Articles

4/7/11 - This Saturday, April 9th, Ryan Looper of T. Edward Wines will be joining me to pour selections from our trip to the region of Jerez. The wines of Jerez de la Frontera, San Lucar de Barrameda, and El Puerto de Santa Maria are, and always will be, amongst the greatest wines in the world, wines that seem to defy trends in taste, wines...

4/06/11 - (Photo: Marie-Noel Ledru with her cat) What does it mean to go beyond grower Champagne, to cultivate a more “natural” Champagne section, without being dogmatic or sacrificing the playful charm that makes Champagne such a compelling beverage? This is a region associated with large scale production “houses,” negociants, wealth, opulence, method over terroir, etc... How do we find farmers in Champagne who...

3/30/11 - (Benito Santos' Limestone Pagos de Bemil Vineyard) A stone’s throw from the Atlantic grow the vines of Rias Baixas, a noble terruno* where the green grape Albarino flourishes on granite, sand, and limestone soils.  Over recent years, big money interests from all over Spain, with trained enologists in tow, have flocked to Rias Baixas to chase either the next one-hit-wonder Albarino, or...

3/23/11 - (Healthy vines in Chablis) Thomas Pico of Domaine Patte Loup (The Wolf’s Paw in French) is the next name for Chablis buffs to note. He inherited 2.4 hectares of high elevation Chablis vines in 2005, and promptly decided to rebel against his family’s tradition of high yields and machine harvesting. He now tends the vines and makes the wines in a manner...

3/21/11 - (Grumello. This image doesn't really show how steep this vineyard is.) The Valtellina is a spectacularly beautiful mountain valley in the foothills of the Alps – just south of the Italian/Swiss border. It’s a traditional place for Nebbiolo grapes; the local wines aren’t generally as structured and powerful as Barolo or Barbaresco, but the few best examples can offer fabulous drinking; old,...

3/14/11 - Our esteemed colleague John Beaver Truax has been in Burgundy for the last two weeks – working hard, I assure you. With perfect timing he has just sent the following report of his visit to Fourrier, dated Friday, March 11th: “I have had the great opportunity taste in Burgundy again and I have been tasting the 2009 vintage, some 2010's and revisiting...

3/09/11 - As exciting as it is to introduce our customers to fantastic and perhaps under the radar Jura growers such as Jean-Francois Ganevat, it is equally rewarding to remind our readers of a paradigm grower, Jacques Puffeney, whose wines have created a high standard for the region of Arbois and have been gracing our shelves for years. Puffeney’s wines inspire adoration that begins...

3/7/11 - (Jean Gonon, Photo: D. Lillie) One of the greatest values in the Rhône Valley, or any other valley for that matter, is the Pierre and Jean Gonon Les Iles Feray, a de-classified Saint-Joseph that's insanely delicious at $16.99. Our final shipment arrives this week and will disappear quickly, so don't delay! Also disappearing is the lovely 2007 Cotes du Rhône Vaison-la-Romaine from...

 3/2/11 -  (The Els Jelipins Cellar, photo: Chris Barnes) This coming Wednesday from 5-7 p.m. here at Chambers Street we welcome a rare pair of winemakers from the Jenny and Francois portfolio to our store. The wines of Domaine Rimbert have always been benchmarks for natural wine in the Languedoc and have graced our shelves for many years; it's safe to say they are...

3/01/11 - We recently spent a morning bouncing around the Beaujolais with Jean-Paul Brun, visiting each of his Cru vineyards, from the Cote-de-Brouilly to Moulin-a-Vent. Jean-Paul has put together a superb group of parcels with a large percentage of very old vines. His Burgundian vinification produced elegant, deeply fruitied wines in 2009, with more structure and acidity than most wines in this opulent vintage....

2/21/11 -  As anyone close to me can attest, I haven’t stopped talking about the wines of Weiser-Kuenstler since I returned from Germany. When I sat down with Alexandra to taste, I had a cursory awareness of what this estate was up to, but as we progressed with the wines, I was pleasantly startled to find my notes accelerating with giddiness! The first wine...

2/14/11 - (Matthieu Baudry with his son, Photo: D. Lillie) One of my favorite wines of the 1989 vintage in the Loire Valley was the Chinon Les Grezeaux of Bernard Baudry which we imported directly at Garnet Wines back in the dim, dark past - a superb wine that was lovely to drink young and that a fortunate few still have in their cellars. It's...

2/1/11 - At the young age of 29 an ambitious Manchuelan is quietly leading Spain's viticultural renaissance. Born into a vine-tending family, Juan Antonio Ponce received an oenology degree at just 17 years old. He worked for the local co-op for a short time, and then along with his natural wine-making peers Olivier Riviere (Rioja) and Fernando Garcia (Vinos de Madrid) worked in a variety of...

1/23/11 - I like to think of Eminence Road Winery as part of the new wave of natural negociants (Dashe Cellars, Broc Cellars, Edmunds St. John in California, and The Scholium Project in both New York and California are good examples), all are producers who buy grapes and make low-interventionist wines. Eminence is run by Andrew Scott and Jennifer Clark, who work with three...

12/15/10 - (Didier Barouillet of Clos Roche Blanche, Photo: D. Lillie) We interrupt this holiday season with an important news flash for lovers of Loire Valley reds: Bernard Baudry's 2009 Chinon Franc de Pied is here, along with the 2009 Cot from Clos Roche Blanche. Due to the tiny quantities available of these two wines, we ask that purchases be limited to 3 bottles...