haut-Bailly. Beffa owned a dairy in Tracy, California, from 1967-1973, leaving the the business to co-found K&L Liquors, as it was known back then, in 1976. Clyde started traveling to Europe in 1982 and over the years, he has worked hard to build K&L into one of the nation's go-to sources for the world's diverse wines, developing relationships with winemakers and châteaux owners the world over. Clyde's passion is surely Bordeaux, especially the fabulous wines from Pauillac and St-Julien (like Pichon-Lalande and Léoville-Barton). When he's not drinking France's legendary reds, you'll likely find Clyde indulging in Sauvignon Blanc. A fan of Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé and white Bordeaux, he'll also tuck into a bottle of Kiwi Sauv Blanc if there's no corkscrew around. These days you'll likely find Clyde extolling the virtues of underrated Bordeaux vintages like 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004 and 2006, or playing with his German Shepherd Sadie. Or you may see him in his vegetable garden and, once in a great while, on the golf course.
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Reviews
2020 Malescasse, Haut-Médoc
Review Date: 06-27-2024
Wow-what a great value here. WE have always loved this property and this is the best they have made. Nose leaps out of the glass with sweet cassis, plum, and blackcurrant aromas. Tons of rich black fruit flavors and fine acidity. Some tannins, but decant an hour and enjoy with prime rib. Better yet put a case in the wine cellar and enjoy it over the next ten years. A real winner and 97 points from Decanter.
Drink from 2025 to 2025
2022 Kalinda Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Review Date: 04-20-2024
Since 1984 (a mere forty years ago) our Kalinda private label has been providing K&L customers with awesome wines at a fraction of what they'd normally pay under the producers' main labels. Naturally, no producer wants their wines on the market for less than what they'd usually sell for, so the trade-off is anonymity. This is a superb Cabernet-very elegant and user friendly already. Lots of sweet cassis and red fruit aromas that follow to the palate. No hard edges here-drink it young with a prime rib or steak dinner. Will cellar well for five plus years.
clyde
Drink from 2024 to 2024
2021 Baret Blanc, Pessac-Léognan
Review Date: 02-08-2024
Do not miss the very good 2021 White Bordeaux wines. They are much better than the 2020 and 2022s. This gem for under $20 is quite citric on the nose and that follows to the palate-fresh and lively and totslly delicious. Stock mup for summer and pool side sipping. Or have with some petrale sole or even fresh crab.
Drink from 2024 to 2024
2019 Baret Rouge, Pessac-Léognan
Review Date: 02-08-2024
Here is a lovely value Pessac red from the great 2019 vintage. Lots of earth and mineral on the nose. Sweet mid palate and elegant finish. Quite good for under $20 Here is your tuesday nite wine with chicken or pork. Will cellar well for 5+ years.
70% Merlot and 30% Cab Sauv.
Drink from 2024 to 2024
Price:
$19.99
2022 Branaire-Ducru, St-Julien
Review Date: 05-31-2023
An awesome wine from a great property. These folks are making fabulous wines for the past 20 years. This one may be the best this century- their 1928 is one of the ten best wines i have EVER drunk.
Spicy raspberry aromas and fabulous sweet palate entry. Packed with red berry fruits that cover the tannins. Long and lingering finish. Perfect balance and one of my top 2022 that i tasted.
Drink from 2025 to 2025
2019 Cissac, Haut-Médoc
Review Date: 12-01-2022
Perfect score for value here. I have loved Cissac since the early 1970s when Harry Waugh came to town and waxed poetic about the property. I lost track of it for about 40 years-and now it is back. Owned by the Vialard family since the 19th century, this estate has produced a firm,old school wine.. Plenty of dry tannins underlie the finely textured black fruits. Wood aging has smoothed the fruit and deepened its concentration. Decant 2 hours and serve with a rich meal-like cassoulet. 34% Merlot shines through here.
Drink from 2022 to 2022
2011 Bernadotte, Haut-Médoc
Review Date: 10-30-2022
Bernadotte was in the Pichon Lalande stable back when May Lencquesaing was running the property. Always a good value wine and made by the Pichon team, it has flown under the radar for years. This wine shows an attractive currant and chocolate character. Medium body, with soft tannins and a delicious finish. Well worth the $22 price tag. Only $2 a year. For fans like myself and Gary Westby who like old school Bordeaux-no fancy 200% new oak modern bemouth here. Your Tuesday nite hamburger wine.
