Articles

4/6/15 - (Emanuele di Mirafiore, illegitimate son of King Vittorio Emanuele, inherited Fontanafredda in 1878. The property remained in family hands until 1927.) 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...

4/2/15 - Dirty & Rowdy's Hardy Wallace is one of the hardest working (not to mention nicest) winemakers in the business. His expressive lineup of Mourvèdre wines (eight of them) alone requires consistent travel from the winery in Santa Rosa, California to far-flung parcels around California's Santa Barbara, Monterey, Contra Costa, Mendocino, El Dorado, and Amador Counties. Dirty & Rowdy’s reds are hard to come by...

4/01/15 - Grape growing in Barolo and Barbaresco has changed quite a lot in the 12 years since I first visited, the most visible and obvious factor being the greatly diminished use of herbicide – there’s still plenty used, but at least the whole place doesn’t look like the moon with vines growing on it. Some of the better known producers who have farmed...

3/31/15 - Sitting in the multistory steel and glass atrium of the soon to be re-opened 5 Beekman Street, you can’t help but notice the drive and the confidence that marked New York at the end of the 19th century. It was a similar boundless industry and optimism of bold spirits that raised the copper stills and the smoke stacks of some of Scotland’s...

3/28/15 - (Marc Ollivier of Domaine de la Pépière with Alex Villani of Blue Moon Fish) We're very happy that our friend Alex Villani of Blue Moon fish has recovered from some health issues last fall and is back on the water! His boat, the Blue Moon, operates out of the Mattituck Inlet in Eastern Long Island and since 1988 he has been trucking...

3/27/15 - (Gilles Lafouge)   "Value" and "Burgundy" are words that don't frequently go together and yet these two estates consistently produce beautiful wines which we are able to offer at extremely reasonable prices. The 2012 vintage is particularly successful for both Bart and Lafouge with the wines showing great purity of fruit, bright acidity and great terroir expression and balance. (Please note: Bart...

3/18/15 - (Approaching Mount Teide (Tenerife), the highest point in Spain.  Photo by Ariana Rolich.) The Canary Islands started their ascent from the eastern Atlantic more than 20 million years ago, just 100 kilometers off the western coast of Africa near the southern border of Morocco. The gradual emergence of the volcanic island chain began with Fuerteventura and Lanzarote in the east and continued...

3/11/15 - On a recent trip to Pittsburgh I visited numerous watering holes* and was delighted by cocktails crafted from fresh components.  Some drinks featured innovative ingredients (coconut cream, tarragon, crushed red pepper,) others were deftly executed classics, but every bar had an assortment of exciting spirits from Pittsburgh’s own Wigle distillery. Local spirits are alive and well. ​ (One of Pittsburgh's famous Primanti...

3/10/15 (Les Picaudières) Beginning with the 2009 vintage, and based on a recommendation from Jean Gonon, we have been featuring the wonderful Crozes-Hermitages and Saint-Joseph from Stéphan and Isabelle Rousset.  Stephane's great uncle was the legendary Raymond Roure, from whom the Roussets purchased the "Picaudières" vineyard in Gervans - it's one of the best vineyards in the region with terraces cut out of the...

3/8/15 - (Danila Pisano: certified organic) Liguria is one of Italy’s most picturesque and dramatic wine regions. It’s a sliver that runs along the northwest corner of the country where the Maritime Alps jut-out over the Ligurian sea. Many famous towns and cities like Savona and Genova cling to the cliffs, connected by the raised Autostrada, which offers magnificent (but sometimes terrifying) views from...

3/6/15 - (Christoph Wachter-Wiesler shows off the slate of the Eisenberg in Austria's Sudburgenland.) Over the past few months I’ve enjoyed assembling a small selection of Austrian and German rot weine (red wines) that are a little outside of the norm. By that, I really just mean that these producers make wines that aren't afraid to exhibit a little more idiosyncrasy, simply by eschewing...

3/4/15 - (Dominique Belluard at the foot of his Le Feu parcel.) It’s that time of the year again, and after a long absence of one of my favorite winemakers from our shelves, the wines from Dominique Belluard are here again! For those of us familiar with these fantastic wines, rejoice! And for those who haven’t had the pleasure of tasting them before, take...

2/26/15 - Gideon Beinstock of Clos Saron is coming to town and we are thrilled to have an entire evening to spend with him! Following decades of experience in wine sales, winemaking, and viticulture for Renaissance (the pioneering winery in California’s Sierra Foothills), Gideon and his wife, Saron, came upon a tiny vineyard not too far from Renaissance in the Oregon House Valley with...

2/25/15 -   We’ve never had such a dynamic (and delicious!) selection of Californian wines. Between classics and new producers, if you haven’t been paying attention to what’s going on on the West Coast then you are missing out on a heap of excitement. Winemakers are interested in grape varieties outside of the Cabernet Sauvignon – Pinot Noir – Chardonnay – Sauvignon Blanc paradigm....

 2/21/15 - (Erich and Johannes Weber, the father and son team behind Falkenstein (photo by Lars Carlberg)) ‘Make wines low in alcohol with lovely aromas.’ A tenet of the legendary Jules Chauvet of Beaujolais, rarely is this phrase associated with German winemaking. Yet the wines of Hofgut Falkenstein in the Saar valley fulfill this as well as any producer in Germany, let alone France....