Articles

12/5/15 - Over the last two centuries, key advancements in the history of Cava were introduced by a series of innovative heirs to the Raventós name and land. Josep Raventós Fatjó was among the first to produce Método Tradicional (Champagne method) sparkling wines; Manuel Raventós Domènech spearheaded the post-phylloxera (1890s) planting of white grapes suited to top-quality sparkling wine in the calcareous and clay vineyards...

12/2/15 - Earlier this year after a fantastic visit with Jean-Claude Rateau in Burgundy I headed east to Jura, to visit a few estates. Having only been in the region on a misty, snowy day in January years ago, I was excited to experience this part of France in the Spring. Of course, as luck would have it, it was a gray, rainy day,...

11/23/15 - (Photo: Daniele, Davide, and Renato Chiesa) For several years I attended the annual giant tasting in Alba called Nebbiolo Prima; tasting 70-80 Nebbiolos before lunch is a truly interesting and challenging experience. By far the hardest group of wines to taste were from the Roero, the Nebbiolo-centric DOCG just north of Barolo. Poured first in the morning, almost all of the Roeros...

11/13/15 - Through the airplane window on the scenic descent to Madrid, it is possible to view the majestic Sierra de Gredos mountains, part of the 600 kilometer long Sistema Centrale range and home to its highest peaks. Massive, storybook mounds from the sky, they are equally monumental from ground level. This is hardcore Garnacha country, where strong, gnarled grapevines up to 150 years of age...

11/12/15 - My early years as a wine lover were spent in pursuit of Burgundy. All of the most sage advice I could find boiled down to the same 3 factors in determining the potential quality of a wine: Producer, Producer, Producer. Back in those bad old days there was much more bad wine out there, and it quickly became clear to me that...

11/7/15 - This is the only time I’ve ever said this: Chasselas saved my life. After a brush with food poisoning from a bad hard-boiled egg for breakfast in Arbois, a harrowing drive with numerous switchbacks over the Jura Mountains on our way to the Savoie, two liters of water, and a bag of strange Scandinavian “bread crackers” later, I had finally made it....

11/5/15 - (Photo: La Visciola's Cesanese vines near Piglio, Lazio. These old vines are interspersed with pear, apricot, and cherry trees.) When your clientele changes every day it must be easy to lose the incentive to maintain standards; there are very few customers who are going to be back ever again, which is why the food in Taormina, Como, or Amalfi is almost never...

[Hermitage in the foreground, Tournon across the river...] 2021s from Dard & Ribo The wines of Dard & Ribo have evolved to become some of the most pure and delicious wines of the Northern Rhone, much sought after by lovers of natural wines. Quantities are tiny, of course, and we are glad to offer a few bottles of the 2022 "C'est le Printemps" as...

[Wines of Domaine Louis-Claude Desvignes] Our early visits to Domaine Louis-Claude Desvignes (maybe 15 - 20 years ago) always seemed to be on cold, rainy days in January. The tannic structure of the young wines, unusual in Morgon, was fairly intense, so it was always a great relief and a great pleasure to get to the elegant mature wines which showed beautifully at 5...

11/3/2023 We're happy to offer the very elegant, natural and terroir-expressive wines of Franck Balthazar in Cornas from this somewhat lighter, very terroir expressive vintage in the Northern Rhône. Balthazar is one of a small group of producers in Cornas practicing organic farming, whole-cluster fermentations and aging in used barrels, incuding growers such as Thierry Allemand and  Domaine Lionnet along with Jean and Pierre...

11/3/15 - (The Savino vines on the Vendicari lagoon, Pachino, Sicily) Nero d’Avola is the most widely planted red grape in Sicily; it ranges from light and tart to heavy and roasted, the latter type a style that often comes with lots of new oak on top – not something that enhances the wine. There are quite a lot of pleasant and easy drinking...

10/30/15 - (The great Ayler Kupp)   Within the region formerly and more descriptively known as Germany’s Mosel-Saar-Ruwer (known simply as Mosel since 2007), there are terroirs that rival any in the world for their myriad, their depth, and for yielding wines of uncompromising, ethereal tension. Precisely because of the abundance and the concentration of great sites, there are corners of the Mosel that...

10/29/15 -   These two producers need no introduction from us! However, two notes: Troglia was a wine merchant in Torino; some older friends in the region still remember them as having very high standards (the fact that they bought Troglia / Cappellano wines offers proof of this). I would assume that the Cappellano family felt the same way, since they sold finished wine...

10/25/15 - (Jean-Francois Ganevat (Photo: Bert Celce, 2010)) Perhaps there are no CSW customers unfamiliar with Domaine Jean-François Ganevat, but just in case, we offer a brief description. Located in the hamlet of La Combe, Rotalier, southwest of Lons-le-Saunier, the estate dates back to 1650, with vines and Montbeliarde cows which produced milk for Comté cheese. Jean-François' father concentrated on wine beginning in 1976...

10/22/15 - (Nicolas Gonin. Photo: Mike Foulk) Though the town is only forty-five minutes east from the bustling city of Lyon, you’ve probably never heard of Saint-Chef. It is tucked away in the department of Isère -- not a well-known wine producing region by any means (all wines made here must be labeled either Vin de France or IGP Isère, which replaced Vin de...