Articles

9/26/18 - We are very excited to announce the arrival of three new natural wines from Terraquilia: two sparkling red Lambruschi and a delicious sparkling white. Terraquilia is a small estate located in the hills of Guigila, south of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northeast Italy, and sits at an elevation of 450 meters. Romano Mattioli is the owner and winemaker, and since...

9/25/18 - The drive up to the Mezcal Tosba palenque in San Cristobal Lachirioag is one of the most breathtaking I've ever done. Though only about 160 km from Oaxaca City, it takes between five and six hours (in the case of our little beat-up Ford Fiesta it was definately the latter) to traverse the high mountain passes and deep valleys of the Sierra...

9/24/18 - One of our geatest tastings in France last winter was with Stephanie Caslot of Domaine de la Chevalerie in Bourgueil, which included the 2014 and 2015 vintages of each cuvee from this oustanding Biodynamic estate. The 2015s were lovely wines with ripe, complex fruit in a full and failry soft style - they will be delicious when young and for medium-term cellaring....

9/22/18 - A friend who is keen to learn more about Barolo and Barbaresco has asked if we could put together some daytime tastings to illuminate some of the details of the wines. This should be useful and fascinating even for a Nebbiolo nut like myself, as it’s always a challenge to try to focus the subject; assembling a tasting is an exercise in...

9/19/18 - We are very excited to offer fantastic new biodynamic wines from Azienda Agricola Ausonia, located in the Abruzzo region of Southern Italy. Ausonia was founded in 2006 by Simone Binelli, who had worked for six years as a pharmacist before deciding to take the plunge and pursue his dream of becoming a winemaker. After studying viticulture and enology in Florence, he and...

9/16/18 - We're proud to offer the 2016s from Stéphane Magnien, a young man who is producing superb old-fashioned Burgundies at his 4.5 hectare domain in Morey-Saint-Denis.   2016 is perhaps the greatest vintage we have encountered at this over-achieving estate - a difficult year in the vines and with very low yields, but the results are outstanding. The wines show beautiful, deep red...

9/7/18 - Anyone who knows about Chambers St. Wines knows that our fascination and love for Loire Valley wines is longstanding. With that in mind, and as our duty to the wine-drinking public, we present some delicious new arrivals from two of our favorite domains!  Though we have only worked with Philippe Delmee for two years now, it feels as if we've known him...

9/5/18 - Long before Cabernet appeared in California, or Malbec became the rage in Argentina, or Carménère was planted in Chile (or any other variety of Vitis Vinifera was found in the Western Hemisphere), there was one grape that was widely planted all the way from California to Chile. It goes by many different names, as any grape would which was distributed over such...

8/29/18 - I first met Joy Kull in 2013 when I was in Italy with Kevin McKenna, Jules Dressner, and a small team from Louis/Dressner Selections. I was admittedly surprised to meet someone from America (let alone Connecticut) at a tiny natural wine fair in the middle of nowhere in Italy, but there was of course an explanation! At the time, Joy was working at an...

8/28/18 - The historical importance of Fontanafredda for Barolo cannot be overstated; it’s one of the oldest and largest properties in the region, and one of the first to estate-bottle and market under its own label. This is beautifully related in Kerin O’Keefe’s “Barolo and Barbaresco”, and it’s quite a story, starting with the Kings of Italy, and arriving in the present with the...

8/23/18 - I never got to meet Don Lorenzo Angeles Mondoza, but I had the great pleasure of meeting his daughter, Graciela Angeles Carreño, and being invited to a celebration of Don Lorenzo's life and work at the Real Minero palenque (distillery) a few weeks ago. A day of remembering, a feast, a wild dance party all rolled into one, Graciela was the consummate...

8/21/18 -   We're very proud to be working with the witty and affable Jean-Francois Deu at Domaine du Traginer, and we have just received a new shipment of these delicious wines that belong on your table this season. It's hard to convey Jean-Francois' sarcastic humor (Eben: "I'm going to come to visit you!" Jean-Francois: "Don't worry, I'm not afraid. We have lots of work...

8/16/18 - When you leave the Barolo zone and go southeast the terrain becomes even steeper, higher and more convoluted, and the hills are heavily wooded. Tourists like myself mostly go to visit some fantastic restaurants (da Cesare in Albaretto Torre, Cocinella in Serravalle Langhe, Locanda dell’Arco in Cissone, and da Gemma in Roddino - and I'm sure there are other fine spots that...

8/14/18 - Finally the 2015 Chinon "La Croix Boissée" has joined the other beautiful Baudry 2015s on our shelves! While all the Baudry 2015s show gorgeous fruit and a round and supple structure, we especially love the brilliant (and great value) "Cuvée Domaine" and the perfect "La Croix Boissée."  As the Baudrys say "the 2015s from the slopes and with more clay are very...

8/9/18 - We read again and again about historic wineries (“the family first made wine there in 22 BCE…”) but for the Marchesi di Barolo it’s no exaggeration. The winery was one of the first recorded to focus on Nebbiolo, and it produced wine called Barolo as early as the 1830s (which is very early for Barolo; the wine was said to be very...