Articles

1/15/14 - Oh the cosmic rhythm of the wine store. The final month of the old year depletes our stocks; the first month of the new replenishes… Quite possibly the best aspect of January is putting new wines on the shelf (let’s face it; the weather leaves something to be desired…). This week we’re particularly excited about a fresh batch of wines from the...

1/10/14 One of our favorite Burgundy producers is de Montille in Volnay, a Domaine that dates back to the 1800s.  Along with Lafarge and D'Angerville, Domaine de Montille produces some of the longest lived Volnays and some of the very best Pommards to cross our paths. De Montille's Rugiens "Bas" (considered a superior morsel of the Rugiens vineyard) is a benchmark of the appellation,...

1/7/14 - (Vines of Christian Ducroux) We salute the New Year, and with it the arrival of Christian Ducroux's delicious 2013 Prologue, the lovely 2012 Brouilly and Morgon from Georges Descombes, and the return of the wonderful 2011s from our new friends, Joëlle and Roland Pignard. 2013 will not go down in history as a great vintage in the Beaujolais, or any other region...

12/17/13 - Whisky is more popular than ever.  In the United States the surge has been led by ultra-aged Bourbons and the ever-expanding landscape of small, local-production distilleries, but we haven’t forgotten about Scotch.  Single Malt Scotch is made entirely from barley, and distilled in pot stills that produce much less spirit than the industrial stills used to make the majority of the world’s...

12/12/13 -    This is most likely our last offer of old Piedmont wine this year; there are some interesting wines we want to draw your attention to: Barolo Chinato is a ‘digestivo’ – something you usually drink after a meal, although in Piedmont some people like it as an aperitif. It has a base of Barolo, with sugar added and herbs and quinine,...

12/12/13 - (Sunrise Over Vogelzang Vineyard, Happy Canyon AVA. (Photo courtesy of Dragonette Cellars.)) The season for obligatory merriment is here, providing a variety of excuses to open delicious wines and share them with others! The domestic shelves are presently full of party-friendly and gift-worthy bottles, ranging from the experimental to the classic. Our California offers tend to be dominated by favorite winemakers from...

12/9/13 -   (One of the Nahe's most special sites, Schloßböckelheimer Königsfels) We are huge fans of Eric Asimov and his excellent wine columns in the New York Times. Often we find his taste lines up with our own, and he's done more than almost any other writer to help bring attention to the lesser-known regions and categories of the vinous world that we...

12/3/13 - (Brunate, with La Morra on the hilltop; May 2013) A year or more has passed since we last wrote about handling old wine. A happy number of fine bottles have passed across our table since then, and the additional tasting experience has reinforced our conviction that old Piedmont wines need to be decanted, and that they only benefit from time in the...

(Vincent in the Vines.) It might seem counterintuitive, but there’s a school of thought amongst some wine lovers that very fine Champagne represents good value in comparison to equivalent wine from other prestigious regions. Yes behemoth Champagne négociants drive up the prices of their luxury brands, but Champagne is also costly to produce, requiring extensive labor and long periods of sur lie aging. While...

11/21/13 -  (Plowing at Domaine du Traginer) "Banyuls and Banyuls Grand Cru are the appellations for France's finest and certainly most complex vin doux naturel" says The Oxford Companion to Wine, and we have enjoyed fine examples from Dr. Parcé, Domaine de la Rectorie, La Tour Vieille, and others. Recent tastings of the Banyuls and Collioures from Jean-Francois Deu at Domaine du Traginer have...

11/15/13 - Armagnac – perhaps France’s most underappreciated brandy region.  Where else can one buy a spirit aged in barrel for 30 years for just over a hundred bucks?  When we look at what Bourbon of a similar age costs these days, it’s as if the Gasconians haven’t heard of Van Winkle or Macallan and the prices that they sell for!  We think that...

11/12/13 -  We grew up in a Francophile world of wine; we had hardly ever tasted old Rioja before our introduction in 2001 to Lopez-Heredia. Anyone who has been lucky enough to taste those wines will testify to their splendor in old age. Being Francophiles, the finesse and depth of the Lopez wines reminded us of fine vintages of old Haut Brion and La...

11/7/13 -  (Gnarled Old Vines in Bedrock Vineyard (July 2013)) We are thrilled to host a special tasting this Saturday to celebrate the release of "The New California Wine," the eagerly anticipated new book from San Francisco Chronicle Wine Editor, Jon Bonné. We have been stashing some of our favorite and most limited bottles to crack for the occasion; please stop by between 4...

11/6/13 - (The imposing Ayler Kupp) We’ve written at length many times about these two favorite Saar growers: the Webers at Hofgut Falkenstein and Florian Lauer. We don’t need to repeat ourselves any more than you want to re-read the same prose, so let’s cut straight to the salient points: 1. New 2012s from both estates have arrived. 2. The vintage is absolutely tremendous...

11/2/13 - (The famous 'cube' at Ceretto in Castiglione Falletto makes a very visisble and useful landmark. It's not clear that anyone realized in advance just how hot it would get inside the cube, but the view from it is spectacular.) Last Sunday we had a great dinner with a bunch of old friends at Maialino, Danny Meyer's Roman-style trattoria.  After a glass of...