Drink from 2022 to 2022
2016 Bellegrave, Pauillac
Review Date: 09-03-2022
A perfect wine when you count the history of the property and K&L. This was our home in Bordeaux in the early 90s-thanks to one of the best people I ever met-Henri VanderVoort. He was raised at this property and he also was the single person who brought Bordeaux wines to California in the mid 1940s with his company Bercut VanderVoort.
The property is a stone's throw from Haut Bages Liberale and a three-wood from Pichon Lalande and Baron. This 2016 may be the best I have tasted from the property but the 1945 and 1957 were quite delicious. Tons of cedar and red rose aromas-smooth as glass-will go another 40 years
Drink from 2022 to 2022
2000 Camensac, Haut-Médoc
Review Date: 09-03-2022
Twenty two years have been kind to this wine. When young it was tight and tannic. Now it is sweet and lovely with a bit of that 2000 power in it. Sweet core of red frits dominates the wine--prime rib perfect with this.
Drink from 2022 to 2022
2021 Phélan-Ségur, St-Estèphe
Review Date: 06-14-2022
Very fruity aromas and entry. Some tannins at back. These guys/gals are on a roll here.
2021 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, Pessac-Léognan
Review Date: 06-14-2022
Toasty aromas with some cumin and curry notes underneath, Fabulous balance, and a long lingering finish. Bravo ! Maybe it is so good because they listen to the birds as to when they pick-which is usually 2 hours after sunrise.
2021 Laroque, St-Emilion
Review Date: 06-09-2022
Good richness on palate. Blackberries. Buy this one as a fine value.
2010 d'Aiguilhe, Côtes de Castillon
Review Date: 07-17-2021
Blackberry fruit aromas and flavors. Big wine-typical 2010 with long life ahead of it. Decant 1 hour if drinking now. Some tannins at the back that are round.
Drink from 2021 to 2021
2010 Haut-Bergey, Pessac-Léognan
Review Date: 07-15-2021
What a delicious wine at eleven years of age. Just coming of age, like many of the big, tannic 2010s. Plenty of minerality on the nose and palate. Black fruits abound on the palate. The tannins have softened and the fruit really stands out. Still-decant for one hour and enjoy with a big juicy steak. Will cellar well another ten years.
Drink from 2021 to 2021
2020 Domaine de Chevalier Rouge, Pessac-Léognan
Review Date: 07-08-2021
What a great value here ! Soft and sweet on the palate with earthy flavors-great length on the finish. Black cherry flavors. Soft, round tannins. As good as their 2016 and 2018—and well priced for sure.
Drink from 2023 to 2023
2015 La Fleur de Boüard, Lalande-de-Pomerol
Review Date: 05-10-2021
K&L has followed this property since we visited it in 1998 when Hubert de Bouard was running the show. Now his daughter Coralie is the boss at this fine estate. The 2015 La Fleur is much more harmonious as a bottled wine than from barrel. Ripe red cherry, plum, tobacco, licorice and some black raspberry add character to this juicy, flavorful red. A great value here.
Drink from 2021 to 2021
2016 Tronquoy-Lalande, St-Estèphe
Review Date: 09-29-2020
This property, owned by the Chateau Montrose people, has really come of age since Herve Berland has taken over the reigns of Montrose. This 2016 is a stunner-perhaps better than their 2009 of which we sold over 5000 bottles. Montrose in 2010 bought one of the best parcels of neighbor Phelan Segur and this 2016 has a lot of that juice in it. Super sweet black fruit aromas are intense as soon as you open the bottle. Some blackcherry flavors with nuances of oak. Very vibrant wine that is not as sweet as was the 2009, but with a bit more structure and length on the palate. Full-bodied beauty--typical great 2016 from St Estephe! Will cellar well for 15 years.
