Articles

5/2/16 - Our attention gets channeled in ways we don’t always perceive, or at least give a lot of thought to. Good wine might escape us in NY simply because there’s no local importer, which is not to say, of course, that we don’t have plenty of good wine to choose from!  In any event, we have almost no experience with the wines from...

4/21/16 - Old Rioja is a considerable bargain in the wine world (although maybe not for much longer). Prices of back vintages from classical Rioja producers such as CVNE, La Rioja Alta, and López de Heredia have risen dramatically in the past several years, reflecting wine drinkers’ realizations of their underlying quality. But there are a slew of other Rioja producers whose wines remain...

4/19/16 - Roberto Oliván Iglesias has been farming his eight hectare family estate, Tentenublo, in the high, wind-swept Basque country of the Rioja Alavesa since 2011. Working organically, using native yeast fermentation, and limited sulphur, Roberto draws upon Rioja’s long established protocol of barrel aging (working mainly with French oak), to craft deeply personal wines of substance and character. In our last Rioja article...

4/18/16 - Chenin Blanc: "Loire, and South African speciality, making crisp, sometimes long-lived wines with varying degrees of sweetness that deserve more recognition" say the fine folks who produced the excellent book, Wine Grapes.  We might be more lavish in our praise, saying that Chenin Blanc produces some of the world's most distinctive wines, be they dry, off-dry, sweet or sparkling which are among the...

4/5/16 - Chris Pittenger of Gros Ventre was a gifted baseball player in a previous life; however, he took a viticulture course during his freshman year at Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo, and subsequently caught the wine bug.  After college Chris worked in a couple of bottle shops before moving to Jackson Hole, WY to work in restaurants as a sommelier (while, not...

3/22/16 - (Photo: Hubert Soreau in the vines) In as much as Champagne can be considered a brand embodying a "House Style," which is often the case, it can be a true wine of terroir. Whether it’s the sub-regional distinctions from the Kimmeridgian soils of the Côtes de Bar to the distinct chalkiness of the Côte des Blancs or explored at an even closer...

3/18/16 - Everyone knows Chartreuse, but it's not every day that you have the opportunity to get your hands on bottles that have spent the past 40 years sleeping in a cellar in Italy. Chartreuse is well-known for its aging capabilities because the herbal components continue to meld in the bottle; there is no doubt that these will offer fantastic drinking pleasure. In addition...

3/8/16 - Please join us on Monday, March 14th as Louis/Dressner Selections and Chambers Street Wines present 22 of the finest estates in France and Italy at a tasting to benefit Partners-in-Health. "We go. We make house calls. We build health systems. We stay." This is a great opportunity to taste and talk with these talented vignerons in optimal, uncrowded conditions, particularly for those...

3/4/16 - It’s that time of the year again, and after a long absence of one of my favorite winemakers from our shelves, the wines from Dominique Belluard are here again! For those of us familiar with these fantastic wines, rejoice! And for those who haven’t had the pleasure of tasting them before, take note. Dominique took over this estate in 1988 in the...

2/23/16 - Chambers Street congratulates Pierre and Catherine Breton on the 30th Anniversary of their estate - 30 years of producing some of the most elegant and delicious wines in the Loire Valley, with great farming, brilliant winemaking and a convivial attitude that has made them friends around the world. Their early conversion to organic farming and biodynamic methods helped inspire vignerons all over...

2/7/16 - For many years now, hundreds of vignerons from all over Europe have joined together at tastings to display their wonderful new world of naturally-made wines, made from grapes grown in living soils farmed with organic and biodynamic methods. (One of the first and favorite is La Dive Bouteille, held originally in a cellar in Bourgueil in 1999.) Finally, New York will host two...

2/2/16 - East of Verona and just over the hill from Soave, Gambellara is a picturesque area covered by vines and lush valleys. Davide Vignato is now in charge of this family-run winery and was the first in the DOC to be certified organic and the first in the area to implement biodynamic farming methods. Davide’s grandfather Rinaldo grew up here and planted the...

1/19/16 - It's fascinating to read about and walk through the famous parcels in the Côte d'Or, learning about the subtle differences of slope, exposure, altitude, subsoil and topsoil that differentiate the great terroirs of Burgundy. It's not so interesting to note that many of these vineyards, largely created by the natural composts of the monks, are now somewhat barren and lifeless, having been...

12/14/15 - Legend tells of how King Alfons "The Chaste" sent two of his knights to reconoitre the land in search of the ideal place for the Carthusian Order to settle in Catalonia. When they reached the foothills of Montsant they were immediately struck by the extraordinary beauty of the area and they requested information about the place from a local shepherd. Besides informing...

12/11/15 - At Chambers Street Wines, we have had the great fortune to work with a number of fabulous organic growers over the years. With our mandate of supporting good farming and traditional wine-making, offering the Burgundies from Domaine Chandon de Briailles is a distinct pleasure. Based in the village of Savigny-lès-Beaune with vines in Corton and Pernand-Vergelesses, the estate has roots going back...