Articles

4/23/14 - When I arrived chez Bérèche for my appointment a week and a half ago, the winery was in a state of chaos. I found Raphaël wearing an apron and moving a mile a minute. He was racking the 2013 wines from barrel to stainless steel tank, and the winery floor was covered in plastic tubing and the occasional bucket of lees destined...

4/22/14 - Finally, after two years of location search and seven months of building, Racines NY has opened at 94 Chambers Street, just east of Church! A neo-bistrot and wine/bar in the Parisian fashion, Racines NY offers a full menu, dozens of wines by the glass, thousands of bottles in the cellar and a lively, informal ambiance. A partnership of David Lanher (Racines, Paris),...

4/11/14 - Chambers Street Wines had the opportunity to buy some wine from a great cellar that a gentleman had built up over many decades.  He stopped adding to this cellar in 1990.  The wines we are offering never moved until his heirs decided to sell off what remained.  These wines were very well cared for and are impeccable.  Every wine we have tried...

4/7/14 - We're happy to announce that the dynamic Stephane Tissot of Domaine Andre and Mireille Tissot in the Jura will be joining us for a festive tasting this Thursday, April 10th at 7:30. We'll taste the full range of Stephane's wines while enjoying a superb light supper and we'll get a sneak preview of the soon-to-be-opened Racines NY! Monsieur Tissot, who grew up...

4/3/14 - How do wines come to take on seasonal character? With central heat and air conditioning, we can turn our domiciles into saunas in December if we feel like sipping a crisp Sancerre, and refrigerators in July if we fancy a nice bottle of Piorat. Yet even in an age when we’re at liberty to escape the reality of climate if we chose,...

4/1/14 - The affable, soft-spoken Matthias Knebel has been making the wines at his family's estate since 2009. They've been a constant presence in the German section here at Chambers Street since well before then, albeit mostly in the form of the entry-level dry Riesling and the multi-site blend, Riesling Von den Terrassen. As we've mentioned several times, 2012 is a terrific vintage up...

3/13/14 - (The stash of 1989s still resting in the Kramp cellar) Lots of folks in the wine industry sell wine through storytelling. We prefer instead to tell you a little bit about a wine or spirit we like and why we think you should buy it; this can include anecdotes about the people who make the wine or perhaps some technical information about...

3/3/14 - As we’ve watched the unusual wines of the Jura reach the heights of wine fashion, we’ve wondered when the Savoie would follow. I’m compelled to dispel the notion that the Jura and the Savoie have anything to do with one another. The Jura is part of the Franche-Comté, while the Savoie is part of the Rhône-Alpes, and they share little geologically, historically,...

2/22/14 - It’s an exciting time to follow the evolution of California’s wine identity, which is in a constant state of flux due to an expanding number of talented winemakers.   Instead of inheriting thousands of years of viticultural heritage, or developing a complex control system like France’s A.O.C or Italy’s D.O.C., the new world follows its own path.  In the beginning of viticulture in...

2/12/14 - (Jean Gonon) "Rain until the 14th of July" said Jean Gonon about 2012 "followed by a good August and an OK September - we did a severe selection in the vineyard - a small harvest, but good." Not a great vintage, perhaps, but "very similar to 2010 for the white" says Jean and for me there are similarities to 1991 - a...

2/9/14 - A few days ago our good friend, Mike Carleton of the small Connecticut-based import company, Transatlantic Bubbles, braved the worst snow storm of the season to bring us Champagne to taste. Low and behold, his bag was full of delicious wines that revived us from the torpor of dreary January with fine, energetic bubbles, and bracing minerality. In addition to the soulful...

2/8/14 - Over the past 20 years Hans Reisetbauer has risen to the forefront of Eau-de-Vie distillation.  (Eau-de-Vie, meaning “water of life” is the evocative French name for fruit brandies.)  In Austria there is also a proud tradition of making these spirits, but one would be more likely to hear them called by their Germanic name: Schnaps.  Americans spell Schnaps with an extra p,...

1/24/14 - (The rare Duras vines of Bernard Plageoles in Gaillac (photo courtesy of Isabelle Rosembaum)) Ancient, Tenacious Reds of South-West France The South-west of France was once the supplier of wines to Roman Emperors, the Gauls having planted vines as early as 600 B.C. by some accounts. These days, ancient sites and expressive, elegant wines fit for the ruling classes are selling at...

1/22/14 - (Roagna's vines in lower part of Paje in May; the vines at the top of the photo are not Roagna's.) When you walk from neighboring vines into Roagna’s vineyard, you feel a little as if you’d left the desert for an oasis; on the day the photo above was taken there were birds, butterflies, and rabbits amongst the vines. Aside from the...

1/21/14 - Suntory, Japan’s first and most prominent malt whisky distillery, announced last week that they were going to purchase Jim Beam for about $13.5 billion. Although not yet a household name in the states, Suntory, and the ever more visible Japanese whisky industry, are set to take the whisky world by storm.   Japanese whisky and Japanese whisky culture are rooted in Scotland, but...