Articles

7/3/11 - (Sweet dogs at Pedralonga) An air of mystery and magic pervades Galicia: the misty climate, the green hills, the Gothic stone architecture, the agrarian, restrained, apprehensive nature of the people, their fanatical devotion to seafood by the coast and the native Celtic Pig, in-land. For many years, Galicia has produced outstanding coastal white wines, but it is the tide of red wines...

6/29/11 - The 2010s from Germany are starting to roll out and the vintage certainly appears to be a minefield. Tasting through the new releases we've found a few outstanding wines but more often than not we felt blindsided by wines that just weren't quite to our taste. What to do, what to do? Why not shift the focus to one of our absolute...

6/25/11 - There was a time when I thought a salt lassi or a cold beer were the only beverages that worked with a hot curry. I am not a subscriber to off-dry Riesling or full-flavored Gewurztraminer with Indian food. Riesling gets lost in the face of bold pungent spices and Gewurztraminer can be overkill with the rich dishes of South Asia.Being of Mauritian...

6/16/11 - (Ernesto of Costadila gives a thumbs up to his healthy vines) I love Champagne, a love that has taken a greater toll on my wallet than I’d care to admit. There is something singular about the quality of mineral character, bubble, and acid that is not replicable in other sparkling wines. On occasion, I’ve tried to assuage a desire for Champagne with...

6/15/11 - (Christian with new tractor, Photo: E. Lillie) We are very proud to be working with Christian Ducroux in Regnie, whose vineyard work is certainly among the finest in the world. A visit to Christan's estate in Thulon, high above Regnié and Lantignié in the Beaujolais, is a lesson in commitment to natural, biodynamic farming and winemaking with zero additives or corrections. Christian's...

6/7/11 - (Pillars in O Ribeiro) Over the past few years, importer Jose Pastor, through relentless tasting and travel, has put together a portfolio of Iberian wines of unparalleled depth and focus. On Tuesday, June 14th, from 5-7 p.m., four winemakers will be here pouring at the store: Pedro Peciña of Rioja, Luis Rodriguez Vazquez of Ribeiro, Gregory Perez of Bierzo, and Pedro Rodriguez...

6/5/11 - (Many thanks to Bert of Wine Terroirs for the use of his picture) Entering the Haute-Savoie raises the incredulous rhetorical question: “they actually make wine here?” Unlike its northern neighbor, Jura, in which landscape and road signs are a constant reminder of the region’s illustrious if not terribly well-known history of winemaking, Haute-Savoie appears to have, if anything, a rich history of...

5/31/11 - We are very happy to have received our first shipment of wines from the talented and energetic Julien Guillot at the Domaine des Vignes du Maynes. The vineyards of this superb estate belonged to the Abbey of Cluny and date back to at least 900 AD. The top cuvèes, including the Macon-Cruzille "Aragonite," Bourgogne Rouge "Cuvèe Auguste" and Macon-Cruzille "Manganite" are certainly among...

5/30/11 -  (Jacques Beaufort) Chambers Street is proud to offer the unique Champagnes of A & J Beaufort, made with organically-grown grapes from grand cru vineyards in Ambonnay, and other parcels in Polissy, in the Aube. These are complex, full-bodied wines, fermented with wild yeasts and bottled after very long sur-lie aging. "We keep our wines sur-lie as long as possible before release, so...

5/17/11 - (Vineyards in Rioja Alavesa) Rioja came to town last week. There is a lot to talk about in the region right now, as well as a lot to be really excited about. At times it has seemed easy to write off Spain’s most important wine region as stale, entrenched, and drowning in vanilla big business antics, not to mention poor viticulture and...

5/7/11 - (Photo: Michel Digoia in a room full of Chambolle) My visit to Michel Digioia was, along with my visit to Cecile Tremblay, one of my favorites of this last trip. At the domaine, we first passed through a very small courtyard with enough room to park a couple of cars and maybe a step van, then ducked down beneath the limestone lintel...

5/05/11 - (Another kind of Pet-Nat) There are nights, and many a warm sunlit afternoon, when uncomplicated effervescence is called for.  That is when a salivating petillant naturel hits the spot. The making of Pet-Nat has multiplied among some of our favorite vignerons over the last few years. The process (sometimes referred to as methode ancestrale) foregoes the introduction of cultured yeast and sugar...

4/16/11 - (Cecile in her vines) One of the highlights of my recent trip to Burgundy was a visit to a relatively new producer, the upcoming and soon to be famous Cecile Tremblay. She is very bright, energetic, athletic, and the first member of her family to become a vigneronne. Cecile’s great-grandfather, Edouard Jayer, was a cooper in Nuits-Saint-Georges and uncle of the renowned Henri Jayer....

4/13/11 - (Photo: La Clarine Farm Goats) When you get your first taste of an honestly made wine of Californian provenance, you might scratch your head and wonder, “New World? No. Old World? No. Hmmm.” Repeat and answer the question enough times and, like us, you’ll be driven to explore what is real and un-manipulated from the north to south coast. On that quest...

4/9/11 - Bergrettung! An impossible to pronounce term? A ludicrously overplayed piece by Mozart? A clumsy oaf? No, it’s none of those things! It’s actually the kind of project we love here at Chambers Street Wines, a small group of growers (eleven to be precise) that have banded together to preserve steep hillside vineyards in one of Germany’s most historic districts, the Mosel.  The...