Articles

11/8/16 - "For five years, this project was an ongoing story in my mind," Dominik Huber explained as we ascended the steep cobblestone street leading to the town square of Torroja del Priorat, the postcard-perfect, Catalan mountain village where he lives and works in a small garage winery on the edge of town. A gorgeous yellow building dominates the town square. It is the...

10/27/16 - In recent years, the effects of global warming have been felt in vineyards throughout the world. This has been particularly serious in France, where frost, hail and drought, formerly rare occurrences, have become common and more intense. In 2016, certain areas in Beaujolais, Burgundy, the Loire and Languedoc were hit with these disasters, one after the other. In the Loire Valley, for...

10/14/16 - Here at Chambers Street, we typically shy away from large estates, and champion winemakers with tiny plots and horse-drawn plows, but occasionally there are exceptions to the rule! Enter Domaine Les Grandes Vignes, a family estate of about 50 hectares (over 100 acres) of vines in the Loire Valley. They may seem "grand" in scale compared to some of our favorite Loire...

10/12/16 - (Photo: Moses Gadouche showing off the amount of sediment in a typical bottle before disgorgement.) Autumn: the perfect season. Among many other things that I love about my favorite time of year is that we can now feel less guilty about staying in and cooking at night, having friends over for a meal, and having the perfect wines to go with it....

10/5/16 - Living in New Jersey in the early 90's and working in Manhattan, Andrew Scott and Jennifer Clark became passionate wine lovers and soon fell in with the burgeoning natural wine scene in NYC. Both Andrew and Jennifer tasted many Loire Valley producers beloved here at Chambers Street Wines with David Lillie (then of Garnet Wines) as well as  Joe Dressner, whose import...

10/3/16 - Driving deep into the foothills of the Massif Central mountains to the village (nay, hamlet) of Le Bruel, near Campouriez, northeast of Toulouse in the Aveyron department, winding roads lead around fantastically steep slopes and through lush forests. The hamlet itself boasts no more than twenty homes and barns, no shops or stores among them, making one feel as if they’ve stepped...

9/29/16 - There are some who are born into wine and some who arrive there later in life. In a sense, Mark Vlossak is a bit of both. Though he started St. Innocent in 1988, his roots go further back. As a child, he began tasting and discussing wines with his father, a wine importer and gourmand. This experience —  along with meals prepared...

9/27/16 - 2014 was the last vintage at Clos Roche Blanche, the estate inherited by Catherine Roussel from her grandfather and managed by Catherine and Didier Barouillet. It was one of the most important estates in the Loire Valley and an inspiration to young vignerons who followed their conversion to organic and biodynamic farming and more natural methods of winemaking. A succession was uncertain...

9/23/16 - "Not More But Also Not Less." This is the translation of the phrase printed near the base of every label of Vetter wine (and cider), and it perfectly sums up Stefan Vetter’s approach and commitment to his vineyards and wines. He works by hand in the vineyards, using organic and biodynamic methods. In the cellar he adds nothing, allowing for spontaneous fermentation, and uses...

9/19/16 - (Chad Stock among Chardonnay vines at Omero Cellars - photo: Jonas Mendoza) Minimus Wines are unconventional even by Oregon standards. Each wine is an individually numbered, non-repeating experiment with assorted varieties, fermentation, and/or maturation techniques that eschew or break formal winemaking conventions. For example, Experiment #1 was devoted to aging wine in acacia barrels; Experiment #2 focused on co-fermenting Tempranillo with Viognier skins. Nevertheless,...

9/14/16 - (Nicola Manferrari takes Tocai Friuliano to majestic heights in Collio. Photo courtesy of Borgo del Tiglio) It’s something of a curiosity that in considering the great wines of Italy and the great whites of the world, the wines of the Friuli's Collio are somehow overlooked. They combine structure, texture, aromatics, not to mention ageability, in compelling fashion.  The region is blessed by...

9/9/16 - I first met Céline Tripoz this past January at a tasting in Angers. A few months later, I received an email from her asking for help finding her daughter a place to stay when she came to visit New York. I was happy that she had remembered our short conversation at the massive Salon des Vins de Loire, where she probably had...

9/8/16 - Among the visionary growers of Champagne, Cédric Bouchard of Roses de Jeanne might be considered something of an auteur. Which is to say that all of his efforts in the vines and cellar advance his vision: that expression of each vineyard is paramount. Contrary to the Champenois tradition of blending, each cuvée is derived from one grape and one parcel and one...

8/26/16 - Our group was in the Peter Lauer tasting room, collectively gawking at old bottles, Lauer Schnapps(!), and the formidable number of samples we would soon be tasting through. Florian Lauer joined us and, after giving an amazing historical and geological primer on the region, the epic tasting began. Florian Lauer is a font of knowledge, which flows from him with such casual confidence, that...

8/23/16 - (Photos by Cari Bernard) 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, Fritz Haag, Von Schubert, Lauer, not to mention one of...