Articles

11/1/13 - How is the 2011 Red Burgundy vintage? These are wines that are delicious now and have very good aging potential.  Michel Lafarge compares it to 1952,  which to this day is a great vintage.  Marie Christine Mugneret Gibourg compares it to 1985 and 2002, two fantastic vintages that are still drinking beautifully. All of these vintages have superb ripe fruit and drank...

10/30/13 - (An old map of Wagram's Feuersbrunn slope showing Spiegel and Rosenberg in the center) We get as excited as anyone by the exotic, the unfamiliar, the new and intriguing. This is no less true in the Austrian department than anywhere else in the store. Want biodynamic field blends from Vienna? We have them. How about late-release Gelber Muskateller that has spent almost...

10/29/13 - Maison F. E. Trimbach has been producing top Alsatian wines since 1626, none greater than the most famous wine of the region, Clos Ste. Hune.  Now under the twelfth generation of family ownership and winemaking, the Trimbachs have not strayed from traditional styles of dry Alsatian wine even when fashions in the region shifted to wines with large amounts of residual sugar. ...

10/28/13 -   To be frank we think the concept of “Wine of the Vintage” is marketing bs. Even under lab-like conditions, each time a truly great wine is tasted, we’re only provided with a snapshot of that wine at that moment. It’s artificial and even annoying that one wine must be anointed Wine of the Vintage; it’s certainly as subjective a judgment as...

10/22/13 - (Nelly Busch keeping watch over the Pündericher Marienburg) We love Clemens and Rita Busch. Not only do they make some of the most distinctive, unexpected wines of the Mosel Valley, they also have some of the biggest hearts of anyone in the wine world. Their humility and gentle, giving spirit comes through in their wines and Clemens’ careful biodynamic stewardship of their...

10/20/13 - Of the three grapes varieties that go into most Champagne, Pinot Meunier is generally considered to be rustic and fruity in comparison to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. We believe that everything depends on the maker, and top-notch Meunier specialists (like Jérôme Prevost and Aurélian Laherte) produce Champagnes based on Meunier that rival the region’s great Grand Cru Pinots and Chardonnays. We’d like...

10/18/13 -   European wine producers working in denominated wine districts are obliged to submit samples of their wines to tasting panels on a regular basis. These panels are supposed to ensure that all wines bearing the official local designation (“Chianti Classico DOCG”, “Appellation Beaujolais Villages Controlee”, etc) conform to established standards of taste, aroma, color, and general quality. In principal this is a...

10/9/13 -   I still remember my first bottle of Chandon de Briailles… a 2002 Savigny-les-Beaune consumed as a novice wine professional in New York City circa 2007. The wine was the soul of elegance and restraint with gorgeous, woodsy red fruits on the nose and beautiful fine tannins (though many would have considered it a baby…). The Domaine was totally unknown to me...

10/3/13 - The store is awash in delicious Spanish wines this fall! We are particularly pleased to welcome the vivid, textured, and nuanced reds from Rafa Bernabé in Spain's resurgent Alicante region. Rafa's importer, Jose Pastor, explains that Bernabé was long respected in the central Mediterranean region as a maker of more modern, showy wines from Monastrell and international varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon. He...

9/30/13 -  (Vincent Laval and healthy soils in Cumières.)   Over the past few years Champagne grower Vincent Laval of Domaine Georges Laval has ascended to a place of prominence in our hearts and minds. Georges Laval (Vincent’s father) converted to organic viticulture in the early 1970s and the estate continues to be one of only a few in Champagne to be certified organic....

9/26/13 - (Lumpi XVII - The 17th dog of this name and breed to live at Nikolaihof)   The Wachau is loaded with great producers and at the high end they're all over the stylistic map. The Pragers, Hirtzbergers, Pichlers and Knolls of the region are at the top of anyone's list of the stars of the region, but we've also long loved the...

9/24/13 - (Thierry and Jean-Marie Puzelat (photo: Bert Celce)) Some insanely delicious new wines have arrived, inspiring us to send this selection of Pineau D'Aunis, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Meunier from our favorite organic folks in the Loire Valley. Please note that 2012 was a very small harvest in the Loire with many wines in short supply. And a special thank-you to Jean-Marie...

9/19/13 - The Wine World’s Most Amazing Cooperative Originally published in John Gilman's "A View from the Cellar" Issue #22, July-August 2009            The Produttori del Barbaresco has been producing stellar wines since its inception in 1958, and is clearly one of the most impressive success stories for a winegrowers’ cooperative in the history of wine. Since its very first vintage, it has been...

9/16/13 -   For years the beneficent wine lord Chadderdon smiled upon us and permitted us to sell the beautiful Ligurian wines from Bruna (along with some Quintarelli, Bartolo Mascarello, Boxler – and perhaps a little something else that he’d send along at his whim). Happy were we, mostly, to be among his chosen. Then a couple of years ago he up and retires;...

9/12/13 - Our thanks to Eric Asimov for another excellent article about wines from the Rhône Valley!  In this article Eric discusses his love for the traditional Chateauneufs that he drank in the eighties and nineties: "wine with all the sort of mossy idiosyncrasies that might characterize the old castles that dot the region... a wine of fruit flavors, yes, but also aromas of...