Articles

9/21/2009 - (Sebastiano Sella finds his childhood height on a wall of markings dating back to the mid-1800s, photo: Jamie Wolff) To hear the tales you might not think that our wine trips abroad are a lot of work, but come along sometime and you’ll see what I mean. Nonetheless, almost all winery visits are a pleasure, even allowing for poor communication (generally the...

7/20/2009 - The appelation Saint-Joseph, which extends for 40 miles along the west bank of the Rhône near Tournon, contains a wide variety of soils and micro-climates which has made consumers wary, and yet the best sites, which rival those of Cornas, Hermitage and Cote Rotie, produce consistently exciting wines. Quoting Livingstone-Learmonth's excellent book The Wines of the Northern Rhône "Syrah and granite is a good...

7/14/2009 - Chambers Street Wines is one of the country's leading retailers of organic, biodynamic and "natural" wines. Over the last twenty years there has been a growing movement towards organic agriculture and more natural styles of winemaking in reaction to the international tendency to view wine as a product that can be manipulated by a variety of chemical and physical means in order to appeal to certain...

7/10/2009 - At this time of year I love to add ice-cold cocktails to my arsenal of refreshments.  A key ingredient in many cocktails is the often over-looked Vermouth.    Luckily for enthusiasts there is a recent movement to revisit some of the great vermouth houses of old. Vermouth is an herb-infused and fortified wine that has enjoyed a long history, most famously in...

7/6/2009 - For 12 days in the first part of June, I had the great fortune to travel with the esteemed importer of Spanish wines Andre Tamers of De Maison Selections.  Again – as I was last year after returning from Sherry country - my head is permanently stuck in Spain-land. Thanks to the extreme hospitality and generosity of the producers, I don't think...

5/11/2009 - We have just received the 2007 Chablis "Rosette" and Chablis "Bel Air et Clardy" from Alice and Olivier De Moor, now imported by Louis/Dressner Selections. These are brilliant wines of terroir, made in an uncompromising style to preserve the complexity and character of the grape and the soil. Unlike the overcropped, machine-harvested, over-sulfured and often over-oaked Chablis one encounters so frequently, the...

5/8/2009 - One of my most profound and enjoyable wine visits was our recent trip to the cave of Jean and Pierre Gonon in Mauves, Saint Joseph. Although we have been importing the Gonons wines since the 2004 vintage, and communicating frequently, we had not had the chance to visit their cellar and taste with them. Jean Gonon greeted us warmly and generously opened...

5/6/2009 - Christian Ducroux farms about 10 acres of old massale selection vines in the hamlet of Thulon, above Regnie. He inherited the estate  from his family in 1970 and converted to organic farming in 1985, later receiving Biodynamic certification from Demeter. His vineyard, which we visited on a cool, blustery day last February, is blanketed in green and bears no relation to the...

4/10/2009 - We were fortunate to taste again with Jean-Luc Hubert of Chateau Peybonhomme-les-Tours and Chateau La Grolet last February at a Biodynamic event in the Loire Valley. We're happy to report that the new releases from these two great organic and biodynamic estates were consistently superb! Our new order arrived on April 15th and included their great new rosé, Le Clairet de Peybonhomme,...

3/28/2009 - I’m never surprised when I learn that a Burgundy lover is a musician or scientist because the complexity of the subject is in sync with the infinitely variable nature of their professions. In Burgundy the fundamentals are simple: the same grape, grown on the same plots of land, mostly by the same families for generations. The results vary wildly. By way of...

3/26/2009 - Domaine Guion, in the village of Benais, was started by Stephane's parents in the 1950's and was converted to organic agriculture in 1965. Stephane, who received an oenological degree and then worked in Bordeaux and Chinon, made his first wine in 1990 and has maintained the organic methods of his parents, using only the natural treatments allowed by Ecocert. He plows in...

3/20/2009 - Noel Pinguet of Domaine Huet (Photo J. Dougherty) We've just received the lovely 2007 Sec and Demi-Sec Vouvrays from Domaine Huet. In respect of economic realities we are selling these great wines at low, net prices. We believe they represent excellent value for dollar, particularly since they will drink well for the next 50 years or so... The vintage began with a...

3/18/2009 - (Ulli Stein) We are unbelievably excited and honored to have Ulli Stein and Matthias Knebel pouring their wines in the store this Friday. They are two of our favorite small Mosel estates — 5 and 7 hectares; and both produce distinctive, intelligent, breath-taking wines. Also joining them will be Mosel Wine Merchant’s Lars Carlberg and Dan Melia, who will be pouring some...

2/20/2009 - Charly Thevenet, son of Jean-Paul Thevenet in Morgon, recently obtained three acres of his own in Regnié and we have been lucky enough to obtain a small quantity of his first production.  From a parcel of 70 year-old vines in conversion to Biodynamic agriculture, the wine is made in the Lapierre style, with little or no sulfur dioxide. The vines are an...

2/19/2009 - (Fief du Breil - photo J. Lillie) On our recent visit to Nantes, we had a wonderful tasting with Jo Landron at the Domaine Louvetrie, and were lucky enough to obtain a small quantity of older wines from this great estate. Also arriving, and rarely available in the US, is the sensational Hermine D'Or bottling from 2007. Jo's work in the vineyard...