Drink from 2020 to 2020
2016 Clément-Pichon, Haut-Médoc
Review Date: 03-23-2020
A major sleeper of the vintage from major builder/contractor Clement Fayat's fabulous property-without a doubt, the most beautiful Chateau in Bordeaux. A Loire style property in the south of the Haut Medoc region of Bordeaux in the town of Parempuyre-this property is the furthest South of the fine properties of the Haut Medoc. We have been selling this wine since the great 1996 vintage. The beautiful nose leads to black cherry and coffee notes. There's plenty of fruit and nice balance, allowing this wine to age well for several years. A bit more tannic than the Beaumont, decanting now will help soften it out. A high % of Cabernet in this wine-the vines were planted in 1976-the year we started K&L. Drink or cellar a few years.
Drink from 2020 to 2020
2014 Lilian Ladouys, St-Estèphe
Review Date: 09-15-2019
We just retasted this beauty-a big winner for value. 2014 was a GREAT year in the north medoc and not many properties are more north than ths one.
Love this wine.
Drink from 2020 to 2020
2018 Léoville-Barton, St-Julien
Review Date: 05-21-2019
One of the best wines of 2018. Tasted four times and each time we were blown away with its quality. 82% Cab Sauv and 18% Merlot. Blackish color-big, serious wine but it still has elegance and finesse. Fabulous texture Such a long, sweet finish. The best young Leoville barton I have ever tasted! Packed with fruit-seamless.
Buy it and enjoy for a long time.
Drink from 2023 to 2023
2015 Bois-Malot, Bordeaux Supérieur
Review Date: 07-31-2018
Wow-if you like Framboise you will adore this wine. Intense raspberry aromas that follow to the palate. Sweet and sexy-not as tannic as the 2010. A great party wine and ecpecially for those California Cabernet drinkers.
Drink from 2018 to 2018
Price:
$12.99
2005 Haut-Bergey, Pessac-Léognan
Review Date: 05-08-2018
Nice nose of red fruits and minerals. Good upfront on palate. Elegant on the palate with forward red fruit flavors and smoky-earthy hints, well balanced mid-weight and mid-term wine. 90-91 points by all the scorers. This is a step above the very fine 2004 and 2006 that we sold so successfully.
Drink from 2018 to 2018
2005 Larmande, St-Emilion
Review Date: 07-18-2017
I first visited this property in 1985 and I loved their wines of the 80s, but not so much in the 90s. Well, they went back on track in the 2000s and this 2005 is a great value. Sweet, plummy, and toasty. Plenty of blackberry fruits on the palate and nose. Excellent structure for five more years in the cellar, but the tannins are round so you can drink it now. Decant and enjoy with a prime rib roast.
Drink from 2017 to 2017
2016 La Mission Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan
Review Date: 06-01-2017
Huge wine here and some think one of the best of the vintage. Wonderful nose of cassis, spice, and toasty oak. Depth of flavor off the charts. An ager for sure. Hopefully not a crazy price.
2016 Mouton Rothschild, Pauillac
Review Date: 06-01-2017
This is the best first growth I tasted from 2016--very much in the vein of the great 86 Mouton with softer fruit, so almost like a combination of 82 and 86. The wine is utter perfection, in my my top three for 2016 overall. Only Lafite and Petrus are as good, in my opinion.
Drink from 2025 to 2025
2016 Prieuré-Lichine, Margaux
Review Date: 05-26-2017
Deeply colored. Toasty oak and red raspberry aromas that follow to palate. Lots of wine for the price.
2016 La Dame de Montrose, St-Estèphe
Review Date: 05-26-2017
This is a great second wine. Mostly Merlot in the blend-black fruit aromas, full-bodies but balanced perfectly. Great depth and length.
2016 Cos d'Estournel, St-Estèphe
Review Date: 04-24-2017
This wine is off-the charts great. 13.07 degrees Alcohol like the old days of great Bordeaux wines. Incredible, intense, spicy aromas with cinnamon undertones on the palate. So silky and precise-pure as can be. Long and lovely-so good you can drink it soon, but it will cellar well for many years. Bravo on the reasonable price. A very special wine and one of the top ten I tasted in April.
Drink from 2022 to 2022
2013 Accendo Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Review Date: 03-03-2017
I travelled to Oakville to see my high school friend and baseball teammate Bart Araujo, who is most notably known for his Araujo Eisele Cabernets. This time I went to taste his new project Accendo-Accendo Cellars 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon is outstanding. Very much like a Bordeaux first growth in richest and complexity while holding the line on alcohol and oak. Red fruits abound on the nose and palate with nuances of Asian spice and cinnamon. Lush mid palate with great acidity and very round tannins. Like 2009 Bordeaux the fruit here covers the tannins. So sweet on the palate I drank three glasses-I don't spit these kind of wines. yes it is expensive but well worth the price. Bravo! Only 500 cases produced.
