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Roll in my Sweet Baby's Arms: In praise of Residual Sugar at Weingut Willi Schaefer
5/17/22 - It's no secret that the Rieslings of the Mosel (Saar and Ruwer) are some of the most articulate expressions of terroir in the world. At their finest, they are filigreed, detailed, mineral, and pure. The region is home to a number of sensational growers: J.J. Prüm, Egon Müller, Vollenweider, Von Schubert, Lauer, not to mention one of our favorites—Willi Schaefer. This 4.2... -
Dogfight on the Danube: Prager vs FX Pichler
5/14/22 - Before jetting off to Vienna in a couple of days for the first VieVinum wine fair since the "before times", I scored an opportunity to bring in two Heavyweights from the Wachau. Admittedly considered to be among the top producers in the Wachau, let alone Austria, I couldn't resist the urge to showcase their different styles (stainless steel vs old casks) and... -
Biodynamic Wine & Art in Chianti: Fattoria le Masse's Timeo Canaiolo and Chianti Classico
5/10/22 - Fattoria le Masse is located in the village of Barberino Val d’Elsa in Chianti. You might be visiting to walk the biodynamically tended vineyards and taste the wine. Or you maybe because you've signed up for a yoga class. Or you could be a lucky painter, selected as one of this year's resident artists at the estate (a project that began in June of 2021). Le Masse, if you couldn't... -
In the mood for Txakoli
5/6/22 - So far, this Spring has felt like Winter with a dash of Summer and a lot of rain. At this point, we are likely to wake up one day and discover that it's the middle of Summer. Though it seems we will have a few classic pleasant Spring days, with a warm, reassuring sun during the day and "hoodie weather" at night,... -
Chinon "Les Picasses" from Domaine Olga Raffault
5/4/22 - Our relationship with the Raffault family goes back to 1990, when Olga put a push-pin into New York on her map of the world, on the occasion ot the estate's first shipment to the US. They were apprehensive, but sensing that we were serious, winemaker Ernest Zeinninger kept bringing older and older wines from the cellar, all of which were fascinating and... -
Sending out an S.O.S. - Oriol Artigas' 2020s
4/13/22 - We are huge fans of Oriol Artigas, as a gentle soul and as a passionate winemaker. Though only making wines for around 10 years, he has become well known in natural wine circles, and his wines have wowed drinkers across the globe. Situated in the small town of Alella, just north of Barcelona, Oriol has been working with sandy, granitic vineyards overlooking... -
Saumur-Champigny from Antoine Sanzay!
4/9/22 - While we have enjoyed tasting the Saumur-Champigny's of Antoine Sanzay in France, they have not been readily available in the US, so we are extremely happy to offer today two vintages of his top cuvée "Les Poyeux." Also on offer today is a wine first produced in 2016, "Les Terres Rouges," from vines grown in sandy clay/limestone soils, with a high conent... -
Pierre Henri Rougeot - Not Your Grandparents' Negoce
4/5/22 - One of the little joys of late, as the world has haltingly come back to life, has been the occasional opportunity to sit down with some of our favorite winemakers, sharing bottles and a meal and talking to them about their work. A great bottle of wine is always enhanced by the insights of the person behind it. I recently had the... -
Stone and Sweat in North Yuba - Clos Saron
3/29/22 - We write often in these emails about idiosyncracy, in wines and in the people responsible for them. It's not a surprise really. Viticulture is often a solitary venture, even a lonely one, that takes place in pockets of the world where one can grow precious few other things. Over the years, I've had the tremendous good fortune to visit great growers, often in... -
Antoine Lienhardt - It's the Rock
3/25/22 - When I started here at Chambers Street in 2020, I was totally unfamiliar with the wines of Antoine Lienhardt but they were there on the shelf the first day I arrived. Specifically it was the two single-vineyard bottlings from the Cote de Nuits-Villages that have become his calling card here in New York. I asked my colleague John McIlwain about them, and... -
Nearest Faraway Place: the Wondrous (and Wild) Wines of Jakob Tennstedt
3/16/22 - Some email offers write themselves: wines you've drunk for years, maybe you've visited the growers, or it's a benchmark wine and the name alone will have people rushing to buy! buy! buy! Sometimes there's a wine that just needs a little more attention (and isn't this the year that Condrieu finally gets the love it deserves?). And then there are times where... -
Caparsa: Chianti that tastes like real Chianti
3/11/22 - Sometimes I think way too much about Sangiovese…In my mind I have this picture (or pictures) of “true” Chianti Classico, filtered through the lenses of both village and producer. Monte Bernardi in Panzano is lifted and precise—nervy and taut with a pungent mineral core, that leads with elegant, pure fruit fanning out from the structure. Montesecondo in San Casciano boasts ripe red... -
Envinate and the 2020 Vintage
2/12/22 - Year after year, we fall in love with the wines of Envinate, a collaborative project founded by four winemakers and friends who met while in enology school in Alicante. Roberto Santana, Alfonso Torrente, Laura Ramos, and José Martínez make wines from choice plots in the Canary Islands, Ribeira Sacra, Murcia, and Almansa, intending to express the unique terroirs of each region. They... -
Jura, Jura! The First Vintage of Croix & Courbet! And Our Drop of Lulu's 2019 BB1!
2/1/22 - Today, you have the chance to grab the first ever vintage of Croix & Courbet, the awesome collaboration between David Croix, of Beaune's young but famous Domaine des Croix, and Damien Courbet, from Domaine Courbet in the Jura. We've featured both of these men in the past, praising their respective approaches. The friends, who met at oenology school in Dijon, are focused on Savagnin, a varietal... -
The Unique and Soulful Wines of Elian Da Ros from the Côtes-du-Marmandais!
1/31/22 - Elian Da Ros & Sandrine Farrugia, the Côtes-du-Marmandais Even in France, the Marmandais region is quite obscure unless you are a rugby fan or a tomato aficionado. Upstream along the Garonne in the Lot-et-Garonne, barely 45 min drive from Sauternes, this softly rolling, peaceful area is historically a polycultural land of tobacco, grains, and tomatoes whose fame is due to early 19th...