Articles

10/13/10 - Canary Ash Salt Floral Sensation - an unusual Spanish terruno emerges.  Prevailing winds, nearly sub-tropical conditions, and dark volcanic soils bring these wines to life remarkably. During the 16th and 17th centuries, British traders were busy filling the demands of their homeland for the wines of Las Islas Canarias, "the dog islands."  Aptly named by the Romans, Las Islas Canarias refers to...

10/11/10 We mourn the passing last night of Marcel Lapierre, producer of delicious Beaujolais and a great influence on wine-makers around the world who learned from him, and from his mentor Jules Chauvet, how to make wines without artifice and with respect to their terroirs and traditions. We offer a few quotes from an interview with M. Lapierre in "Le Vin Au Naturel" by...

9/24/10 - (Photo: Pierre Frick) Sulfur Dioxide has been used in wine storage for centuries and in winemaking since the early 1900's. It is now considered a normal and required additive to control oxidation and bacterial contamination. In a modern winery sulfur-dioxide is added as the grapes are crushed, after the alcoholic or malolactic fermentation, at various points during the aging of a red...

9/7/10 - The following is a roughly translated interview with Pierre Overnoy conducted by Francois Morel and appearing in his excellent book "Le Vin Au Naturel," reproduced here with the kind permission of the publisher. We encourage French readers to purchase this very infomative overview of natural wine-making, (easily done through amazon.fr) as well as the wonderful quarterly magazine "le Rouge et le Blanc" edited by...

8/24/10 - Say it slowly - Tac-o-ron-te A-con-te-jo (pronounced tay-ho). Significant because??? Monje is making the wine of my moment. In a sea of potential obsessions (call me lost in the EtnaJuraSacraAosta quadrangle, otherwise known as the pursuit of the newest fermented crystalline deliciousness), this is it. This is a wine that you want to keep going back to over and over again, excavating...

7/27/10 - (Pierre Frick, photo: David Lillie) One of the most enjoyable tastings I've had recently was with Pierre and Chantal Frick - 24 unique and delicious natural wines, nine of which have just arrived at Chambers Street. The Fricks work with each vintage according to what nature brings them, so there is a great variety from year to year - a fascinating diversity...

7/7/10 - (Photo: Luis Rodriguez amongst his vines) I have sold Luis Rodriguez's “A Torna Dos Pasas” Tinto for a couple of vintages now. It seems that every buyer has a wine or two in their section that they want to stay a little quiet about – just hand sell to friends and keep it their little secret. On Super Bowl Sunday my significant other and...

6/30/10 -  It’s hard to love Rose as much as I do. For most of the year, the wines are unavailable; then, as days grow longer and temperatures rise, Roses begin to trickle in and are seized upon by the thirsty public, intoxicated by the promise of summer and in a frenzy to drink pink wine. Within a few short weeks, it seems, importers...

6/29/10 -  On occasion saying that we’ve made a ‘discovery’ is really kind of silly. In this case these wines have been around for quite a while (1889, in fact – a mere newcomer by some standards) but they’re new to us – thus a discovery. I’d been hearing about Laherte, and I ended up tasting them in Italy – at the fabulous natural...

6/22/10 -  Today is my first day back in the shop, fresh off the heels of a beautiful trip to Spain with Jose Pastor Selections.  Jose has been working tirelessly to bring to the States the kind of wines that we love here at Chambers Street – wines that are made in the vineyard with minimal intervention thereafter; wines that are pure, honest, and...

6/21/10 - The Bea fattoria creates some of the world’s most singular and impressive wines.  They are located in the Montefalco region of Umbria where there is a dichotomy between growers working in a forward international style, and those who concentrate on exposing the rustic beauty of Sagrantino and other native varieties.  The Bea wines fall decisively in the second camp.   These wines are...

6/17/10 - It was great to read Eric Asimov’s article on natural wines in yesteday's Times. We are long-time supporters of natural wine; we don’t want our passionate attachment and proselytizing on the subject to come across as “finger-wagging sanctimony”, but we’ll take our chances; we’re convinced that good – emphasize good – natural wines are some of the best wines we’ve ever tasted...

6/14/10 -  These days, people are falling in love with wines from the Jura at an incredible rate and it’s no wonder, really. We’ve been besotted for quite some time. Not long ago, the Jura was known almost exclusively for its regional vinous curiosity: Vin Jaune, nutty, “yellow” wine that attains its compelling, savory flavors from long aging under a veil of yeast. For...

5/31/10 -   So – the Produttori, again - the combination of quality and value means that we just can’t stop from drinking and talking about these wines. The news, if you haven’t heard it: for the 2006 vintage the Produttori have decided not to bottle any of their single-vineyard Barbaresco Riservas. Aldo Vacca, manager of the Produttori, describes this as a business decision...

5/24/10 - Thomas Haag, son of the owner of the Fritz Haag Estate, has been general manager and cellarmaster at Schloss Lieser since the harvest of 1992. At the time he took the reigns, the estate was somewhat dilapidated; he spent several years repairing, and finally bought the estate in1997 comprising 9 hectares in some of the top sites around Lieser including Niderberg Helden...