Articles

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...

8/19/16 - Back in 2011, I traveled through France for the first time, visiting with winemakers and attending trade tastings around the country. It was an eye-opening trip, and one that led to the realization that I wanted to continue in my father’s path, championing the work of small growers throughout France and introducing them to our customers here at Chambers Street. Of the many...

8/17/16 - Please join us this Thursday night as CSW's Eben Lillie launches VdT (Verre de Terre) at Dirty Bird Chelsea, 204 West 14th Street. VdT will offer  an extensive list of natural wines by the glass, starting at $6, with bottles starting at $20, and many "pur jus" with no added sulfur. Small estates available only at VdT will be featured as well...

8/15/16 - Italians love sparkling wines. There are some great indigenous examples, and Italy is also a fantastic place to drink Champagne, particularly if you’re interested in the best grower Champagne. But Italy’s famous sparkling wine called Franciacorta has long been a mystery to me, so for a couple of years I’ve made an effort to seek knowledge through more tasting. After trying many...

8/12/16 - Ask any Oregon wine insider about great winemakers and the name John Paul Cameron comes up in hushed and reverent tones. His eponymous Cameron Winery has been around since 1984, but its legendary status often does not resonate outside Oregon because of the very limited distribution of these wines. Moreover, his fanatical attention to the farming and the winemaking leaves little time...

8/9/16 - Suddenly it’s boom-times for Cesanese, the most important red grape in Lazio (the region around Rome). Cesanese was the house wine in many Roman trattorias in the 1970s and 1980s; it could be pretty crude, but we have fond memories of lively wines that went perfectly with carbonara and saltimbocca. We’ve tasted many recent attempts to revive and "improve" Cesanese that were...

8/3/16 - Hofgut Falkenstein stands surrounded by verdant vineyards and gardens, high above the Konz valley, a tiny side valley off the Saar River. Its roof was just recently restored in a traditional German style, utilizing thin, slate tiles, reminiscent of inky-gray fish scales, or plates of stone armor gracefully curving upwards to frame the tiny windows jutting out from the upper level of the house. Upon arriving, as...

7/29/16 - A recent trip to Oregon demonstrated that there’s much more to the winemaking scene than Pinot Noir. There are some great Chardonnays (check out the 2014 vintage!), German, Alsatian, and Loire Valley varieties, and even experiments with Spanish grapes in the Columbia Gorge. (Mencia! Albarino!) Within the state, there's a collective of young, passionate winemakers embracing a natural, less-interventionist winemaking philosophy similar...

7/27/16 - I’ve always had the sensation of stability at Canonica – the calm and contented atmosphere of the old family house, the Canonicas’ positive outlook and gentle good humor, and the consistently very high quality of the wine. But things change, and a great boom is under way! The house is expanding to add some more rooms to the B&B, and the wine...

7/25/16 - The number of organic and biodynamic estates in Southern France has been increasing in recent years, and as the farming has improved and growers have started to turn from the prevalent co-op model towards making and bottling their own wine, we’ve been able to enjoy some fantastic blends and single-vineyard expressions from the region. Today, we’ll take a trip on paper to introduce...

7/23/16 - "Discovering" great wines today is a crapshoot. Simply put, there are not many producers out there who are both little known and fabulous. One must rely on luck and timing, above all, to be able to introduce wine-loving friends to something new and exciting. Many recent "discoveries" should be more aptly termed renaissances, as generational change pulls existing producers out of bad...

7/14/16 - In the village of Albares de la Ribera, high in the mountains of the Bierzo Alto in Northwestern Spain, winegrower Germán Blanco (familiar to Chambers Street regulars through his very popular Quinta Milú wines) recuperates and farms old-vine piezas (small family vineyards) planted by his great-grandmother and her neighbors. Feral and fragrant, planted on oak- and chestnut-covered slopes rising as high as 1000 meters above the valley of the beautiful...

7/12/16 -   You may remember a TV ad campaign featuring a handsome Franco Bolla telling Americans to drink more Soave. Thanks to successful marketing campaigns, mostly by larger wineries like Bolla, Soave surpassed Chianti in the 1970s as the largest-selling Italian DOC wine. By the mid-1990s Soave was producing six million cases a year, about 80% of which was being produced by the...