Drink from 2020 to 2020
1977 Graham's Vintage Port
Review Date: 01-15-2017
Perfect gift for that fortieth birthday or anniversary. There are not any real good 1977 California or Bordeaux wines.
2005 Magdelaine, St-Emilion
Review Date: 01-15-2017
I started collecting Bordeaux in 1971, and one of the first wines I bought was 1967 Magdelaine after I tasted it in Hawaii (Ilikai Hotel) that same year. I loved this property during the ’70s and ’80s when it was brought in by importers Bercut Vandervoort & Co. The last vintage of this (once) famous property was the 2011. In 2012 it was merged with Château Bélair-Monange. We have just gotten a small sampling of vintages direct from the property. The superb 2005 is a cellar candidate.
2012 Angélus, St-Émilion
Review Date: 04-26-2016
The second bottling of Angelus 2012 is off the charts delicious. In its gold-embossed bottle to celebrate the elevation of Angélus to Premier Grand Cru Classé A in the Saint-Émilion hierarchy, this perfumed wine bursts from the glass. Rounded tannins and tons of blackberry fruit aromas. 45% Cabernet Franc- it is rich and generous, with licorice and black chocolate flavors.
Drink from 2022 to 2022
2012 Vieux Château Certan, Pomerol
Review Date: 09-18-2015
One of the stars of Bordeaux for the last twenty-five years. They make great wines every year and 2012 is no exception. Tons of black fruit flavors. Seamless wine-delicious.
Drink from 2017 to 2017
1985 Warre's Vintage Port
Review Date: 04-24-2015
Very nice for enjoying tonight on your 30th birthday. Affordable and still capable of ten more years cellaring.
Drink from 2015 to 2015
2010 Lynch-Bages, Pauillac
Review Date: 03-10-2015
Massive wine that will age gracefully for 30 more years. Packed with cedar oak and pencil shaving aromas. Cabernet at its best, but if you drink it soon, decant for 2 hours.
Drink from 2020 to 2020
2009 Pontet-Canet, Pauillac (1.5L)
Review Date: 02-14-2013
** A fabulous wine. Tons of spicy black fruits. At property: Plummy, oaky aromas with chocolate undertones. No edges. Serenity.
2010 Les Forts de Latour, Pauillac
Review Date: 02-11-2013
**+ Malty, boysenberry aromas and mineral flavors. Many layers. Seamless and velvety. Could be the best Les Forts ever.
2010 Domaine de Chevalier Rouge, Pessac-Léognan
Review Date: 02-05-2013
**+ At UGC: Very earthy nose and flavors. Black fruit finish.
2010 Montrose, St-Estèphe
Review Date: 02-04-2013
Big wine. At UGC: Still very closed right now, but starts to come around nicely with air, though you still have to concentrate to find the velvet underneath the iron. You can see the pedigree here. Could this be a 100-pointer?
2005 Verdignan, Haut-Médoc
Review Date: 08-31-2011
This wine is a great cellar candidate with its mineral, licorice and toasty oak aromas. Full-bodied, with velvety tannins and a lingering finish. Very well balanced and generous with lots of fruit underneath. Must decant an hour if you want to drink it now.
Billecart-Salmon "Brut Réserve" Champagne
Review Date: 08-09-2011
As focused as ever, almost lemony on the palate and super refreshing. It reminds me of when we sold a special Billecart "K&L Cuvée" years back.
2010 Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan
Review Date: 07-08-2011
**+ Closed at first, but it comes around with airing.
2009 Les Forts de Latour, Pauillac
Review Date: 09-13-2010
Tasted in September 2010: Soft, sexy and quite elegant.
2009 Margaux, Margaux
Review Date: 05-19-2010
K&L's Notes: **½++ Most concentrated wine produced at Margaux in the last 30 years. Exotic, spicy red berry and cassis aromas. Fabulous palate entry and super-silky tannins. An iron fist in a cashmere glove? Alex: Spicy, dark, brooding nose. Amazing length and grip. The fineness of the tannins keeps the wine in balance.