Articles

10/28/14 - (Tasting with Lino Maga. Barbacarlo ages very well.) It seems that there’s been a of renewal of the wines of the Alto Piemonte, the wine district near Milano that includes Gattinara and Ghemme, and the even smaller Boca, Bramaterra, Fara, and Lessona. In New York we’ve had the fine wines from Vallana, of course, and Le Piane, and Conti, but the region...

10/22/14 - I am French, I taste for a living, and I recently rediscovered wine. After years learning about wine and tasting bucket loads of the stuff - from the cheap and cheerful to bottles worth a building in some parts of the world - I seem to have come full circle. All I want is real, delicious, natural wine. -Isabelle Legeron MW MW...

10/20/14  (Julien Guillot, Winemaker and Musician?) We've just received a small additional shipment of the 2012 vintage from the dynamic Julien Guillot, as well as his beautful sparkling wines and a small allocation of the wonderful 2013 Cuvée 910! The vineyards of the Clos des Vignes du Maynes belonged to the Abbey of Cluny and date back to at least 900 AD and it...

10/17/14 -  (Ricardo and Maria Bianco in their vines, May 2014.) Moscato has become a top-selling wine in the US, threatening to overtake the mighty Chardonnay and the even mightier Pinot Grigio; we had a look at the website of a big store upstate, and they offer 136 different bottlings of Moscato! The wine – fizzy and sweet – is credited with helping to...

10/14/14 - (Photo courtesy of Robert Kacher Selections) Although the estate is quite young in terms of Champagne houses, Pascal Doquet produces wines we consider modern classics. In the few years the wines have been available under his own name, we’ve been bowled over by their beauty and terroir expression. Based in Vertus, Pascal has worked the family’s Doquet-Jeanmaire estate as chef de cave-...

10/3/14 - (Rocche in early June.) I’m discovering that there’s a lot of fuss about 2010 Barolo. Years of observation have shown me that I often disagree with the press about the character of a vintage (2000 Barolo, a ‘vintage of the century,' is an ever-entertaining example). I’ve seen some very positive press on 2010 Barolo, and I’ve heard about a lot more, and...

9/25/14 - (Photo courtesy of Vignobles Levet) 2010 is a truly exceptional vintage in the Northern Rhone. We are happy to offer three wines from estates whose traditional vineyard work and vinifications have produced superb, age-worthy wines of terroir, as well as a selection of older wines from these estates, and the recently released 2011 Côte-Rôtie from the talented Eric Texier. By "traditional" we...

9/19/14 - If it's on the Inter-Web, it must be true, right? So we are very happy to have won Jancis Robinson's contest: The Best Independent Wine Retailer! We are really grateful to all who wrote-in on our behalf. And we are equally grateful to all of our friends, customers, and co-workers who have sustained and supported us for many years. Not counting myself...

9/17/14 - (Photo of Maranges courtesy of Domaine des Rouges Queues) I will readily admit to an abiding love for Burgundy. The appellations roll off the tongue: Chambolle-Musigny, Vosne-Romanée, Volnay, Pommard… I’ll also confess to having great affection for less name-brand Burgundies. While not exactly household names, the less famous villages of the Côte d’Or and Côte Chalonnaise furnish some immensely satisfying and affordable...

9/16/14  (The terraces of Enkircher Ellergrub) “We leave them up there to scream, to get over their fears. I instruct them to focus on what’s in front of them, one vine at a time. Then when they finish, they can look down.” So terrifying are the heights of the Ellergrub vineyard near Enkirch that this is the method Alexandra Künstler employs with acrophobic harvest...

9/10/14 - (Our friend, Julia, sampling the goods) The Bourbon industry is exploding, and stocks of aged whiskey are being depleted by customers around the world eager to try America’s most celebrated spirit. This is great for business, but one of the issues with an aged spirit is that it takes time – a whole 12 years for Heaven Hill’s delicious Elijah Craig label....

9/4/14 -   Our friend Jonathan Nossiter, producer/director of "Mondvino," will be in New York September 10th and 11th for preview screenings of his new film "Natural Resistance." Mixing documentary and fiction, the film portrays the lives of Italian natural winemakers who rebel against the “New World Economic Order,” offering a model of charmed and joyous resistance. The film features Stefano Bellotti (Casina degli...

8/27/14 -   Champagne lovers are beginning to care a lot about vintage, which is a testament to the fact that they are viewing Champagne as wine first and foremost. This is refreshing and mildly surprising because the vast majority of Champagne is bottled non-vintage, and it’s widely held that vintage-dated Champagnes should be made only in the best years. On the other hand,...

10/6/2023 Year after year, we fall in love with the wines of Envinate, a collaborative project founded by four winemakers and friends who met while in enology school in Alicante. Roberto Santana, Alfonso Torrente, Laura Ramos, and José Martínez make wines from choice plots in the Canary Islands, Ribeira Sacra, Murcia, and Almansa, intending to express the unique terroirs of each region. They have...

8/25/14 - Rebecca and Peter Work of Ampelos Cellars first grabbed our attention with their unique and lovely Viognier, which puts a cool-climate twist on the variety's trademark peach and floral notes with unusually bright acidity, herbal and mineral undertones, and a refreshing hint of sea salt. When we learned that Ampelos is Santa Barbara County's first certified organic, biodynamic, and sustainable in practice (SIP)...