Articles

8/16/18 - When you leave the Barolo zone and go southeast the terrain becomes even steeper, higher and more convoluted, and the hills are heavily wooded. Tourists like myself mostly go to visit some fantastic restaurants (da Cesare in Albaretto Torre, Cocinella in Serravalle Langhe, Locanda dell’Arco in Cissone, and da Gemma in Roddino - and I'm sure there are other fine spots that...

8/14/18 - Finally the 2015 Chinon "La Croix Boissée" has joined the other beautiful Baudry 2015s on our shelves! While all the Baudry 2015s show gorgeous fruit and a round and supple structure, we especially love the brilliant (and great value) "Cuvée Domaine" and the perfect "La Croix Boissée."  As the Baudrys say "the 2015s from the slopes and with more clay are very...

8/9/18 - We read again and again about historic wineries (“the family first made wine there in 22 BCE…”) but for the Marchesi di Barolo it’s no exaggeration. The winery was one of the first recorded to focus on Nebbiolo, and it produced wine called Barolo as early as the 1830s (which is very early for Barolo; the wine was said to be very...

8/6/18 - The 2017 vintage has seen yields down across the board for most winemakers in the Mosel and Saar valleys, be it from late frosts in spring, or loss to not-so-noble rot in the fall. The Webers at Hofgut Falkenstein in the Konz valley (Saar) were not immune, with hits to their yields early on from frost. That being said, the rest of the...

8/4/18 - Back when we first opened Chambers St. Wines in 2001, I didn't have any interest in wine. I had yet to meet Marc Olivier, Catherine Roussel, Didier Barrouilet, or Mathieu and Bernard Baudry. Contrary to some assumptions, I didn't grow up tasting any of the Muscadet or Chinon my parents were drinking at the dinner table (thanks Dad!). The first time I took a...

8/2/18 - We're very proud to be working with Jean-Claude Rateau, who was the fourth vigneron in France to convert to biodynamics, beginning with two hectares in 1979. On our recent visit to his spacious cellars outside of Beaune, we were delighted with the purity and minerality of his wines which offer a stark and delicious contrast to the more extracted and manipulated modern...

7/26/18 - We're excited to offer some fantastic wines from Porter Creek Vineyards, located in the Russian River Valley. Now one of the most recognizable AVAs in American wine, George Davis bought his first vineyards in 1977, six years before the area was given AVA status in 1983 and a very long time before the widespread explosion of popularity, planting, and investment that occurred...

7/23/18 - It all started with the Tempranillo. Years ago, I tasted the 'Cauzon' from Ramón Saavedra, and was blown away. Save a handful of impressive aged Riojas and Ribera del Duero wines I'd tried, this was the best Tempranillo I'd ever tasted. It had more lift and acid, and was a little less extracted than many examples from the north of Spain, but...

7/20/18 - Today we're excited to offer you the first commerically available vintages of an exciting and dynamic new voice in Napa wine! Phil Holbrook, and his wife Dani, started Revik Wine Co. with an obsessive focus on non-invasive winemaking practices and a keen interest in the qualities of their specific vineyard sites. In a sense, this is entirely natural. Phil has lived in...

7/16/18 - It's perfectly reasonable to be wary of bearded dudes in Brooklyn making sake. Japan's national beverage has a millenium old tradition, with many breweries being generation-old family businesses. Many producers trade quite intensely on that heritage to tell their story and sell their product. When I first heard about Brooklyn Kura I was pretty skeptical. It seemed like the sort of cultural appropriation...

7/13/18 - A month ago, we had the pleasure of hanging out with Oriol Artigas as he passed through New York on a quick tour/vacation. We tasted his new wines and talked about the vineyards and the coastal mountain villages of Alella (a small wine region north of Barcelona). Oriol has an infectious type of energy and passion for his craft, and it's hard not...

7/11/18 - In its most simple definition, a Gemischter Satz is a field blend: a wine made from a mixed planting of a minimum of three different grapes that are harvested at the same time, fermented and aged together. In the past, these mixed vineyards were often planted as insurance against difficult vintages, and I've always been a fan of the underlying message at work, that...

7/6/18 - We're thrilled to announce that after a long wait, the rare and wild natural wines from Lucy Margaux are here. It's always a joy to see the bottles with their cheeky, home-spun labels on our shelves because they are unapologetically different from the conventional wine we usually see coming from Australia. For those who may have dismissed Australian wine as being overly-processed, extracted, or unimaginative, this...

7/4/18 - Today's email will be short and to the point: July 4th is upon us, and so is a nasty heat wave! With temperatures and humidity at a high, we will all be thirsty for the coldest and most refreshing beverage possible. Enter Wild Arc Farm's Piquette from the Hudson Valley! A beverage with a history dating back to Greek and Roman times,...

6/28/18 - Today we'd like to introduce the second vintage of two awesome Pét-Nats from Chëpika, a collaboration between Finger Lakes winemaker Nathan Kendall and renowned Master Sommelier (and dear friend of the store) Pascaline Lepeltier. What sets these wines apart is that they are made from two indigenous North American vine species: Catawba and Delaware. These grapes have a long history in winemaking...